TENERIFE - Land of Eternal Spring

That is how the Tourist Board advertises Tenerife, but the reality is marekdly different - this week we have had temperatures up to 40C, which is rare in England, they tell me! But this is August, the hottest month - it's usually around 30C.
There are also times when the temperature is like an English spring - usually in the middle of our winter - and we even get rain, but not often and mostly in the north of the island. We live in the south where the weather - and the landscape - is more like Africa than Europe.

To survive at all, wild plants must adapt or die, which accounts for our hundreds of varieties of cactus. As for gardens - you either water them every day or fit an automatic watering system - hence the rubber tubes that snake through every municipal flowerbed.



This is the time of year when stunning orange flowering trees splash the streets with colour, although the mauve Jacarandas were spectacular two months ago and the yellow-flowered trees are dropping their blossom now.






Here is a row of Flamboyante trees in front of our apartment building - some people call them Flame Trees -


















and Yukka trees in bud and in full bloom - rather larger than the houseplants you find in Europe.

And today I saw a cactus flower. You have to be in the right place on the right day for this treat because they will have shrivelled by nightfall.

This unpleasant-looking cactus spreads its tentacles like a diseased octopus across a garden near us, but today it has produced a twin pair of beautiful creamy flowers, which for one day at least justfy its existence!

And finally, beside our community pool, a perfect rose framed by a banana leaf. 

So if you fancy buying an apartment in this Land of Occasional Spring, we have one for sale!

You will find a full set of photographs and details by clicking on the link APARTMENT FOR SALE at the top of the page.

CACTUS WALK

You really have to look from a distance to appreciate the size of this cactus - and the height at which it displays its flowers. 

Then you get a bit closer and look up - really crane your neck - and there they are.

Like the other cactus flower I photographed last month - one day of beauty and they're gone.

FLOWER WIDE OPEN

JUNE 7TH 2012 - TAKEN AT 9.30am

This is as good as it gets, and thank you to all who have followed the flower's progress and commented thereon.  We're having a vote now - do you want to see the rest of its life-cycle or shall I stop now?

...and of course, Kika had to come and see what I was doing!

FLOWER!

HERE IT IS AT LAST!


FIRST PHOTO TAKEN AT 6PM, SECOND AT 7PM. THIRD AT 8PM


IT MIGHT LAST TILL TOMORROW -
WATCH THIS SPACE.