I haven't written a post for a long time now. Life didn't run smoothly in the first month of this year. Most of the time I felt ill, drained and exhausted. I didn't get rid of the aftermaths of the flue. I got a couple of other inflammations, had to go to the doctors several times and I couldn't find any strength. I felt like a sick rabbit who wants to creep in his burrow to be not seen or heard until ... yes until when? Until better times come maybe.
I hate to complain partly because I know there are so many people who are having a much rougher ride. And I hate to complain because
I HATE BEING SICK!!!
It's driving me cuckoo.
That's why I stopped blogging, I just couldn't find any words worth writing. There was nothing for me to say. I had a hard time to cope with daily life. But it didn't stop me from crocheting though. To grab a needle and some nice, colourful yarn felt like a relief and while working up my stitches I temporarily forgot about all sorrow. I did some nice little things in candy colours, something springlike that really soothed my mind.
And then after Easter our holiday began. And it's been a wonderful, gorgeous, phantasmagorical holiday! We went to the small Canarian island of La Gomera for almost 2 weeks and within a few days I felt so much better. The weather was gorgeous, about 20 to 24 degrees, the sun was almost always shining and the air felt light and warm. We soon forgot what day or time it was, we went swimming and hiking and strolling around small villages.
Here are a full load of pictures, sorry for that but every time I look at them I feel so happy and thankful that I would love to show you all of our more than 500 pictures we have taken!
To get to La Gomera you have to take the plane to Tenerife and from there you take the ferry to San Sebastian de La Gomera. On the above picture you see Tenerife with the highest mountain, Pico de Teide.
This is the small town of San Sebastian where all the ferries land. But we had to continue our travel by bus to the wonderful steep valley on the other side of the island - Valle Gran Rey.
The Atlantic ocean there is wild and rough, the waves are strong and the play of colours is magical. If you look over the ocean you may see all different shades of blue, I wish that I could be able to dye yarn in this wonderful seawater.
My children loved to go swimming in these powerful, head-high waves.
One
day we took part in a whale watching tour and we saw lots of pilot
whales. But it is so difficult to get a good picture! The boat is
rocking and the whales are really fast.
We had lovely food, I especially loved the ripe avocados there. They
taste so much better than the ones you can buy here. We even saw
avocados hanging on a tree!
And the Canarian bananas are delicious, as well. They are much smaller than our usual ones and the taste is better.
There is a speciality that is merely produced on La Gomera, the Miel de Palma, palm tree honey. It is a liquid brown honey that is sweet and really, really nice on pancakes. One day we accidentally saw a palm tree that produced the honey. The interesting thing about this honey is that you can only harvest it when it is dark. The palm liquid is spoiled when touching light.
And we went hiking, as well. La Gomera is a paradise for hikers. There are so many well signposted trails that it is difficult to decide which trail to choose. The children loved the trail following a brook bed through trees, palms and bamboo. It included quite a bit of climbing, as well.
I especially loved the trails through the Laurissilva forest, a thick green leaf forest. This forest is not green from rain, instead, it catches the moist carried
with the trade winds, which blow from the humid north. The funny thing is that it can often be quite cold and humid, even rainy in this forest and on the Northern part of La Gomera and when you get back (and down!) to the Southern coastline the weather is sunny, dry and warm.
This is the Pico de Teide of Tenerife again. When the skies are clear and blue you have a fantastic view to the other Canarian islands Tenerife, La Palma and El Hierro.
La Gomera has been a place for us to relax, to enjoy nature, to find silence and to dance with the
Atlantic waves on beaches with black volcanic sand. We spent a most blissful and happy time there and we surely will come back one day.
That's it for today, I hope you are not too exhausted by this overload of pictures. I don't know when I will come back here, I have to go to hospital again next week but as soon as possible I will write the next blog entry about my finished rainbow ripple blanket. I' m so happy, happy, happy with it!
I hope you are well and happy and have lots of nice things going on.
Big hugs,
Viola
