The almond trees have blossomed early this year. I had an excursion from a cruise ship on Thursday and saw that the almond trees are already blossoming in Garafía and Puntagorda after our exceptionally warm winter. As usual, it’s gorgeous, but I couldn’t get any photos while working on a moving bus. So after working at the observatory on Sunday morning I drove down the Garafía side with my DSLR….
I always thought that the only chameleon on La Palma was the fountain at La Glorieta, but one turned up at San José kiosk yesterday, together with his/her human. I think it’s the first time I’ve had a good look at a chameleon that wasn’t behind glass. I confess that I’m rather pleased with the photo. It’s really sharp on the chameleon’s eye and s/he doesn’t half look snooty.
I really hate the annual car rally that comes past my front door. The snarling noise goes on for almost 11 hours and I can’t get my car out unless I remembered to park it elsewhere before they start. This year was worse. I left home early to be sure I could get to work at the observatory, got as far as Mirca, and found another section of road blocked…
I had two groups up at the observatory today. There was a pretty cold wind on the heliport at 10 am, so I cut that part a bit short. But not before one of the ravens turned up to say “Hello.” Well, I’d got some cat biscuits in the car just for him/her, and s/he ate from my hand while people took photos, which was all very nice. Then I…
One thing I never mentioned about visiting the hot spring: there were three Brits there who don’t speak much Spanish. So I wound up translating for them. It was only afterwards that I found that one of them, Steve Simpson, was an artist invited by the Tourist Board to visit and illustrate La Palma as part of #onthedraw. Even then, I wasn’t expecting to see myself on Facebook. I love…
Yay! I finally got to paddle in a hot spring. It was probably in 1991 when my Spanish got good enough to realise that Fuencaliente means “hot spring”. I got quite excited, because I’d always fancied seeing a hot spring, and maybe even a paddle in one. So I asked around. And I found that there used to be a hot spring, and a whole spa industry around it –…