My husband gets up at the crack of dawn and goes jogging. When he comes back he makes himself coffee, so when I get up, the coffee’s there ready and waiting. This is great, because I’m not a morning person. This morning he had his annual health check, which meant that he had to go and have a blood test before he ate or drank anything. So he couldn’t have…
The Palmeran climate’s a lot less predictable than it used to be. We had an unusually dry winter, but so far spring is wetter than usual. In any case, at this time of year, the weather’s very changeable. It’s not like Ireland – if you don’t like the weather just wait five minute and it’ll change – but half an hour ago it was pouring, and now it’s just cloudy….
My computer troubles continue, so I’ve done very little writing or photo editing (although the house is quite a bit cleaner, at least.) It’s been getting me down, but this morning I got out to photograph the Good Friday procession from the church of San Francisco in Santa Cruz de la Palma. Doing something creative lifted my mood dramatically. (More photos at A Small Rock in the Atlantic) Even better,…
It’s Holy Week, and in this Catholic country, a lot of people take it very seriously. The bigger churches hold processions, which look very exotic to my English eyes. It’s not so that they take the obviously-heavy statues along the street. It’s the costumes. They remind me of the KLu Klux Klan. This is unfair, because the costumes concerned are far older than the KKK. They ensure anonimity, but it’s…
If you’re very fit, you can see the Caldera national park on a one-day hike. But it’s 27 km of rough going, (from the Los Brecitos viewpoint, via the campsite, to the Barranco de las Angustias) and I wouldn’t dare try it myself these days. The alternative is to spend a night or two at the campsite in the centre of the park, right by the river. This makes it…
I just got back from taking 14 kids into the Caldera. Well, their teacher was in charge, but they needed a second adult along. Now most such school trips have to stay in the campsite, which means carrying tents in, but we were seriously lucky. The teacher, Miguel Angel, is friends with the man in charge of looking after the irrigation canals inside the Caldera, so we could stay in…