Before the Winter...

I'm always complaining about this country, always pointing the finger at what I think is wrong, always saying we're ruled by a bunch of morons, that I often forget the wonderful things this country has to offer and that make me realise (to my great surprise, trust me) I'm a first class patriot when I'm abroad and missing the light of Lisbon.
Where else would we find a sky like this in November?
This picture was taken a few minutes ago and the sky is so bright and clear, so deep, it makes us want to get lost in it or just spend hours looking at it and daydreaming (if only we could afford that in our busy lives...).
And where else would we baptise this atmospheric phenomenon of having a few sunny days before Winter strikes as "Verão de S. Martinho"? The English call it Indian Summer, but what is that compared to the poetics in "St. Martin's Summer"? And all the allusions to the miracle performed by the saint in sharing his cloak with a shivering beggar? It had to be here!
By this time of the year, Mum used to tell us the story of St. Martin and the beggar and each year it had new colours, a touch of novelty about it. Winter was coming ferocious and cold, but before that there was the Sun it its remaining glory and then all Nature would fall asleep.
Sometimes it is good to remember the cliché that "all good things in life are for free" and that this blessed sky is ours to the envy of the world.

To Mum. In Memoriam.