in 1352322 20070324 023543 Joe Bleau wrote:
On Fri, 23 Mar 2007 10:03:56 -0400, "J. Clarke"
wrote:


Madeira simply means wood in Spanish but I guess you knew that.

That's "Madera". Madeira on the other hand is an autonomous region of
Portugal consisting of several islands in the Atlantic.


I stand corrected. Having lived in both Spanish and Portuguese
speaking countries I sometimes confuse the orthography. However, note
that wood (Eng) is madera (sp) and madeira (portuguese).

Madeira is also a lovely island off the coast of Portugal which I
visited many years ago. It was a popular vacation site for older
Brits at the time. One of its main tourist attractions was to get
into a heavy wooden sled built on pole runners to be pulled to the to
of a hill by oxen. The sled trail consisted of slick granite paving
stones. At the top of the hill the sled was released and its
occupants would shoot to the bottom wondering if the sled would fly
apart (at least that's what I wondered).

In spite of its name I recall the island as having been fairly well
deforested, with the hills themselves being terraced to gain
additional agricultural land.

When I looked at the jpeg I was wondering if it could be a wood native
to Madeira but I doubt it. I have no idea what the wood is.

Madeira to me is cake and port.