Saturday, October 15

The Palheiros And Sights Of Madeira

Traditional Palheiros houses in Madeira
How people live, or have lived in other countries always interests me. The photo above shows the traditional houses in Madeira known as Palheiros - which is roughly translated as 'haystacks'.

The design of these 'A' framed houses goes right back to the 1600s. When I was last in Madeira, I came across this one in the village of Santana. There aren't too many about nowadays, though the design is still used to house cattle - but these usually now have a corrugated iron roof instead of the traditional thatch.

In the homes there is a living area downstairs with a short ladder leading to the tiny upstairs sleeping section. We were lucky enough to be invited into the house in the photo.

Must get back to the Madeira mountains ...

Mountains in Madeira
Mountains in Madeira
... coastline ...

Madeira coastline
Madeira coast
... the capital Funchal ...

Funchal Madeira
... the flowers ...

The flowers of Madeira and Funchal
... and so much more.

Madeira history
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5 comments:

  1. Thank you. I feel blessed to be a follower of your journeys.

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  2. Gorgeous! I enjoy your journeys, too. The little house reminds me of the hobbit houses in lord of the rings!

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  3. I have those flowers growing right outside my window,no more than 3 feet away from where I'm typing.
    They are called "Bird of Paradise" here in Australia.
    Love that mountain and the beautiful coastline,too.

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  4. Here's a coincidence.I got up this morning after writing the above comment last night about the photo you took of the "Bird of Paradise" flower,I check my blogger dashboard and Starr

    http://myexcenticartyworld.blogspot.com/2011/10/toowoomba-you-rock-x.html

    (an artist from my hometown Brisbane who's blog I follow)wrote in her latest post,
    "I hit the OLIVE GARDEN for a few cocktails after to celebrate , go the 'bird of paradise' cocktail it was yummy."
    Then I Googled 'bird of paradise'+Santana (where you say you took that photo)
    and I get an artist from PNG named Larry Santana who painted a work called
    "spirit of the bird of paradise".
    containing a blue native spirit native.

    http://www.foundmyself.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-53870

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  5. Darren: Looks like the Birds of Paradise are everywhere. Thanks for the links.

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