FLOODS & FISH - A-Z Challenge 2015

We've had a FEW spots of rain over the past week but not nearly enough to cause FLOODS like we have had in the past.

They seem to happen when there is a particularly FULL MOON which pulls the tides high, and when this is combined with strong winds the sea throws huge waves over the inadequate sea defences.

When I went to shop in Las Galletas one morning the sea was actually roaring as I parked my car, and the waves must have rached six or seven metres in height.

Another time we couldn’t reach Las Galletas at all – rain on Mount Teide raced downhill and competely washed away the road behind the garage ...

... then flooded the rough ground before pouring across the coast road and the beach and out to sea in a brown waterfall.

This young man lost his shoes and I watched as he hopped from one rough stepping-stone rock to another to get back home  ...

... but this woman was determined to do her shopping. A small crowd watched her, and once she'd got safely through everyone removed their own FLIP-FLOPS and FOLLOWED her example!

It doesn't pay to ignore the power of water, though, and a FLASH FLOOD in the adjoining town took these vehicles by surprise.

The mother and baby in the white car were lucky that a bystander braved the torrent to rescue them.

FISH live in water, so here's a little FISHY POEM I wrote when my son was a boy.

BIGGS

John won a goldfish one day at the fair –

brought him home and christened him Biggs.                

the goldfish was free,

 but John’s Mum had to buy

him a bowl, and some gravel and things.

Biggs lived in John’s bedroom, but he didn’t like

the noise, and the smell of old socks,

so they dug him a pond,

 and used the spare soil

for a rockery with some big rocks.

In his pond Biggs began to feel lonely,

so Mum had to buy him some friends,

and fish-food and pond-weed –

 this free fish had started

expenditure that never ends!

That's all for today FOLKS!

Please leave a comment and thanks for visiting.

FISH AND FLOWERS

I went out yesterday to buy some fish for my supper down at the open air market on Las Galletas sea front. The fish there are straight out of the sea - you can often see them being brought ashore. On one occasion we bought a bonito and as the man gutted it a squirming sardine shot out of its mouth - its last meal was still alive!

This time I only wanted a few fish as the OH is away, but the woman persuaded me to buy five - the sixth one was free. I think she said they were salmonetes de dorada, but as long as I can just stick them in a frying pan it doesn't really matter what they are. 

Another customer joined our conversation - a lady about my age who was bemoaning the lack of work for older women - and as we chatted I looked past the fish-woman towards the beach.

"Are those courgettes?" I asked her.

"No - they're calabacines - they just grew here."

"My friend used to paint them with egg white and fry them," I said, and before I could stop her she'd cut me four blooms. 

"There are plenty more," she said when I protested, "The water from our stalls drains out there, and someone must have spat some seeds."

This is a view of the back of the stalls and the plants just growing in the black sand. My benefactress is the smaller of these two stall-holders, and an excellent saleswoman - I shall have to freeze some of my fish!

So that's how a simple shopping expedition became a small adventure.

BEST LAUGH I'VE HAD ALL WEEK

Having decided to unclog my brain by leaving the apartment, I headed for Iceland - the supermarket, that is, not the country. We do 99% of our shopping in Spanish shops, but there are times when we just have to have a taste of home, and as the OH has announced it's time to make his annual Steak and Kidney Pudding, we need suet.
Inside the shop I grabbed a basket and headed for the bargain freezers to see what's on offer this week. Birds Eye Frozen Fish Fillets in two varieties, reduced from 6 euros something to 2.95 - they'll do for an emergency, I thought, and then I looked at the notice on the freezer.
Perhaps I should explain that any imported goods are required by law to display their ingredients in Spanish, so the importers must get someone to translate and make stickers - (which they usually put right over the cooking instructions.)
Iceland go a step further for the sake of their Spanish customers, and  also label the freezer in two languages. This is a great idea as long as the person doing the translation actually speaks Spanish and isn't simply working from a dictionary.

"Fish in Breadcrumbs" becomes "Pescado Empanada" which is correct, but "Battered Cod" was translated as "Pescado Maltratada"! Ill-treated fish?
I giggled all the way to the suet shelf.

F-WORDS

 F-WORDS were FLYING round our apartment yesterday – the boiler packed up. FIVE years is FAIRLY average here with our water so FULL of cal. Nigel FITTED a new one, FURTHER up the wall so the OH won’t bang his head when he FILLS the washing machine – and we’re €180 worse off. “What F-word?” you ask. FIDDLESTICKS, naturally.

FIGURES – I checked my blog stats yesterday and FELL into a depression at how FEW hits I’ve had. But it’s early days, so thank you to my FAITHFUL FOLLOWERS!

FOOD - FRESH FISH is our FAVOURITE food to eat here (a very appropriate subject on Good FRIDAY) and we live on an island with more FISHERMEN than FARMERS. In the village near us there is a fish market – a dozen or so stalls that back onto the beach where the boats come in. On the terrace behind the stalls, seagulls wait by buckets for the offal to be thrown out, and on the pavement in FRONT we join housewives and restaurant owners to buy fish that was in the sea less than an hour ago. I bought some bonito once, and when the woman FILLETED it, the sardine that had been its last meal was still wriggling.

The best meat in Tenerife is pork – local, tender and FANTASTIC. When we FIRST arrived to live here the butcher didn’t understand my request for pork with the skin on, and gave me a carrier bag containing the skin FROM a whole pig. I shared it with FRIENDS, FROZE some more, and we FEASTED on crackling for months. Now the butcher is used to our strange FOREIGN ways and asks whether I want my pork “con o sin piel.”

FRUIT is another treat – oranges, lemons, mangoes, papayas, bananas and of course FIGS. I remember leaving a coffee bar one day and picking a handful of figs off a tree in the street. One of my mother’s Christmas treats was dried figs, which I can’t stand, but fresh ones still warm from the sun – that’s a different matter entirely.

And talking of food, I must not FORGET to mention my husband’s favourite – Papas Canarias – food of the gods. Small local potatoes cooked in their skins in salt water. The locals used to cook them in a bucket of seawater but now they use sea salt. Serve them with Mojo Verde – a green sauce made with olive oil and cilantro (fresh coriander).

FIRE The very word sends shivers down the spine, especially when we’ve had a drought as bad as the last twelve months. A spark can set off a FOREST FIRE that destroys acres in hours. A few years ago there was a devastating fire that reached one of Tenerife’s most beautiful places, Masca, which until recently was only accessible by goat track. The road isn’t much better now, and getting FIRE-FIGHTING equipment up there was a nightmare.

When the fire was FINALLY out there was a media appeal for help, so my daughter and I took some spare household goods and plants and went there. Our gifts were welcomed, and one man showed us his burnt-out home. It was awful - like a Dali painting – have you ever seen a melted television set? One can understand why it is a criminal offence here to chuck a FAG-END out of a car window.

But for FUN with the FAMILY and a real FESTIVE spirit you can’t beat an open fire, even in the tropics, and my son-in-law has built a FIREPLACE on his roof terrace.