What do you do?

 A question that keeps coming up when we talk to people about the Azores and how we have now been coming here for a dozen years, is:  What do you do?

Yes, we have done the regular tourist things.  We did the jeep tour to Sete Cidades to see the green and the blue lakes.  We have been there by bus to walk around inside the huge crater when the town now sits.  We have been to the geothermal area of Furnas and walked around the puffing holes.  

We have had the stew that is cooked in the steam holes and bathed in the mineral rich pool at the Terra Nostra Garden.  We have oohed and aahed over the camelias, azaleas, orchids and all the other plants growing happily there.

We have been to museums in Ponta Delgada and Lagoa.  I have visited the observatory outside Ribiera Grande.  We have been to the tea and pineapple plantations.  I have crawled and walked through lava tubes.  I have toured the huge dairy in the middle of the island.

We have seen Nordeste, Povoacao, and Villa Franca do Campo with their original settlement from the mid 1400s. 

So there is lots to see, but we don't work here or volunteer or attend choir or carving clubs, so what do we do?

I walk along the water every morning for an hour.  When the weather is nice, it is going east  all the way to the lime kiln.  When the weather is threatening, I walk around the harbour area where it is sheltered and if it is pouring rain, I walk in the underground parking of the street along the harbour.

We do grocery shopping one day at a time.  There is a market for farm fresh produce and big grocery stores about 1 km away, with good minibus service if it is raining, or if I don't feel like carrying a heavy load all the way.  There are great bakeries for super fresh buns and pastries.  We live simply with usually some kind of lunch out and then soup and sandwiches with marvelous cheese for supper.

Ian brings books and his art materials along with the clarinet.  I have my current stitching (a practise I started about 8 years ago when we went on the Norwegian trip), puzzle books and my blog.  This year I have added crocheting snowflakes to the repertoire of activities for the evening.  

I ride my bicycle.  Carolina, a young lady we met here about 10 years ago, has kept the bike at her place between visits.  She needs to do some renovations this coming year, so I need to find a new spot for storage or give it away.  This year so far, the riding has not been so good.  It has been rainy and very windy limiting the paths/roads that I feel comfortable riding on. 

We visit gardens here in the city: simple ones and elaborate ones.  Most are free and can be enjoyed every day while walking to and from stores, or buildings, or museums.  I walk probably about 10 km per day.

In the evenings, we stay in.  This year it doesn't seem that there are concerts at the Teatro or Colesium that we can get tickets to, but the Museum just announced two concerts for this weekend, in the afternoon.  That much more our style as evening performances start about 9:30!  With excellent internet, we watch movies and shows and documentaries while Ian sketches and I stitch.  It is a very relaxing lifestyle.

 We are avoiding Canadian winter. The other day as sales clerk remarked to me how cold it was.  I told him about the conditions at home and he just shuddered.  Fifteen degrees is not tropical, but it beats -15.  

Is this enough?  Do I feel we are wasting our time?  It is so easy to keep in touch with people with the internet and a phone with a European SIM.  I could watch the ocean forever.  The green all around makes my heart sing.  

Yes, this is enough.