Which is the best month in the Canaries?

When people ask which is our favourite month on La Palma, it's always difficult to answer. Each month and season has something special to recommend it!
Spring is of course fabulous for the wild flowers - great bundles of sweet peas that line the donkey paths and always in the vibrant colours of hot pink and stunning magenta, terraces blanketed in purple and yellow and bright red poppies springing up wherever they get the notion.  But then winter is pretty great - after all, the winter sun is what a lot of people come to the Canaries for. Summer is lovely with long days in the garden, swimming or beach combing down at our local beach of La Fajana de Garafia just a 12 minute drive away and the nightly chorus of crickets and frogs.  And autumn is also beautiful with the colours as the chestnut tree leaves turn to amber and we are picking baskets full of figs from the trees on the finca.
We have a special reason the look forward to May though because this month heralds the start of when we get both a sunrise and a sunset from the finca. Crazy I know!  
Here's a photo of our lovely sunrise as we look east towards Barlovento.

A sunrise is definitely worth getting out of bed for and is so inspirational. And of course for those who are planning a long walk, then an early start during summer is usually advisable - great to have bed and breakfast accommodation right by the GR130 walking route in that case!

And then in the evening, we can enjoy the sunset. And that's the great thing about sunsets, you never know if it's going to be fiery and fill the sky with the intense glow of a volcano erupting.

Or gracefully slip down in the sea.

Whichever theme it chooses, it's always a magic sight.

And to think that when we came to live here in Garafia in the north of La Palma, we didn't knkow if we would see either the sunrise or sunset at all. You can read the story about it on our 'Relocating to the Canaries' here.

Road works between Los Sauces and Barlovento

Still on the subject of roads on La Palma, the road improvements in the north east have entered their second phase.
After a long pause from when the first phase finished, we are really pleased to see them going ahead again (in the hope that this will finally be it!). However, this does inevitably mean potential delays and even closures while they have a 'good old bash' without cars going by.

Here are the details:
Between Los Sauces and Barlovento, the road will be closed Monday to Friday as follows -
09.00 - 11.00hrs
11.30 - 01.30hrs
16.00 - 19.00 hrs
To put it another way and be abundantly clear, it is only open 11.00 to 11.30hrs, 01.30 to 16.00hrs and after 19.00hrs.
This is in place until 24th May.

It's important therefore that you take heed of these times because there is NO other way around to get from Los Sauces to Barlovento and beyond. Except if you drive in the opposite direction via the west coast which would take around two hours depending on where you are trying to go.
But with some planning around these times, it hopefully won't affect you too much and of course at weekends, the road is open all day.
If you wonder what these road improvements are all about, the main aim is to widen the roads, reduce or take out a few of the bends and/or strengthen the road. Where a supporting wall is required, natural stone is used instead of poured concrete. Once the roadworks have been completed, we plan to return to being La Isla Bonita. Yay!