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

A grand day out

Here’s a strange thing: I’ve got visitors from the UK, so I’m going out and having fun. We went to the rum factory at Puerto Espindola This is a place I sometimes visit with a cruise ship excursion. It felt very different in a group of just 4, with no fixed timetable to follow. Then we went down to San Andres where we visited the limn kiln and I finally…

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Graphosoma interruptum (pyjama bug) on Daucus carota (wild carrot) Brena Baja, La Palma island

Photos of the week: pyjama bugs on wild carrot

These really are bugs in the technical sense: they’re insects in the order Hemiptera, which are called “true bugs”, or “Chinche” in Spanish. These particular ones are pyjamas bugs (because of the stripes, I presume) Graphosoma interruptum. They’re about 12mm long. They’re all on wild carrot, Daucus carota. Most of the plants around here are going to seed now. I even found one pair mating. at least I think that’s…

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Photos of the week: retama del pico

Spartocytisus supranubius or Cytisus supranubius is the broom which grows above the clouds on the peaks of La Palma and Teide. They’re coming into flower now, and I love the touches of pink before the flowers fully open. This morning I was up at the observatory to show a group around Gran Telescopio Canarias and I took the chance to photograph the broom. Somehow this turned into yet more photos…

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The Seer’s Stone

Twelve adventures for children under La Palma’s amazing starry sky. by Sheila Crosby (Children’s fiction, paperback, 148 pages, A5) Take a journey through La Palma’s turbulent past, into its present and out into the exciting future. Chedey will tell you how his world collapsed when the Spanish conquered the Island in 1493, Althay will explain what happened when the volcano erupted, Daida shares her visit from an extraterrestrial and Leyre…

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Photos of the week: Corpus Christi

Corpus Christi is a Catholic fiesta to celebrate the body of Christ. In Mazo they celebrate by creating big archways and carpets decrated with petals, seeds and leaves. In San Jose they mostly make carpets with coloured sea salt. Rather obligingly, Mazo’s archways go up on Wednesday night and San Jose’s on Saturday night, so it’s much easier to get to both.       Mazo is the more famous…

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