Today is Canary Day. Like the national day in most places, it’s an excuse for lots of patriotism. So here’s a picture of some traditional Canarian food – wrinkly potatoes. As you can see, they’re small potatoes, cooked in their skins. Actually they’re boiled in very salty water – you can use sea water – for at least 20 minutes, then allowed to dry with the remaining heat. They…
Carmelo’s Back!
I hadn’t seen Carmelo the raven for about a month, and I was starting to worry. I’ve seen lots of other ravens, but Carmelo’s easy to recognise by his ankle bracelet. He’s also much the friendliest (or maybe just the cheekiest) and I’m very fond of him. So it was quite a relief when he turned up on the heliport yesterday to guzzle most of my elevenses. Many thanks to…
Alison Jones Exhibition
Alison Jones was born in Torquay and spent 5 years of her childhood in Nigeria. They left in a hurry as war refugees and went to Swansea. The original idea was to move to Syria after a year, but another war broke out, so they stayed in Wales. She studied ecology in Plymouth and some years later Art in the Landscape at Carmarthen in Wales. The final project on the…
Las Nieves
Las Nieves is a pretty hamlet, in the municipality of Santa Cruz, but about 2 km outside it as the crow flies. If you’re fairly fit, there’s a pretty (but rough and steep) footpath between the two. More importantly, Las Nieves has the most gorgeous church on the island. It’s also one of the oldest, dating from at least 1423 (they had missionaries here before the conquest in 1493). The…
La Palma’s Violet
This is the lovely little 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 and it’s making a comeback. You can find them beside the road from Santa Cruz to the Roque de los Muchachos well above the tree line….
Alfie Dog Fiction
Yay! I have some stories up at Alfie Dog. This site has over 1,400 stories available to download. And now they have three more. Love SpellWhat do you do when your husband’s losing interest? You might even be desperate enough to try a love spell from your New Age neighbour. Even though love spells don’t always work the way you planned. – See more at: http://alfiedog.com/products-page/commercial/love-spell-sheila-crosby-900-words-commercial/#sthash.cixypZzp.dpuf Just 39p! Thrice Upon…