News and views

This was the view as we parked our car on Friday at Las Galletas in the south of Tenerife. We simply stood and watched the boat sail by - lovely, isn't it?

One good item of news for the Canarians this week - the government have finally got around to paying the chemists the 120 million euros they were owed. The chemists had been threatening to stop filling prescriptions - even to cease stocking drugs at all - unless they were paid. Who can blame them?

And El Hierro, the island I have posted about before, is publicizing geo-tourism.
If you have to live with the threat of a volcano, you might as well make a profit out of it!

Jumper for a tree!

Photograph of a tree in New Mills, High Peaks, Derbyshire. Christmas 2011.
Dressed by a group called "Phantom Knitters".
Totally mad, of course, and no-one but an Englishwoman would contemplate it - or would they?

My stepdaughter organized a "Railing Wrap" where anyone could weave strips of cloth through the iron railings around the town. Some people wrote messages on strips of sheeting, others used scarves or fabric torn from garments. Some wraps were done publicly, some clandestinely, and my SD photographed them all.

See her website "Unmade in England" which concentrates on recycling fabric for art.

Last night

Apricot clouds silhouetted the small local mountain last night. The horizon was turquoise over the sea eight kilometers away. An hour later the sky was blue-black - night falls rapidly here.
The quarter moon lay on its back like a saucer without a cup, one bright star high on its left and another low down to its right. I must learn their names.
Someone was having a party - I think Barcelona won - and children were playing in the street, but outside the bar it was cold enough to need a fleece. The volcano might not have its usual February snow-cap but the wind blows bitter at night.
On my terrace one lone cicada signaled its solitary state. It's been doing that for weeks but there's no reply - has it mistaken the lack of rain for spring?