A Day to Remember

If you live on La Palma, one thing you might want to arm yourself with - apart from sun cream - is a calendar of public holidays and fiestas.   With this useful aid, you will have some idea when the shops are likely to be closed, apart from weekends and siesta time.  Although, I have to admit, no list is definitive as you might find what I call 'flying fiestas' (local ones) which are not on any list or calendar.  

Whilst many of them are obvious, such as  Christmas Day, New Year's Day and Easter, some are less so although the 1st and 30th of May (pleasingly called 'Day of Work' and 'Canary Day') are still a good reason to down tools, as in the UK.  

There are also a few less well-known ones thrown in such as Constitution Day on 6th December and Epiphany on 6th January.  Some pass almost un-noticed to us here in the country, whilst others such as Epiphany are celebrated in style, as in Los Sauces where the Three Wise Men arrive on camels.  Real camels, that is.

However, whilst they are all important for different reasons, one that I particularly like to mark is All Saints' Day on the 1st November.  Way back when (835 AD), the Roman Catholic Church declared the 1st November a Church holiday to honour all the saints, known and unknown.  On this day it is also customary to pray for the all those who have passed away, although not necessarily with sorrow.  On La Palma, as in many other places, we say it with flowers.  

Whilst the rest of the shops on La Palma remain closed, the flower shops are a hive of activity, trying to provide flowers for what amounts to every single and solitary headstone or grave on the whole island.  And the lovely thing about it is that no-one is forgotten or left out - that is after all the whole point.  So, no matter that Don whoever's family moved away years ago and there is nobody left to lay flowers on his grave or to place them tenderly in the little flower holders on the headstone.  All are remembered.  

Chicken course ... ?

This week saw the first of our chicken courses, although I really must stop calling it a chicken course.  'What's a chicken course?' asked a friend.  'Is it something between a starter and a desert.'   No, I mean  'keeping' chickens ... and to be more precise, a course on Keeping Chickens on a Small Scale.  

I have to confess that I did not particularly imagine I would be providing such a thing until someone asked me if I could help them with some information on keeping chickens.  After all, they said, they had no experience and little confidence and maybe I could get them started on the right path.  Oh and how many chickens should they have and what breed?  And what sort of housing should they put them in and what about typical illnesses hens might suffer from?  And what should they feed them?  Was a cockerel necessary - and what's the difference between free range and organic ... and how do you know if an egg is fertilised .. and ... and ...?  And could they see what it would be like to pick up a chicken.
And so that started me thinking about other people who might be considering keeping chickens and if a course would be useful.  After all, I had some idea about chickens since I was brought up on a poultry farm where various methods of rearing were employed including free range, deep litter, barn as well as intensive egg production.  Then of course there was the chicken hatchery producing around a million chicks a year - and that's not chicken feed!  

Me with my 'tweeties' here on the finca

And here on the finca in Garafia, we have kept hens and reared baby chicks with housing methods ranging from a moveable chicken coop to free range with seventy plus poultry (something of a poultry population explosion!) to our current system of a fixed house with large run.

And so, with this in mind,  the course was born and, as it happened, our lovely guests staying in the casita were also considering keeping chickens and asked if they could take the course while they were staying here.  

We started with some theory which encompassed all of the questions and doubts already raised and of course the guests added a few questions relevant to their particular situation.  After this, we had an on-site look at different housing systems and the various merits or otherwise.  And then we got to the bit they were probably waiting for - meeting the hens and collecting the freshly-laid eggs.

It was a good opportunity to get to know what it was like to be close up with the hens, discovering that they would not only pick enthusiastically at the fresh greens held for them but also gather round to dive into a handful of corn.  And happily, when it came to picking them up, the girls behaved im-peck-ably!

Now we could leave the hens on their own to wonder what all the fuss was about - and eat the rest of the greens.

The story of the curious cat

It is well known that cats are very curious and Pancho, our cat, is no exception.  Not only does he come to inspect any new works but he also likes to check out any new items, especially boxes and bags, climbing inside them to try them out for size.   

Now it seems that he has taken curiousity one step further - and maybe we have got a new walking partner. 

I think you might just need to tighten the shoulder straps a bit Pancho!

 

Fit to drive

The time had come around for our medical examination/test for driving. 

How great then to discover that our own lovely doctor in Los Cancajos has recently begun offering this service.   

Apart from a standard eyesight, hearing, blood pressure and heart check, there is also a reflex test.  That's the best bit!  It's rather like a computer game, the idea being that you have to keep two white circles within their own two red ribbons.  The ribbons are only just wider than the circles i.e. like keeping a car within the width of your side of the road.  The ribbons wiggle and wave about - a bit like the winding roads of La Palma!  You move the white circles to keep them within, or bring them back into, the ribbons with the use of two T-shaped handles.  Yes - right and left hands working separately!  If your circles get left behind as the ribbon moves away, there is a beeping sound.  That's OK as what it is measuring is your response time to get it back in order.

Happily, I passed and am already looking forward to the next one in five years time.

I can highly recommend the Medical Centre in Los Cancajos who also do all the paperwork for you, including digital photo, so you don't have to go elsewhere to get your photo taken and then take everything along to the Trafico.  The doctor (apart from being something of an entrepreneur) also speaks excellent English, should you require.  Apparently, he left mainland Spain to set up practice in Ireland.  Unfortunately, he couldn't understand anything people said, so decided that La Palma was his next best paradise.  Sensible man!

Centro Médico Cancajos
Address: Centro Comercial Cancajos, locales 307-308, 38712 - Breña Baja
Tel.:  922 43 42 11
Fax.:  922 43 59 70
Movil: 653 813 158 For more info on the driving licence system for ex-pats in Spain and medical test requirements go to the .Canary Forum