Tuesday 8 February 2011

Odds and Ends

Just a few odds and ends today to finish with our trip to Lanzarote.  On our last day, we had a couple of hours to kill before being picked up to go back to the airport.  So, not wanting to waste this time, we made up a large bread roll each, took a small bottle of red wine and set out for a last stroll along the seafront.  The sun was shining and it was lovely and warm when we sat in a small park, to enjoy our rolls and wine.  But we were being watched!  Dozens of large caterpillars were busy chomping on the leaves of the Euphorbias planted in the garden.  Brightly coloured and, no doubt, poisonous to anything unwise enough to have a go at them, they turned out to be Barbary Spurge Hawk Moth caterpillars (Hyles tithymali).
Some exotica was also to be found along the more domestic streets of the town.  A few, tall Coconut palms were waving their fronds n the breeze, giving a more Caribbean quality to the scene.
Everywhere you go on the Canary Islands, you will find remnants of bygone times in the shape of old, abandoned windmills.  Not the familiar windmills we have in Britain, but more skeletal mills used in times gone by, for raising water, powering mill-stones and small machinery.  Some still manage to turn when the wind is strong enough as this one did on the seafront near the end of the prom. Although, it no longer serves any purpose other than as a reminder of simpler days.
Just time for one last look at the volcanic landscape before returning to the airport for our trip home.  Another lovely holiday.  Where to next....?

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