Gran Canaria after the forest fire, September 2017

Spooky beauty of burnt pines

The Canary Islands are not very seasonal, but there is a significant difference in rainfall between winter and summer. By the end of each summer, Gran Canaria turns yellow and brown; pine trees and evergreens resist, but not very successfully. Flora is dormant; everything waits for the winter rains.

And everything is gunpowder-dry.

Every year the island council (Cabildo) closes public BBQs, so that no stray sparks fly. They hire special people to watch for forest fires*, they ask people to stay vigilant, etc., etc.

But the island with all its inhabitant and tourists and all the activity is too complex a system to always work as desired. So forest fires happen, and there was one this year.

Inagua, the empty one

Some of the remaining old pines. Apparently, they grow in a very very uniform conical shape up to a certain age; after which they start to spread into an umbrella at the top.

I have refused to drive in the mountains on Gran Canaria ever since I got stuck on the pass of Degollada de las Yeguas on our way from Fataga to Ingenio. Having learned to drive in East Anglia, I prefer my roads straight, wide and flat; here I prefer to be driven. However, local public transport, although overall excellent, quite logically doesn't go where there are no people to carry. So some of the areas to the west of the island remained unexplored by me till this year, including some of the protected areas, such as Pilancones and Inagua.

Birchanger Wood

Went to Birchanger Wood today,  in search of alternative place to see bluebells. Small forest next to Littlebury is very beautiful, but private, you can't enter there and have to look over gates and fences.

spring lake

Somehow this summer passed without us renting a summer house in Scandinavia. I loved it last year in Denmark, but this year it didn't happen. And we missed mushroom-picking this year, too. Blogs of my Russian friends are full of mushroom-hunting reports and pictures now, after the heat and smog of summer went away and beautiful autumn arrived.

Never mind, there is always next year.

This is not summer or autumn in Denmark, this is spring in Norway, but still.