The north-west of the island is home to great many almond trees, and at this time of the year, they’re all blossoming. The trees in El Paso and Garafía are beautiful, but the best display of all is at Puntagorda. In fact Puntagorda hosts an annual almond blossom fiesta. The date varies — the Town Hall sets it a couple of weeks in advance, to (hopefully) coincide with the best…
Yippee! My contributor’s copy of Probing Uranus arrived today. My story is “A Face Worse than Death”, about half way through the book. I’ll let you know when it’s on sale. (And I’m back at work on the e-book.)
I originally came to La Palma to work at the astronomical observatory here. Almost as soon as I heard I’d got the job, my parents went to a travel agent to find out how much it would cost to visit. The girl at the desk said, “Las Palmas de Gran Canaris? Certainly Sir. I’ll just look it up for you.” “No,” explained my father. “The island of La Palma. My…
I haven’t got much writing done in the last few days. On Thursday I got my hair done, and a new photo taken for the website. It was overdue, but it meant that I didn’t get any writing done in the morning. Then in the afternoon I got gastroenteritis. So no writing then either, and not much sleep that night. By morning I wasn’t ill any more, but I was…
I just got a delayed birthday present or a tea towel, with jokes about slimming, a card with a joke about slimming, and a post card with a joke about slimming. Do you think this says something about me or her? Actually, the answer is, “both.” And I enjoyed the giggle.
The people who lived on La Palma before the Spanish arrived in 1493 called the island Benahoare, and themselves Benahorita, and they’re the subject of the permanent exhibition upstairs at the ethnographic museum in Los Llanos. The Benahorita lived in caves and wore animal skins, but they weren’t stupid. They farmed, and they had quite a bit of technology considering there’s no metal ores on the island. Their ceramics are…