dunes by day and by night

Yet another report from the dunes.
The cracked and apparently dry surface above is the bottom of a former large pool of rainwater, sort of temporary pond. We saw it containing some water just a few days ago; and it was a surprise to me to find all the water gone when we went that way on Saturday.
However, when I went down there, I found that the water didn't go very far yet, there was a layer of very slippery mud just under the surface, maybe two centimeters deep of so. Judging by the marks, I was not the first person to slip there; fortunately, I didn't fall, but my (almost) new walking shoes had to get their first wash afterwards.

Playa de Sotavento de Jandia and night photography

Last week, apart from going to Ajuy, we visited the Jandia peninsula. It is on the opposite side of the island, but it's not a long drive - certainly lot shorter than drives we had to underatke to get to Norfolk coast when we lived in Essex.
Playa de Sotavento de Jandia, or Playa de Sotavento, or simply Sotavento, is probably the most famous beach on the whole of Fuerteventura, and that's saying something, as there is a lot of stiff competition. The surfing championship is held there, and the water is just beautiful. The entrance to water seems to be free of sharp rocks, although I didn't check the whole length of the beach of course.

The interesting feature of that beach is that there is a long sandbank running along the shore at a distance maybe couple of hundred meters. It separates the open ocean and a shallow area of less moveable, slightly stagnant water. We were there when the tide was at its highest, but even then it was possible to walk along the sandbank, sometimes wading a little.

Nighttime London

We lived in the UK for a very long time, but somehow up till this year I never did any night time photography in London. So I don't know if summer London is always such a delight to photograph, or was it because of the Olympics. Doesn't really matter. Buildings and structures that might look dull and grey during the day, at night transform completely.

Not that the Tower Bridge  looks dull during the day, but some of the office buildings an the pics below do.

school schedule and full moon

The calendar on the Yuri's school website displays, among other things, stuff like full moons. Reasons for that are best known to the developer, but that means that we are less likely to miss it.

Kids are back at school finally and the moon is full. Overall, a good day

full moon pics at Adobe stock

New Year fireworks in Corralejo

We all like fireworks, and there were some planned, so we debated for a while were to go for New Year midnight, and eventually decided to go to the tip of the pier in Corralejo. I was hoping to get some nice "across the water" shots. We took the essentials - grapes (Timur hated them and Yuri loved them), tripod and cameras.

The position we choose was probably the best one - we could see all Corralejo fireworks, plus Playa Blanca and Puerto del Carmen displays on Lanzarote - but I must say that it was not really impressive. I don't know what is the reason - lack of money seems like the most likely one though - but the only place that put up a longish display was RIU hotels, far way away from where we were. I got just a handful of good shots, one above being my favourite. It it was nice low-key New year though, something different for a change.

Now I am seriously considering going to Madeira for next year. Their fireworks is something else altogether. We saw them once and I didn't take any pics, but if I ever going to be there again, I will :)

Happy New Year :)

Gnomes, pimientos de padron and sparkler tornado

On Christmas eve, gnomes bought for Yuri in Stokholm found their way on our patio table :)

sparkler games

 Today we finally found sparklers for sale in Corralejo. Not that we were looking very hard before, of course, but there weren't any in first two likely-looking shops we asked. Third time, in a basement "shopping center" off the main street, they have some - short and thin ones, unfortunately, so they don't burn for very long, but it's a start.

unpacking essentials - 2

We are still unpacking and will be doing it for another while. Main problem is not so much opening the boxes, as finding a place for everything to go to. We have already found a lot of things that were managed to forget about, but haven't found some that we are specifically looking for.

Timka's soft toys were given a wash, and survived it nicely

assorted Sunday

This cat, although different in color, in attitude and expression is a spitting image of Muta from "The Cat Returns". From his position of perfect safety he was observing the street, mostly right in front of him, that is, not bothering to even turn his head.

kites and Christmas lights

Yesterday we went for a walk in the dunes with Yuri. The intention was to go to the "proper" dunes - ones that don't have any vegetation, with nice wind patterns on them, but when we came up to the border of the nature park, we spotted an unusually large group of kites  over Flag Beach. So we turned towards it. Unfortunately, by the time we got there (takes about 25 mins walking), surfers were already closing the shop so to speak - it was getting late.

view from belltower - by night and by day

Yesterday Timur got really impressed with car trails photo on a cigarette vending machine (of all things). I've shown him the star trails photo but he didn't look particularly convinced. So we climbed the only accessible high point close to us - belltower in Campanario shopping center - and took a few photos of the only good road junction that is visible from there. That involved placing my camera on the edge of the window outside metal railings, as my tripod is still in transit. All in all, we did well.