Plan K

Rainbow on the wy tot he Cumbre tunnel, BrenaAlta, La Palma
October 27, 2016

I spent quote a lot of time organising a visit for a large group (55!) of high school students. They’re Erasmus exchange students on an astronomy-related trip, some from Tenerife (the hosts) some from Poland, and some from Slovenia. The main point of their visit to La Palma was to see GTC, but they were going to be on La Palma all day, so what else could they see? So…

Read More >>

Busy, busy week

The Saga Pearl in Santa Cruz de La Palma
October 14, 2016

Whew, what a week! On Monday I did the panoramic tour with the Saga Pearl (basically, “Lovely views and quite a few of them”). On Tuesday and Wednesday I worked at the Roque. The first group on Tuesday included a French couple who didn’t speak any English or Spanish. I think they expected to just look, but I felt I had to try, so my extremely rusty French got a…

Read More >>

I have an article up at Hello Canary Islands

October 7, 2016

La Palma is a small island, just 17 miles by 28 (27 x 45 km). You can easily experience a different landscape every day for a week. “The Dead Sea” I’m standing beside a grid of square, shallow ponds, each one maybe a metre across edged with stone. The water in each pond is a pale coral pink, with a lacy white edging. Some have white mounds in the centre….

Read More >>

The ravens are back

October 5, 2016

I saw very little of the ravens over the summer. I think they were so many tourists with tasty food that they didn’t need me, thank you so very much. Now that it’s getting colder there are fewer ham sandwiches and almond biscuits to be had. Yesterday, my bag of cat food was back in demand. First they ate from my hands, as usual, and flew off. Then one came…

Read More >>