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An international group of teenagers visiting GTC, Roque de Los Muchachos, La Palma

What a difference!

Two days ago the top of La Palma was covered in fog and it was cold – just 6 ºC. Today we were back to a cloudless blue sky, brilliant sunshine and about 18 ºC. Much nicer! Today’s visitors were an international bunch: teenagers from Los Sauces on La Palma, The Czech Republic and Greece. I gave the tour in English and made it as simple as possible. But no…

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Canary pine trees looking atmospheric in the mist , La Palma , Canary Islands

Fog

Today I had two groups at the observatory, which meant that I had to get up at 6:30 am (ugh!) to leave home at 8 am. When I arrived at the top of the mountain at 9:10 am, it was 6 ºC and mizzling. As I said to the tourists, “Welcome to the Canary Islands, land of eternal spring.” Of course it’s January, and the observatory is at 2,400 m,…

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Happy New Year

A new year sneaked into our house last night. Judging by the way she keeps playing with her own feet and tail, it’s a very young one. I think she’ll be fun and I hope she’ll stay for at least 365 days. In other news, I remember 2015 as though it were yesterday.

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Stop. Breathe.

Time to chill. My lovely husband got me a a sport video camera. This is wonderful timing since my compact camera just died. Hopefully my blogs will feature more videos now. My lovely friends Helen and Theresa gave me a new laptop – well two years old, but new to me and very. very much better than poor old Tiddles who is (I think) about 10 years old. This one…

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Happy Christmas

  Merry Christmas (or whatever you celebrate). I hope you have a wonderful time with whoever you most want to be with. My son made this Christmas version of the Dragon Tree Publishing logo. (The original version is by Helen Bennett of Eco-Geek.) In Spain, coal and charcoal are both called carbon. I keep saying that I want carbon for Christmas in the form of diamonds, but Santa hasn’t obliged yet….

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Overtaking the Headless Chickens

I’m still overtaking the headless chickens. I had guiding work yesterday and today, more tomorrow. Then party tomorrow afternoon, and that leaves me Christmas Eve to sort out far too much before the Spanish family party. Then we have guests for turkey on the 25th. Boxing Day will be devoted to doing absolutely nothing. I’ve had a couple of memorable experiences lately. On Friday I was tour guiding at the…

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