On Monday I caught up with housework and got three submissions out of the door. I felt pretty pleased with that. On Tuesday morning I went off to Santa Domingo Town Hall with Helen, to get back their 600€ bail for the Franceses Motorway. Normally getting back in time to collect my son from school is rather tight, so I was delighted when we were invited to Lou’s for lunch….
How to Drive Quickly Across Garafía
Don’t. You can’t. And it’s dangerous to try. And anyway, you’re on holiday, aren’t you? Relax, take it slow, and enjoy the spectacular scenery. After all, that lovely scenery is the reason for the twisty roads. And if you get stuck behind an old man driving at 30 km/h, count yourself lucky. I seem to get constantly stuck behind one who drives at 25 km/h.
Poppies
We have five different poppies on La Palma. Papaver rhoeas The red poppy. The Corn Poppy, Field Poppy, Flanders Poppy, or Red Poppy is easily the commonest. This is the poppy that mostly grows wild in fields. Eschscholzia Californica , the California Poppy. The next commonest comes from California, which has a similar climate. Papaver somniferum, the opium poppy. And then there’s the opium poppies, which are presumably garden escapes….
Guiding again
The permanently exhausted feeling has stopped, that goodness, but today’s trip was rather hard work. It was 55 adult literacy students from Tenerife, mostly in their 60s and older, and as excited as kids (which was great). Now I’m only supposed to have 25 people in a group, max, but I did the sensible thing and said two groups. But after an hour’s drive, loads of them needed the toilet,…
Going up in the World
The Palmeran violet, Viola palmensis Today the whole family wound up at 2,400 m. My husband works up there, at the Galileo telescope. My son had a school trip, helping to plant out native flora, like the violet above. The island government’s been doing this for a while, and the results are really starting to show. And I was tour guiding. I showed two groups round the Isaac Newton Telescope….
The Palmeran Violet
This is the Palmeran Violet, Viola palmensis. It only grows on La Palma, above 1,900 m. (There’s a similar violet on Tenerife, but it has smaller flowers). It used to be rare, but the island government has a program of replanting areas. You can find them beside the road from Santa Cruz to the Roque de los Muchachos well above the tree line.