Gardens, Levadas and Carnivals

First, thank you for all the lovely, starry, heartfelt comments on Mrs Blackcap yesteray - leading it to her presence on the popular pages!

Such a busy day that I was too tired to blip by the time the day ended - so this is a one-day-old-backblip.

Blippers Ros and Trevor invited me to join them for a trip to Palheiro Gardens, followed by a lovely Levada walk - the Levada dos Tornos. Mr PP's worn out hip prevented his joining us, though we had visited the lovely gardens previously. (Once his imminent new hip's sorted, I think I could navigate the route another year, thanks to Ros's excellent navigation.) We stopped at the Jasmine tea house which I'd never visited before - tasty carrot & orange soup and lemon drizzle cake for me!

Mr PP and I went out late evening to enjoy the flavour, fun and spectacle of Madeira's annual carnival procession in Funchal. When tiredness kicked in, we returned to our apartment to see the rest of it on TV. The presenter was as irritating as on any TV channel at home or abroad; walking and talking in front of the procession with what sounded like inane commentary. Glad we went and saw for ourselves first!

Choosing what to blip from my zillion shots was tricky. The gardens contain plants of many different origins, and my main blip is a climbing rose from China: Rosa banksiae luta.

My Extras show some clever topiary and one of the carnival floats - where you can see a spectator waving her spotty carnival hat at the performers. (It wasn't all floats, most of the groups danced along the street to a series of strong beats.) Tall mimosa trees were heavy with their tiny yellow blossoms - which you can see on Trevor's blip.