Thanks Sharon. Where is most of your produce and meat shipped in from?

oooh, thanks Sharon. I love everyday life stuff, if you remember. Your every day stuff is pretty fantastic compared to many places, though - lol. My favorite is the old couple walking down the narrow side walk with the wall of pink (bouganvilla?) on the left. That looks like an add for something or other, lol. Just curious, but are the canary islands a popular retirement area? So many of your photos have a large number of older folks. Far more than I see on my daily errands where I live. I find it interesting that people over there dress pretty much the same as here. When I lived overseas (a hundred years ago) fashions were completely different. Especially shoes!!!

I wish I had seen this in the a.m. I went to my favorite nursery (plants) today that I just love. Very quirky and interesting, neat and messy all at once. I'm going to have to start keeping the camera in my glove box.

Gina....most produce is grown right here in the south of the island, while some comes from southern mainland Spain, (Andalucia) although there are also some imports from South America. One of the local supermarket chains sells only Spanish or locally grown produce, refusing to import from outside the country, but there are some apples and perhaps other seasonal fruits from South America when they're not available here. The islands are especially known for their tomatoes, potatoes and small Cavendish bananas, a lot of which is exported to Northern Europe.

Chicken, turkey, duck, goat and some pork are locally grown. Beef and some pork and lamb are from mainland Spain. Some frozen beef comes from South America.
There's a lot of fishing in the area between the islands and the west African coast, off Mauritania and Morocco, as well as locally around the islands.

Tammy, yes I remembered how you love everyday candid shots in the streets. There are a lot of retired people from European countries who come here for the mild winter weather, many of whom will return to their home country around March or April. The local British call them the "swallows". Many hotels are not far from our neighbourhood and the photos I took were taken around the shopping and cafe area by the hotels. Down in the main part of town you'll see more variation of age groups, families and young people.

There's also a big tourist industry here with winter being the high season as this is considered the Hawaii or Florida of Europe and many older folks come for the sun on reduced package holidays of four or five months in apartments, timeshare or budget hotels. Right now it has been carnival time so there are also many younger people who come here for the fiestas.

SharonCb

Sharon,
Care to comment on "Philadelphia Cheese" and "American" sauce?

Teresa

I bet Philadelphia cheese is Philadelphia Cream Cheese. It's not made in Philadelphia at all. It's made by Kraft Foods which is headquartered in Illinois.

I love the pictures of Tenerife. I am putting "Visit Tenerife" on my bucket list.

Any pictures I take of street scenes now would be pretty grim since we are in the depths of gray winter. I'll sort through my other pics and see what I can find. I need to have my camera fixed. The zoom hasn't worked since last summer.

I just love to find new threads and pictures in the Gallery.

My routine is so - routine! Maybe I'll take a camera to dim sum in Chinatown in Monterey Park Saturday - hope to find something interesting to take pix of - besides dumplings that is!

dedtired, I would love to see some grim winter weather pics. We never get any here. Our winter this year was even more mild than usual. I love to look at pictures of snow and rainy days. May seem weird, but with so much heat, sun, and little rain here, it's just refreshing to think about long coats, hot chocolate, and snow!

Pam....Yes I bet they mean Philadelphia cream cheese as well, seeing as it sounds like that's in a starter section of the menu which looks like bruchetta, translated into English.

Guess we'll just have to go there and try it out. I can't imagine what they mean by American sauce but since they are French, it could mean anything they imagine Americans use LOL.

We almost went in there today as we were out walking and wanted to have a late lunch after doing some errands nearby. The place is very pretty inside with white linen, lots of fresh flowers everywhere, good glassware etc.

Wolf is interested to try this place because they have duck paté as well as duck breast so we may go soon to try out the small starters or dinner crepes. I've heard that the food is very good. And if we do I'll certain find out what is 'American sauce.'

Pam and Gina it's true that any photos of another place are interesting to those who don't live there so please do add or take pictures of what you may consider humdrum or boring: a rusty gate latch, a pile of snow against a patio chair, rain on a window etc. can turn out as beautiful photos.

I think one secret to good photos is to stop looking at the big picture and start zeroing in on single small details because they too tell a story, often better than a panorama.

SharonCb

Here is literally a pic of my street. Every year there's a big bike race through my neighborhood.

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Neat, huh? They fly by so fast. You can hear them before you can see them.

Different "street" scenes...

Sometimes, it's nice here...

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And, sometimes it's not...

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On our way for an ice cream cone...it's easier to take the boat than fight the traffic downtown!

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The little white building on the right is Mystic Drawbridge Ice Cream & our destination...we'll tie off at the dock.

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Another Mystic "street" scene...

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And here I am kicking back with my feet up, stuffed full of ice cream, just watching the traffic...

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/tricia

Tricia....

What a great way to go pick up an ice cream! Makes me wish summer was here already.

Trsinc.....nice wide streets for a bicycle race. Looks like they don't have to fight traffic there.

Here's what it's been like here the past couple of days - torrential rains:

SharonCb

#$%!@!

Sharon its raining here and I popped over specifically to catch some rays from your part of the world. Blast and LOL.

Thanks for the rainy day pics, Sharon and Tricia. I miss rain. :-( Although, Tricia, yours looks like a hurricane. I don't miss that kind of rain.

Sharon, I love the one with the little pot thingy. What is that thing, anyway? You should try selling your pics to a calendar company! If you haven't already.

Tammy...that pot thing is a water dispenser for birds or chickens, designed to be filled upside down so the water descends as needed into the bottom part. As it's made of unglazed clay, it is self cooling by evaporation on the outside. They come in different sizes and that one is about 15 inches high. The cats prefer to drink from this over any other dish of water I put out for them. I bought a couple for the garden as I think they are also decorative.

We have more rain predicted for tomorrow. Can't believe how wet it's been here lately.

SharonCb

Well here's my street etc
My house in winter

Pete it is beautiful though because you have lovely green grass boulevards and mature trees in front of your houses there.
Here in Europe the residential districts can be so much more cramped as there just isn't the space.

Being born and raised in Canada I do appreciate the difference and when I go back there I'm appreciative that family members can have a wooded area and tall trees on their property without having to be millionaires.

SharonCb