tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16642562544665596112008-07-02T15:48:44.943+01:00Sheila, Canary Islandshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10219032831132156995noreply@blogger.comBlogger84125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1664256254466559611.post-5163966100109658512008-07-02T15:43:00.000+01:002008-07-02T15:48:45.042+01:00

Two of the fourteen telescopes at the Roque de los Muchachos observatory are solar telescopes -- highly specialised to observe our own sun. This is the Swedish Solar Telescope, which was the first telescope built on the Roque. It's currently the best solar telescope in the world since they added the new adaptive optics in 2005. (Adaptive optics compensate for air turbulence.) It can resolve

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We're a very happy place this Monday morning. For anyone who hasn't heard, Spain won European Championship last night, for the first time in 44 years. From my window I can see four people at the bus stop opposite, waiting to go to work as usual. But today they have their arms around each other, jumping up and down with the people at the end punching the air, chanting, "¡España! ¡España! ¡

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Looking east towards Tenerife. The highest point of the island is the Roque de Los Muchachos, at 2,426m (8,000 ft) above sea level. Most days of the year, the view is spectacular. Even when it's raining at sea-level, the summit is nearly always above the clouds. In fact, you can often look down on a sea of clouds surrounding the island. Of course that's one reason why the observatory is up

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The feast of San Juan (St. John the Baptist) is June 24th. Many people light bonfires on St John's Eve. In the days before municipal rubbish collection, it was a practical way of having a clear out. But in Puntallana, there is a long-held folk belief that the bonfires keep away witches. Jumping over the fire is supposed to protect you from disease and the Evil Eye. It's also a great night

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A long time ago, a young goatherd in Puntallana fell in love. Nothing unusual about that of course, especially since the girl was very beautiful. The trouble was that she didn't feel the same way. He was tall, handsome and athletic, but she hoped to marry someone richer. After all, a goatherd's wife worked fourteen hours a day and went hungry in the bad years. But he wouldn't take "No,"

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GranTeCan, the huge new Spanish telescope La Palma is home to one of the three most important astronomical observatories in the world. (The other two are Hawaii and the Atacama desert in Chile.) The observatory sits at the top of the island, at the Roque de los Muchachos. It's a fascinating place to visit, but it's not normally open to tourists - they're too busy doing science. You can

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When I annouce that we're having green beans for dinner, our 11-year-old usually says, "Thank you, Mummy!" I don't think I'd get that reaction with plain boiled beans. Of course, it helps of the beans are really fresh. These came from Puntagorda farmers' market. Serves four polite people or three hungry ones as a main course. Ingredients: About 700 g of green beans 150g bacon (in narrow

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You see a lot of flags on La Palma. Most English visitors will recognise the flags of Spain and the European Union. But the Canary Islands are an autonomous region within Spain, and they have their own flag too. You see it a lot, especially around May 30th, which is Canary Day. And then each island has its own flag. Here's the flag of La Palma: And as if that weren't

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Puntagorda is a village and municipality in the north west of the island. Every Saturday and Sunday, they have a farmers' market and craft fair in the Mercadillo, which is at the north of the village, near the Fayal picnic area. Like most farmers' markets, the vegetables are fresher and cheaper than most supermarkets. There are also stalls selling organic wholemeal bread, sugar cane juice (

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My father was a botanist, so he really looked forward to his first trip to La Palma. One of the plants he most hoped to find were burr marigolds - Bidens alba. But he later said he was trying not to hope too much in case he was disappointed. That made me laugh, because they're an extremely common roadside weed. In fact they're a right nuisance for exactly the same reason that made them

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There's a new musical project in Santa Cruz de la Palma with backing from local government. On Saturdays, Sundays, and Public holidays, there's often free live music somewhere. So far six groups have joined the scheme, and almost every day, more businesses sign up. This is a Cuban-style group called Chango, playing at the Kiosko de Eliseo halfway up the Avenida del Puente. They played from

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The viewpoint (or mirador) at El Time is perched on the northern edge of the Angustias ravine. Coming from Los Llanos, you drive down and down and down, round some pretty steep bends. After you cross the river, almost at sea-level, you drive up and up and up and up and up, until you're seventeen hundred feet up (535 m). There's a small car park on each side of the road. The view is

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The Sanctuary of Anguish (Santuario de Las Angustias) The Church of Our Lady's anguish lies near the bottom of Las Angustias Ravine, where the river Taburiente runs out of the Caldera. (Well, they take a lot of the water for irrigation, so in the middle of summer it trickles. That still makes it the only year-round river in the Canaries). To find it, take the road from Los Llanos to Tijarafe

Sheila, Canary Islandshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10219032831132156995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1664256254466559611.post-1211626014339219112008-06-03T08:47:00.000+01:002008-06-03T08:53:55.514+01:00

This is a gecko. They like to live in warm buildings or on sunny walls outside, and this one lives in my house. I think he must have got too close to one of my cats because his tail's regrowing. You see, if they're in serious danger of being eaten, their tails come off and provide a wriggling decoy while the gecko runs away. He spent most of yesterday on this smooth vertical wall. They can

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Galaxy M51 taken with the Isaac Newton Telescope and Wide Field Camera by Simon Driver. There's a really simple reason why the Royal Greenwich Observatory moved their telescopes here. It's one of the three best places in the world for astronomy. The observatory was founded in 1675 by Charles II of England - hence the "royal" for £520 (£20 over budget!). It was the first purpose-built

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Friday is Canary Day. It's a big thing here, and the celebrations have started already. On Wednesday evening they had bouncy castles in the port car park. This was shortly followed by a foam machine. The kids loved it. My son was so delighted that he dived in with all his clothes on. I'd have been seriously tempted to join in except that I had my expensive camera with me. So I had to stay

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There are lots of good viewpoints on La Palma, but one of my favourites is Los Andennes, where you get an amazing view into the Caldera. The viewpoint is between km 32 and 33 on the road from Santa Cruz to the Roque de los Muchachos, and there's parking for several cars. Most days of the year, you're well above the clouds, often looking down on them. Soemtimes the Caldera is full of cloud,

Sheila, Canary Islandshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10219032831132156995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1664256254466559611.post-52491800044200727922008-05-25T10:20:00.004+01:002008-05-25T18:32:45.779+01:00

Like a lot of places, San José in Breña Baja celebrates Corpus Christi (the body of Christ) on the Sunday ten weeks after Easter Sunday. Traditionally, they make carpets out of coloured salt, like this one from 2006. (You can see more at http://sheilacrosby.com/fiestas.php .) The most famous of these carpets are in La Oratava in Tenerife. This year they'll be making them on Thursday, May

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Corpus Christi (the body of Christ) is a big festival in Mazo. They decorate the streets with spectacular archways and carpets covered with flowers and seeds. The main feast day is ten weeks after Maundy Thursday, so this year it's very early. (In 2009 it will be on the 11th of June). People collect the materials and work on the pieces pretty much all year, but it all comes together on a

Sheila, Canary Islandshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10219032831132156995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1664256254466559611.post-83578410815603505512008-05-20T21:26:00.002+01:002008-05-20T21:31:07.561+01:00

Don't. You can't. And it's dangerous to try. And anyway, you're on holiday, aren't you? Relax, take it slow, and enjoy the spectacular scenery. After all, that lovely scenery is the reason for the twisty roads. And if you get stuck behind an old man driving at 30 km/h, count yourself lucky. I seem to get constantly stuck behind one who drives at 25 km/h.

Sheila, Canary Islandshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10219032831132156995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1664256254466559611.post-62279494089311302692008-05-17T21:48:00.000+01:002008-05-18T16:35:02.377+01:00

We have five different poppies on La Palma. Papaver rhoeas The red poppy. The Corn Poppy, Field Poppy, Flanders Poppy, or Red Poppy is easily the commonest. This is the poppy that mostly grows wild in fields. Eschscholzia Californica , the California Poppy. The next commonest comes from California, which has a similar climate. Papaver somniferum, the opium poppy. And then there's the

Sheila, Canary Islandshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10219032831132156995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1664256254466559611.post-34815067666335624042008-05-14T19:42:00.004+01:002008-05-14T21:42:30.676+01:00

This is the Palmeran Violet, Viola palmensis. It only grows on La Palma, above 1,900 m. (There's a similar violet on Tenerife, but it has smaller flowers). It used to be rare, but the island government has a program of replanting areas. You can find them beside the road from Santa Cruz to the Roque de los Muchachos well above the tree line.

Sheila, Canary Islandshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10219032831132156995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1664256254466559611.post-71710256007439185632008-05-11T17:40:00.002+01:002008-05-11T17:43:29.247+01:00

This photo was taken from the viewpoint at Los Andennes, where you get a spectacular view into the Caldera. From here you can see a dyke called La Pared de Roberto (Robert's Wall). It's about four metres high (13ft). [Volcanic dykes are formed when moulten lava fills a crack in the rock and solidifies slowly into very hard rock called basalt. Later on the softer, surrounding rock is eroded

Sheila, Canary Islandshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10219032831132156995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1664256254466559611.post-80493485858184274752008-05-08T16:00:00.000+01:002008-05-08T15:41:44.472+01:00

If a beach is all you're after, then frankly you're better off in Tenerife. But if a beach is part of the mix, then we have two main beach resorts, Cancajos and Puerto Naos. Our sand is like the Model T Ford - "Any colour you like, as long as it's black". When the sea mashes up black, volcanic rock, that's what you get. However, black sand warms up in the sun faster than yellow sand, which

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In the 1850s the export market for Palmeran wine collapsed, and somebody had the bright idea of going into cochineal production. Before the advent of synthetic dyes, this was far and away the best red dye available, particularly for wool. For one thing, it doesn't fade. Cochineal is made from a parasitic insect (Dactylopius coccus), which lives on prickly pears (tuneras), so the plants and

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