Well I feel I’ve been rather productive today. Two loads of laundry Handwashing Scrubbed the kitchen An hour’s ironing Sorted through my son’s T shirts and removed the ones that are too small One page of translation A ton of email Found a couple of new markets Finished my son’s passport application Got a present ready for my son’s teacher Nagged my son into a thank you note for his…
The Lover’s Leap
I got up at 6 am to photograph the dawn behind this statue of a goatherd, and then the sun came up behind a thick bank of clouds. So this was the best photo I got. There’s a local legend associated with it, which you can read on my blog about La Palma if you’re interested. My story “Agent Hammer: Licensed to Kibble” went down really well at the critters…
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,”…
Visiting the Observatory
GranTeCan, the huge new Spanish telescope La Palma is home to one of the three most important astronomical observatories in the world. (The other two are Hawaii and the Atacama desert in Chile.) The observatory sits at the top of the island, at the Roque de los Muchachos. It’s a fascinating place to visit, but it’s not normally open to tourists – they’re too busy doing science. You can visit…
Graduation
Well, we haven’t got a primary school kid in the house any more. Our son has graduated. At the end of the school year here, each school has a concert, with the acts mostly being playbacks, performed by the kids. I knew my son had been practising playing the air guitar for his number. But I was a bit taken aback when he came home and announced, “I need to…
Canary Style Green Beans
When I annouce that we’re having green beans for dinner, our 11-year-old usually says, “Thank you, Mummy!” I don’t think I’d get that reaction with plain boiled beans. Of course, it helps of the beans are really fresh. These came from Puntagorda farmers’ market. Serves four polite people or three hungry ones as a main course. Ingredients:About 700 g of green beans150g bacon (in narrow strips)2-3 cloves garlic1 red pepper1…