Ana Valentina Angelo

Seagulls... Sky... Sea...

Under the skies of Figueira

Seagulls in the sky and on the sand

From my window, on the eighth floor, I hear wings flapping very close; I’m scared! Ah… it’s you, seagull, flirting with me. You go up … and up. Then you stop and release yourself in the wind, flat … flat as a feather. Like a lightning bolt, it cuts the air and lands elegantly in the immensity of white sand at Praia da Claridade, among so many other sisters … hundreds!

Photo: Ana Valentina Angelo Seegull Praia da Claridade Figueira da Foz PT

Seagulls and fishing boat

What a spectacle for non-coastal people, travelers like me! In the evening, there they go, noisy, to welcome the fishing boats that arrive from the sea. It is a real harassment. The boat slowly enters the Mondego River, towards the port, under the hunting cries of a number of dancing gulls, whirling around the vessel’s hull.

Photo: Ana Valentina Angelo Seegulls Praia da Claridade Figueira da Foz PT
Photo: Ana Valentina Angelo Gaivotas Praia da Claridade Figueira da Foz Municipality PT
Photo: Ana Valentina Angelo Gaivotas Praia da Claridade Figueira da Foz Municipality PT

¹Seagulls, so many, so many

Fernando Pessoa

The gulls, so many, so many, They fly on the river to the sea … Also without wanting to enchant, You don’t even have to fly.

Photo: Ana Valentina Angelo Tavarede Municipality of Figueira da Foz PT

Night does not delay

Panorama

The scene is ready for the flight of seagulls: the dusk is exuberant and the waves are calm; the imposing tower displays the seventieth clock of Praia da Claridade; the austerity of the Santa Catarina Fort contrasts with the colorful Marina, which, like a showcase, exposes models and colors of its boats moored at the pier, embraced by the jetties, in the voluminous current of the mouth of the Mondego, a genuinely Portuguese river, which casts its waters in the Atlantic.

Photo: Ana Valentina Angelo Flight of the seagull around the fishing boat Foz do Mondego Figueira da Foz Municipality PT
Photo: Ana Valentina Angelo Flight of the seagull around the fishing boat Foz do Mondego Figueira da Foz Municipality PT

The Poet of the Poets sings the Mondego

Photo: Ana Valentina Angelo Flight of the seagull around the fishing boat Foz do Mondego Figueira da Foz Municipality PT

²Sweet and clear Mondego waters

Luiz Vaz de Camões

Sweet and clear Mondego waters,

Sweet rest from my memory,

Where the long and pierced hope

Long time after you brought me blind,

I rely on you, si; but I don’t deny

Let the long memory reach me,

Let me not make you change,

But the longer I stretch, the closer I get Fortuna may well use this instrument

From the soul to take by new and strange land,

Offered to the remote sea, to the wind.

But the soul that accompanies you from here,

In the wings of the slight thought

For you, waters, fly and bathe in you ”

To you who accompanies us in this column, take care and until our next contact.

Our thanks to the Health Professionals of the world for their courage and dedication in this difficult time of the pandemic.