Opening lyric from Neil Young seems appropriate for the day after my birthday! The second year running I’ve been abroad on my birthday. I had a delightful day in the sunshine. We had gone for an early breakfast because I was off birding. Suddenly the whole hotel staff came out singing to our table with a bottle of champagne. It is a lovely family run hotel right in the centre of Funchal old town.

Birding was good it was only me with the guide and driver. Had good spots of the endemics of Maderia. I also enjoyed seeing their Firecrest and the charismatic Waxbills. This was followed by watching Martimo who play in the Portuguese top flight. I got very hot sitting in the sun. The only blemish on that was the Luton result  came through and we lost.

Clare and I had a wonderful meal to finish a great day. She had given me Neil Gaiman’s book the retelling of the Norse Myths which I am really looking forward to reading and hopefully extending my telling repertoire.

I’ll maybe add a picture when I get home.