Winter on Madeira: a glorious contradiction

I am sitting in the garden. It is 10am and the sky is a cloudless powder blue, the sun deliciously warm on my bare legs and arms.

In the canopy of the tobacco plant, canaries, firecrests, blackcaps and a berthelot's pipit, native to Macronesia, flit from branch to branch feasting on the mustard yellow berries and unfazed by our proximity. It is 20°.

It is mid-December in Saô Vicente on the north of the island, and to be honest, we had hoped for warm and not too wet. Once again, Madeira surpasses our expectations.

We have escaped from the cold, pre-Christmas madness in the UK for two weeks in our favourite place, and as I sit in the sunshine, watching kestrels circle on the thermals, I am so glad that, for the first time in my life, I did the Christmas shopping in November.

Whilst we are extremely lucky to live in a beautiful part of the UK, with its own verdant, rolling countryside, the dramatic heights of Encumeada opposite us, and the cascading folds of ancient lava flow, now covered in equally ancient laurissilva forest, provide a captivating landscape. Below them, the terraced foothills of the valley, dotted with typical white houses seem to flow down to the tiny picturesque village, eventually arriving at the seafront, with its crashing waves pounding the shore like relentless white-crested seahorses.

We walk down from the cottage to the seafront, a now familiar route skirting the mountainside before picking up the Levada da Cardais at the capela. We emerge from the cool gully: beside us, the vines are beginning to shed their red and yellow leaves and on the hillside, the swathes of lanterna give the illusion that the ground is glowing orange:

agapanthus and hydrangea, now in decline, both defy the season with occasional late blooms of blue and white: fruit trees - lemon, orange and kiwi - are abundant: and by the river, fronds of pampas grass and tall spears of red hot poker line the paths.

And the smell! Eucalyptus, surely nature's aromatherapy and a gift from the island.

Sitting on the edge of the ancient forest of laurissilva and eucalyptus, our home-from-home embodies the essence of Madeira, bombarding the senses and enveloping us like a warm hug. We are so lucky - and so grateful - to be able to enjoy the glorious contradiction that is Madeira in wintertime, and to be able to share it with so many people through our perfect cottage.