Jennifer did!

 

Gardener Jennifer finally wins the battle to uproot a small flowery bush on our balcony. Now it won't obstruct our view of the sea and of Puerto de la Cruz. Good job, Jennifer!

Dos Canine Companions

Our two morning canine greeters:

Scotty, the valiant male border collie, and Trixy, the alarm-clock female Irish wire-haired terrier.

Pictures.

A few more photos

The view out our front windows.....lots of ocean and very few ships!

Part way up the 40 km. drive to the top of Mt. Teide (No....we did not go to the very top. You can take a chair lift almost to the top, or you can hike up if you get permission from the parks department) The topography, microclimate, and vegetation all change dramatically as you ascend. Above the tree line, you'd think you were on the surface of Mars....lots of red rock and sand everywhere. In fact, a few weeks ago, a team of scientists were up on Mt. Teide testing a Mars rover prototype.

What a view!

Finally, a photo or two from the Barbours ! We've been on the island of Tenerife (pronounced ten-e-reef-eh?) now for about a month. We have a nice one-bedroom apartment below the garage of the main house we are looking after for the next few months. There is probably no other garage in the world with a better view each day! The photo here shows the view off our garden balcony (all of about twelve feet wide).....a great view of the city of Puerto de la Cruz with majestic and dormant (we hope!) 3700+ metre volcano Mt. Teide in the background. We are about 200 metres above the Atlantic, yet the sound of the waves crashing onto the volcanic rocks below is constant. For those who can come to visit, there is a hiking trail down to the black-sand beach....about 20 min. down and 35 min back up if you're reasonably fit. (Double those times for Cam!)

The weather has been consistently in the mid to high 20's (C) since we arrived, although we did hit 30 a couple of times. Our Spanish is improving by a word or two each day....enough that we can order tea or coffee and ask for the bill. Our local town, Santa Ursula, is a few minutes' drive from the tourist spots, so English or German is not commonly spoken. So...we'll try to learn Spanish. If you want to speak English, you can always drive to the south end of the island where there are tourist beaches and hotels everywhere.

Moved to Tenerife...... hard to believe!

Hi all,

After a very generous summer offer from one of our former RIA families, who own a home near Santa Ursula on the island of Tenerife (Canary Islands), we have run away from our home and family in Canada to make the big move here! We will be "house-sitting" for a few months while these folks are living in Switzerland. So far we have moved into a small, but wonderfully-situated one-bedroom apartment overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, and learned to find the grocery store, order a coffee in Spanish, feed the family dogs, and to water the plants. So far the 20+C temperatures every day have been hard to take.

We hope to add a few photos, and to update this blogpage once in a while to let you know what we're up to.

Glassy version of Jingle Bells

Mallory and Jennifer made their glass music debut at Hergiswil with a rousing rendition of Jingle Bells. CDs will be available later.