Lazy Days of Summer

Minnie Sleeps

It's been too long since I last posted to my journal and I apologize for the long interval. This summer has been very busy with activities that have taken me away from blogging. Reorganizing and painting rooms, a lovely visit from my sister and friend from Canada, touring the island and taking classes and exams, which are now over. Oh and I almost forgot....I had a major disk crash which put me out of action for more than a few days!

So I think I'm now able to continue.
Here is a photo of Plaza del Charco in Puerto de la Cruz, taken in May from an upper floor window.

May: Plaza del Charco - Puerto de la Cruz

For June....what better than a bowl of chilled gazpacho at La Quintana Restaurant in Alvaro's Tennis Club, in La Paz, Puerto de la Cruz.

June: Gazpacho Andaluz

For July...a wander through the shady streets of Santa Cruz, Tenerife.

July: Santa Cruz in Summer

And for August, a bouquet of many roses picked from my garden:

August: Roses from the Garden

I've made a slideshow of summer photos taken when my sister and a friend visited the island. We drove up the volcano Teide, visited Santa Cruz, went out to dine on tapas and visited a couple of beaches. Click here if you would like to follow us on our island tours.

I hope everyone has been enjoying their summer.

Goodbye for now and I promise not to be away for so long next time.

¡Hasta la vista!

Our Summer Garden

Our back garden with bougainvillae and areca palm

Isn't this a wonderful time of the year. The morning air is fresh and sweet with the scent of oleander and brugmansia, and our nights are perfumed with the Dama de Noche, Cestrum Nocturnum. As you can see I am still in the process of putting new plants into patio pots and have not yet finished. I'm hoping to buy a small banana plant to put in a bare spot of the lawn, where it will be visible when we sit outside to dine.

Part of our cactus garden

The back lawn is still green

There's something to say about just leaving a group of tropical plants to grow where and how they please. I haven't put a hand to this part of my little tropical corner for a couple of years and yet the plants have thrived and grown lush with just regular watering.


And one happy aspect of leaving plants to their own tendencies, is the pleasant surprise one has to find an untended corner has bloomed into a mass of lush greenery.


Of course one has to plant them there in the first place, but in this climate one never has to worry about filling up garden spaces. Things just grow together on their own creating eye pleasing masses.


This pot was a happy find in a garden shop. I can't bear to put a plant it though as it would look silly sticking out of Buddha's head, so it's a purely decorative part of my garden. Besides the blackbirds like to sit there.


The front garden is full of a mixture of roses and tropical plants. I've also planted another Dama de Noche there near the house so the scent will waft through the window around nine o'clock in the evening.

I hope you have enjoyed this glimpse of my Tenerife garden.
Thank you for your visit. Have a good rest of the week and ¡hasta la vista!

Flamenco Dancing

I think it's hard to sit still or stop your hands from clapping when listening to the sounds of genuine flamenco. Also wonderful to see people young and old from Andalucia who have been dancing these melodies since they were old enough to walk. I once took some lessons in dancing Sevillanas, which is more of a Spanish folk dance than pure flamenco. I loved it and plan to write about it soon including pictures taken in the class.

Here is Maria Pages, a beautiful and talented artist dancing Firedance, from the show Riverdance:



But to hear genuine flamenco you must go to Andalucia and know where to find people who don't go to classes but learn the rhythms and dance steps from their families.Here is one video of a little gypsy girl dancing Bulerias, one of the forms of flamenco.
(Be prepared - this is a bit noisy!)



And one of the greatest flamenco guitarists: Paco de Lucia, in an early video playing a fragment of Solea. ¡Olé Paco..I love it!



And here he is again playing Entre Dos Aguas, in a rhumba flamenca style with a group.

I'm taking a little rest this weekend after redesigning my blog with the new template and header. I hope you like it. I'll have some new photos to show you soon.
Thanks for dropping by to visit, and hasta la vista!

CANARYBIRD

Beautiful Brugmansia

Here I am back again with my computer repaired, new hard disk and new router, so I hope to be able to post again regularly without problems. Please excuse my long absence. I've been taking many photos and hope you will find some of them interesting.


We have several brugmansia bushes in our garden, most of them white, but this peach one was cut down from a sunny spot where it wasn't at all happy, and from cuttings placed in different parts of the garden, we found the ideal place for this one. It wanted a sheltered position, away from wind and up against the house, facing west and next to a large oleander bush. Here are photos taken as the flower pods were developing:








It's now over 2 meters (6 feet) tall and puts out flowers in layers.
We're so pleased to have finally found the ideal location for this lovely bush.
As with other plants from the Solanaceae family, all parts of this one are highly toxic as well, so do be careful if you have small children or pets that chew on plant material.

Thanks for your visit, and hasta la vista!

Minnie's Diary

Please excuse my long absence due to a broken down computer which is still in the workshop. Luckily I have my photos saved on an exterior drive but otherwise have lost quite a lot of data. However I'm making do for a few days on a second old computer which has problems uploading so today I'm linking to some pictures I took earlier of our new little rescue cat Minnie.

Here is her photo and a slideshow I made of her new life in our home.



Minnie's Diary Slideshow

I hope to be back again with some new photos of our garden. We have a giant datura with coral blooms that has dozens of flower pods about to open. I'm so excited and looking forward to seeing them in full bloom.

When all is working again I will be adding some new photos to the slideshow of Minnie climbing a very tall tree! I was afraid that I might have to call the fire department to get her down, but she made it by herself.

Thank you for your visit and I hope you will enjoy seeing our new young cat!

¡Hasta la vista!

Sharon

Fresh Goat Cheese

Queso de Arico, Tenerife

Here is a sample of one of the local Tenerife fresh cheeses. Although it's not the same one used below in the quesadillas from El Hierro, it is similar in appearance and would probably be fine to use if one wished to make the quesadillas at home.

I just wanted to clarify what a 'fresh cheese' from these islands looks like.
They stay fresh for only a few days and must be eaten soon after they are purchased.

This piece comes from the factory in Arico, Tenerife which produced the winning cheese in the World Cheese Awards in Dublin in 2008.

103 ~ Quesadillas - Mini Cheesecakes from El Hierro

Quesadilla from El Hierro

Quesadillas, or mini-cheesecakes are traditionally made by one family on the island of El Hierro, one of the smallest and most western of the Canary Islands. In early times El Hierro was thought to be the end of the western world, before the Azores were discovered. In the year 2000 it was named by Unesco as a Biosphere Reserve.

Cut view showing texture and anise grains

Although the term quesadilla is used in Mexican cooking to refer to a cheese filled tortilla, (queso meaning cheese in Spanish,) the quesadillas of El Hierro are small, sweet individual cheesecakes, each one measuring around 10 centimeters (4 inches) across. They have been the specialty of one family, Adrián Gutiérrez e Hijas, made in their bakery using the recipe and method passed down by grandparents since 1900 where the quesadillas, in their distinctive daisy-shaped moulds, were cooked in wood burning ovens.

The above two photos credited with thanks to La Ruta del Buen Yantar

Here is a recipe for making quesadillas at home. They are made in individual molds which originally were lined with a thin puff pastry, but now commercially they are sold with a thin muffin-type paper backing.

Quesadillas

1 kilo (2.2 lbs) unsalted fresh cheese
250 grams flour
500 grams sugar
4 egg yolks
3 egg whites
1 TBS honey
pinch of cinnamon
pinch of salt
1 TBS anise grains
grated rind of 1 lemon

Mix all well to form a mass, then put into moulds, either buttered or lined with paper inserts. Originally quesadillas were put in moulds lined with a very thin layer of puff pastry.

Cook in 375F (190C) oven until golden.

Note:
The fresh cheese on El Hierro is made from a mixture of 85% goat milk, 10% cow milk and 5% sheep milk.

Thank you for dropping by.

Have a good week and hasta la vista!