Fog

Canary pine trees looking atmospheric in the mist , La Palma , Canary Islands
January 5, 2016

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,…

Read More >>

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…

December 26, 2015
Read More >>

Happy Christmas

December 24, 2015

  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….

Read More >>

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…

December 22, 2015
Read More >>

Desperately Seeking Sheila

RAvens enjoying cat biscuits at the Roque de Los Muchachos. Photo credit: Sheila Crosby
December 18, 2015

We had a good one today. I was tour guiding at the Roque, and for some reason the mobile phone tower wasn’t working, which was a pity because two of my group were driving round and round the observatory trying to find me. They managed to call Ana Garcia, who was trying to work out where the heck they were from their verbal descriptions. Eventually they described the impassible barrier…

Read More >>

My terrible hard life

A cup of coffee and the view at El Time viewpoint
December 13, 2015

Almost as soon as I got back from the Story Tellers’ conference, I plunged into a storm of tour guiding. El Time, La Zarza and the Roque one day, a walking tour of Santa Cruz at the weekend, down the south for volcanoes and wine and up north to the laurel forest and rum factory. In the process, I was paid to eat salad, cheese, sponge cake, bananas, and chocolate…

Read More >>