I didn’t feel like getting up early this morning, but I had two groups of tourists at the Roque, so needs must. And the drive up was all sparkly with dew and early sunlight. I finished work at 1 pm, and went up to the viewpoint right at the top in hopes of meeting my friend Carmelo, the raven for a chat. He wasn’t there, but another raven was (I…
Corpus Christi 2014
Catholics all over the world celebrate Corpus Christi, but in Mazo each district of the municipality makes an wonderful archway with a carpet and a little altar decorated with petals, leaves and seeds. The archways go up overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, and stay up until Sunday. You can read more about this and see archways from previous years here.
The observatory in bloom
The whole hillside at the Roque de Los Muchachos is in bloom. But where heather moors go purple, The peaks of La Palma go yellow with sticky broom (Adenocarpus viscosus, or codeso in Spanish) and French broom (Genista benehoavensis or retamón palmero in Spanish)
Flags Galore
You see a lot of flags on La Palma. Most English visitors will recognise the flags of Spain and the European Union. But the Canary Islands are an autonomous region within Spain, and they have their own flag too. You see it a lot, especially around May 30th, which is Canary Day. And then each island has its own flag. Here’s the flag of La Palma: And as if…
The Devil on the Beach
This is the first page of “The Devil on the Beach”, one of the stories in my anthology, “The Seer’s Stone”. Click on the link for a larger version. You can get more information about the book (and how to buy it) here.
The Lover’s Leap
A long time ago, a young goatherd in Puntallana fell in love. Nothing unusual about that of course, especially since the girl was very beautiful. The trouble was that she didn’t feel the same way. He was tall, handsome and athletic, but she hoped to marry someone richer. After all, a goatherd’s wife worked fourteen hours a day and went hungry in the bad years. But he wouldn’t take “No,”…