Pics and other stuff

Wonderfully weird and organic Cenobio de Valerón, “Valeron monastery”, is one of the iconic sights of Gran Canaria. It is not really ...

A Nevermore moment (see the black object on the top of the chapel? It is a raven, doing his thing) This year on our holidays I wanted t...

Horizontal panorama Some time ago I wrote that we would repeat the visit to the Barranco de Las Vacas following a linear route Temisas...

Wow. I'd never seen a firework blast like this before Every Year, Saint John's Eve is celebrated in the beautiful city of Las Pa...

 Globularia sarcophylla, globe daisy endemic to Gran Canaria. Apparently it grows only in Tirajana. I've never seen it in the wild, ha...

Once again, Facebook brought me something useful — this time a reference to a place called Barranco de Las Vacas (Cows’ Ravine) between t...

First published 27 March 2018 @ Listen, Learn, Read According to my old Rough Guide to Spain (this book served me well but I left it ...

New shoots coming out of a thick scorched branch Do you remember this line from Naked Gun 33⅓ : “We analyzed the wood fibers in the p...

View inland from Degollada de las Brujas Reserva natural integral de Inagua ( strict nature reserve Inagua) is a protected pine forest...

Most people seem to be engaged in picture-taking, but still According to Wikipedia , the whole area of Gran Canaria is 1,560 square k...

Heart-stopping beauty Every year, the almond trees of Gran Canaria put forth a beautiful show of blooms. The almond flower festival i...

The octopus keeps turning up every year. He is one of the biggest kites at the festival. Every year, in November, мы с друзьями ходим в...

Caldera de Tejeda planet After the wildfire of September 2017 I try to go to Las Cumbres, the highest area of the island, as often a...

Spooky beauty of burnt pines The Canary Islands are not very seasonal, but there is a significant difference in rainfall between wint...

Los Urros de Liencres panorama While Kirill had already lived and worked in Santander a couple of years ago, it was only this summer ...

The summit of Teide is small, so there is only a limited number of people who can fit. This summer started well for me — I went up Tei...

Impressive cliffs, right? I suppose Guigui (pardon me for not going into all that umlaut nonsense from this point on*) is Gran Canari...

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 t...

By now we've been living on Gran Canaria for long enough to get a reasonably good idea of how the carnivals go here, and of course t...

Grand Place , Brussels What, exactly, is Belgium famous for, apart from unelected bureaucrats and Brussels sprouts (which are not feat...