• The Seer’s Stone
  • The Dodo Dragon and other stories
  • About Sheila Crosby
  • A Breathtaking Window on the Universe

Almond Blosson on La Palma

Almond blossom in Garafia 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)…

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I’ve done it again.

I have a bad habit of biting off more than I can chew. Then I find myself whirling around at warp speed nine, trying to write blogs and e-books, translate, teach, and still be a half-way decent housewife and mother. Of course this doesn’t work, because there are still only 24 hours in a day. I wind up stressed and snappy, and usually unproductive. Over the years, I’ve frequently sworn…

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Goodbye Bloody Big Hole

We moved into this house seven years ago. The previous house went with the observatory job, so we had to leave there, even though the builders hadn’t quite finished this one. So we moved in on new year’s day, 2003, with my husband constantly saying, “Don’t lean on the banisters, the glue’s still wet.” We didn’t have any heating either, which wasn’t a serious problem here. All the same, it’s…

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Travel Between the Canary Islands

Perhaps surprisingly, flights are not necessarily the fastest way to travel between islands. Certainly they are if you want to go to Santa Cruz de Tenerife: there are 17 flights a day, and they take about 30 minutes. But if you want to go from one small island to another, say La Palma to El Hierro, then that means two flights. By the time you’ve checked in, flown to Tenerife,…

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La Palma’s Museum

The entrance to the island’s museum, beside the church of San Francisco. The Island’s Museum is in the old convent of San Francisco. The building itself is lovely. It dates from the early 16th century; work started in 1508, just fifteen years after the Spanish conquest. (Forty years ago, it was the technical school, and my husband studied there. It certainly looks better than the concrete box I studied in.)…

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