Although views on the hills seem redundant, each one has its own unique appeal.

It’s hard to believe that today is July 1st. How the time flies. Today, is the day to pay the balance on our upcoming cruise from Vancouver to Hawaii in the amount of  US $3216.02, EU $2349.44, that sails in 84 days.  Our earlier cruise from London to Boston sails in 61 days is already paid in full.

Vacations to Go has a credit card number on file which they’ll bill today. Later in the day, I’ll look up the credit card online to verify that it’s been paid. One must never assume such payments are always handled properly.

We’re not quite sure why cactus grow freely on the island of Madeira with its temperate climate. Our perception has always been that cactus grow in hot dry climates.

At times, we find errors when verifying financial matters online. We’ve become diligent in verifying every transaction in which we partake. Human error is rampant.

I see it in myself.  I make mistakes regularly.  With all of our checking and rechecking, errors are made. When I look back at prior posts when “fact-checking” a date or comment, invariably I find a typo, a wrong date, or an editing error. Many of our errors are caused by me after having also been checked by Tom each day. We continue to find errors.

Even a cloudy day has a certain amount of appeal.

Once again, I rationalize my online errors for this blog due to the fact that we post every day. Doing so is comparable to writing an essay for a class, correcting and editing it before turning it in for a grade. It takes a lot more time than we can easily spend each day.

Of course, when I hit the “publish” button every day around noon, I make the assumption after rereading each word, that it’s error-free. Once Tom reads it online after publication, he finds anywhere from zero to six or seven errors that I missed when proofing it. I go back to the editing page making the corrections immediately.

There are some areas where flowers continue to bloom. Although, we’ve noticed a decline in the number of summertime blooms.

Later, when I reread a particular post by chance, I find errors, often several that we both missed. The biggest problem we detect is spacing errors. When we’ve had a poor connection, I’ve had no control over editing these issues. When we do have a good connection, I may go back to correct them as I did today on the “one year ago” post for July 1, 2013, as shown below.

To go back in and correct almost 700 posts would take more time than I’m willing to spend. Don’t get me wrong, in a perfect world there wouldn’t be errors. But, I must admit I’ve become less obsessed with attempting perfection since we began traveling so long ago. It’s not worth the stress.

Views of the sea are ever-changing.

In my old life, like many other Type A personalities, I strived for perfection, never really achieving it, never feeling quite satisfied that I’d done all that I could possibly do.

In time, I learned that “Life’s true perfection” is actually based on one’s contentment and happiness, not in trying to make life perfect in the accomplishment of one’s tasks, whether it’s a dinner party, a family get together or a work-related project.

Today, we’ve included a few new photos from our outing last Thursday.

In part, striving for perfection revolves around trying to “please others.” The reality is, that no matter how hard we try we’ll never please everyone, nor will we ever totally please ourselves.

When I think back to the fancy dinner parties we held over the years, the days of work and preparation, I now realize that all our guests really wanted was to spend time with us. Sure, the food and the ambiance were nice. 

The rose blooming season is almost over.  Yet, I continue to find a few new blooms when I walk in the neighborhood.

But, knowing how hard we worked “to please everyone” was lost in translation often making our guests feel guilty for enjoying the fruits of our labor.

Now, almost two years later, I can hardly think of having a dinner party for four, let alone for eight or twelve at a fancy table setting with days of preparation in making scrumptious food and creating a breathtaking ambiance. 

Rock formations often illustrate areas where water flows from the mountain tops.

Our kids are in for a big pleasant surprise when they come to Hawaii for Christmas when they realize that I won’t be spending the day in the kitchen trying to appease everyone’s particular tastes. 

Those days are long gone. Easy meals will be prepared with the same love as in the long-ago past with more time left for the things that really matter, such as being together.

These low lying clouds appear every few days.

As I write here today, later than usual when I went back to sleep after an unwelcome 6:00 am wake up, finally awakening at almost 9:00 am. I feel no sense of urgency or stress as my fingers happily fly across the keyboard, albeit requiring that I push the letter “i” extra hard which therein lies many of my errors of late.

I write “itinerary” as “ntnerary” later laughing at the irony of an error that I didn’t willfully incite. I do correct those errors when we catch them not as a result of perfection but as a sense of responsibility to our readers for them to be able to decipher our message of the day.

With the necessity of spending time wrapping up future bookings, hopefully, our time will be freed up over the upcoming months of August and September when we’ll be “on the move” in Paris, London, Vancouver, and sailing on two cruises. 

The terrains is not as green as it had been with little rain this past month.

Surely, during that period, we won’t be spending hours online other than posting daily and dealing with zillions of photos during a month at sea (WiFi is pricey aboard ship) or sitting in a hotel room when we’d rather be out exploring our surroundings.

Perfect or not, we joyfully continue to share our photos from our remaining time in Madeira, Portugal, writing each day sharing our thoughts and photos. Hopefully, many of our readers enjoy our lighthearted ramblings, or not. We can’t please everyone nor do we expect that it’s possible. 

Corn is growing in many areas on the island both for personal use and as a farming crop.

By the way, we’re close to wrapping up a booking in New Zealand. We’ll be back soon with details.

Happy day!
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Photo from one year ago today, July 1, 2013:

We were so far from civilization that we spent considerable time exploring the area of Boveglio, coming to knowing it well. This was the cemetery at the church across from our 300-year-old stone house. For details, please click here.