SNOW ANGEL - a 100 word story for Friday Fictioneers

SNOW ANGEL

With the temperature twenty-five on the beach, the last thing we expected was snow, but after a night of heavy rain the mountain shone brilliant white.

After lunch we hired a car and drove up to look. It was magical but freezing, and we weren’t dressed for snow.

Driving back round never-ending hairpin bends, my foot slipped on the pedal and we slid towards a vertical drop.

Two feet from certain death we stopped, with the bonnet touching a snowman.

Or so I thought, until our snowman spread its beautiful wings and soared away over the sunlit void.

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Thanks to Rochelle for hosting Friday Fictioneers on her blog https://rochellewisoff.com/ and to Jan Wayne Fields for the photo prompt. You can read other stories by following the above link.

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When I lived in Tenerife, the sight of snow on the mile-high Mount Teide was an annual treat for the eyes. Once the Cabildo had cleared the very steep and winding access road, locals would drive up there to play in the snow, even enjoying barbecues, before building snowmen on their bonnets and driving down - the winner being the driver who got the furthest before the snowman melted! 

There is so much more to Tenerife than the average tourist sees - it is hardly surprising that my adopted island inspired my Living Rock series of books. If you would like to buy A Volcanic Race, the first in the series, click on the cover at the top of this page.

TEIDE - and a TIGER - the A-Z Challenge

Teide is the name of the highest mountain in Spanish TERRITORY and it is the central point on the Canarian Island of TENERIFE.
The black and white photo was taken many years ago and the coloured one only last winter - mountains take a long time to change!

When there isn't this much snow - the Cabildo closes the roads when there is - you can drive to within a few hundred metres of the summit and take a cable car the rest of the way. We like to stop off at a barbecue area a mile above sea level to cook sausages and drink wine. 

The air is so clear that the Tenerife Observatory is world renowned.

Sometimes you can find yourselves driving through the clouds and out above them, which is like being in an aeroplane but with your feet on the ground -

- and I plan to spend a night up on the mountain watching the stars, possibly sipping champagne, before I am much older.

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TOYS - Most children have cuddly toys - in fact I introduced you to my own doll in the E post of the A-Z challenge - and I have written poems about some of the toys my children and grandchildren have loved. With apologies if you've seen this one before, TODAY T is for TIGER

TIGER                                                                               

 TIGER

Tiger’s enormous

and covered in stripes,

if I’m tired I can ride on his back,

and I know that I’m safe

because Tiger is fierce,

so we’re never afraid of attack.

We go to the jungle

some nights when we’re dreaming,

pacing the green forest floor,

if an animal thinks

he can eat us for dinner

Tiger frightens it off with his ROAR!

BUCKET LIST

Friday Fictioneers is an online group of writers who use a photo prompt to inspire 100-word stories each week. The leader and prompter of this group is Rochelle - see her blog and follow the link to read the other stories.
http://rochellewisofffields.wordpress.com/
This week's photograph reminds me of our own Mount Teide in Tenerife, hence my story this week. I hope you enjoy it, and do please leave a comment so that I know you've visited!

BUCKET LIST

James and Sarah drove up to the mountain picnic area where their children had already lit the barbecue. Lucy popped champagne and they all raised their glasses.

“Dad and Mum – forty years together,” Lucy said, but couldn’t resist adding, “Why not a cruise?”

“Not on our bucket list,” James said, grabbed Sarah’s hand, and ran into the forest.

They only returned when the steaks were ready.

“Where have you been?” Lucy demanded.

“We’re six thousand feet above sea level here,” Sarah said, kissing James in front of everyone. “It was on our bucket list to join the Mile High Club.”

TELL ME A STORY, PA

  “TELL ME A STORY” 

I remember asking my father that. I wish I could also remember the stories he made up for me and my brother, but they are lost in the mists of  TIME. One legacy I do have though - he passed on to me his vivid imagination.

Here he is - my PA x

Perhaps earliest man sat in his cave telling stories and the cave paintings we see are simply illustrations? I wonder if they finished their TALES by saying, “THE END”?

At the start of Part 3 of Helter-Skelter I tell the story of Albie at TRAINING CAMP, learning to drive an Army TRUCK, and of what happens when his old enemy from his schooldays TURNS UP in the same regiment.
 Strange as it may seems, records are reticent about the kinds of shennanigans soldiers in training indulged in, but with some input from the OH about his National Service my imagination has had free rein.

  

TEIDE is the TALLEST mountain in the Canary Islands and the Spanish Peninsula. It measures 3718 metres which is over two miles. I know at least two people who joined the “Mile High Club” without leaving the ground, though where they found the energy is a mystery, because the air is very thin.
It can also be very cold – I have been up there in the snow – but there are barbecue areas where local people go all year round. 

You can take a cable car to the top when it’s not too windy, and if you get a permit in advance you can climb the final 200 metres to breathe the sulphurous fumes. Mount Teide might be dormant but it’s not dead.

TREES – The jacarandas flowered in our village last week just in TIME for your photographic TREAT of the day.

TWTYTW (That was the year that was)

This was Mount Teide at the beginning of this year - beautiful isn't it? There's only a sprinkling of snow but enough to top up the aquifers and ensure our water supply for the year.

This was how it looked in July when deliberately-started forest fires raged for days, killing livestock, destroying homes and livelihoods and trees. Unforgivable and incomprehensible.

On a more personal note, the OH and I made several trips off the island - the first one was last year when we actually travelled together to spend  Christmas and new Year with our families - between us we have seven children and seven grandchildren.

We had visitors here too - friends and family - and I flew to Canada to see where my youngest has settled with his Canadian wife. Fall in Canada was one photo opportunity after another.

My hopes for 2013 include a publishing deal (!) and to find a way to return to live in the UK.

For my family and friends, and for those kind souls who follow my blog, I hope your dreams come true, and I wish you contentment, good health and love.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013

CALIMA!

On my morning walks, this is my usual view down to Las Galletas and the sea, about five kilometres in a straight line through the banana plantations. I couldn't see it at all this morning - the sea and Las Galletas could have ceased to exist.

Turning round, my normal view from this angle is of Mount Teide in the distance, behind the buildings of Parque de la Reina. This morning, however, we woke up to a calima. This one is grey - sometimes they are orange - I suppose it depends on the area of the African desert the wind blows the dust from. The result is much the same - dust on everything - eyeballs, ears, tongue, clothing, and every surface imaginable. And of course, we are also breathing it. People with lung problems die of calimas every year.