Twinkling stars are pretty, but astronomers would much rather they didn’t. The twinkle is caused by movement in the air above you (the same as a mirage on very hot days) and it stops the astronomers getting a clear view. The Hubble Telescope gets such wonderfully clear images because it’s out of the atmosphere altogether. But there’s only one Hubble, and it cost a fortune. So they build ground-based…
Snow
So here we are in this lovely sub-tropical island, land of eternal spring. And the top of the mountain is covered with snow. Last night’s rain turned into a storm, with far too much thunder and lightning to sleep through. It went on for hours. And this morning, I could see snow on the mountain. Not just the peak (the Roque de los Muchachos at 2426 m or 7,959 ft),…
The Sardine’s Funeral
Tonight was supposed to be the sardine’s funeral in Santa Cruz de la Palma. This is actually a bizarre finale to Carnival, and as such was traditionally held on Ash Wednesday. (They still do so in Tenerife. See http://www.secret-tenerife.com/2008/02/ash-wednesday-burial-of-sardine.htmlBut some years ago, Santa Cruz de La Palma started to hold their Sardine’s Funeral on the Friday of Carnival week. Presumably they felt it would be more popular if most people…
Boring
On Tuesday I felt tired and out of sorts, so I got very little done apart from a bit of housework and a bit of novel. I didn’t even make pancakes, Shrove Tuesday or not. Yesterday I felt rather better, and made some modest progress. I threw away some clutter. The ironing pile shrunk. The new blog got up to ten posts, RSS feed and links to friends and Blogrush….
Mojitos
Mojitos are a popular drink during Carnival: sugar, lemon juice, rum and mint. This bar is famous for them all year round, so during Carnival they prepare them in batches. This was one of the smaller batches! One of the things I like about La Palma, is that people often have a few drinks, but it’s rare to see anyone downright drunk. There’s an article about this at https://sheilacrosby.com/articles/drunks.php
Los Indianos
The biggest night of Carnival on the island is Los Indianos parade. In the 19th century the island was very poor, and many people emigrated to Cuba – the Indies. Some of them came back rich, so that the arrival of a boat from Cuba was quite an event, even though there were more boats to Latin America than to mainland Spain. So we have a pretend boatload of nouveau-riche…