We’ve had unusually wet weather for the last few days. There’s nothing odd about the odd winter storm, although I swear they’re windier than they used to be. What is unusual is having two of them almost back to back. So I’m sorry if you’re having a soggy holiday. The rain tends to blow in and out pretty quickly, so I suggest that you at least enjoy the rainbows.
Nativity Scenes
Christmas trees are a newish thing here, although probably most houses have one now. The main traditional decoration is nativity scenes. Some just show the stable, but some public ones are so elaborate that they include the whole village, and it’s always a Canarian village. Obviously that’s historically inaccurate, but no more so than all the English nativity scenes where Mary and Jesus are blond. This one was on display…
The Famous Balconies
These are the famous sea-front balconies in Santa Cruz de la Palma. Actually these are the backs of the houses: the fronts look onto the Calle Real. When I first came to the island in 1990, the woodwork was all green and the plaster all white. For the town’s 500th anniversay, in 1993, the whole lot disappeared behind acres of black plastic sheeting for weeks while they were repainted…
Schrödinger’s comet
As far as I can tell, Comet ISON is neither alive not dead, but in some stage in-between. Something came out from behind the sun. Watch this space. Por lo que puedo decir, el cometa ISON no está ni vivo ni muerto, pero en algún en el medio. Algo salió de detrás del sol. Mire este espacio. Soweit ich das beurteilen kann, ist weder lebendig Comet ISON nicht tot, sondern…
Rabbit’s foot fern
This is the Rabbit’s Foot Fern Davallia canariensis, which likes to grow in the warmer and damper parts of the island. It particularly likes dry stone walls, barrel-tile roofs and cliffs. As you can see, the name comes from the root, which is very pretty. I believe that the Awara used to make gofio from it, and so did more modern Palmerans when there was nothing better available, although I’m…
R.I.P. Comet ISON (probably)
< It looks like comet ISON has broken up. I’m disappointed, but I’m not surprised. The comet’s closest approach was just 1,165,000 km (724,000 mi) from the surface of the sun. This is not a safe place for a snowball. The image above shows just how close it got. The black disc in the centre of the picture is called a cronograph. It covers up the sun so that...