Duck is yummy bbqed

I managed to get home last night after teaching to see the Canucks get two empty netters to clinch the game and go on to the next round. What a great feeling! Those were some very happy hockey players. It was a long series with some incredibly lame reffing. I hope the next one is better. Ducks aren't exactly a pushover.
It's hard to believe it's been 25 years since Roger Neilson hoisted that towel in surrender. I still remember it well. Within a couple of weeks almost everyone at school had a Canucks towel. It's become a symbol and a lot of other teams use it now. But for us, it still brings back Neilson standing up on the bench with his makeshift flag.
Keep winning guys. The Cup really should come home.


Many, many metres of three-ply corrie for the monkey. He still hasn't thought of what he wants his sweater to look like. Hell, I spun the yarn faster than he's making this decision. Men. He'll likely want a plain crew-neck. Bleh.


Jacqui sent me this great stuff. She'd left a comment about wanting to swap socks and I took her up on it. She'll probably be more careful about things like that from now on.
The timing could not be more perfect. I plan to make the mate to this lovely sock (which is Roza's Socks from the spring IK) on the trip next week. I've got some Wildfoote in the Stash (I know, you're sooo surprised), but I haven't actually knit with it yet. It feels really nice. And pretty much everyone knows my major weakness for Opal. But this soap. Damn. I wish I could figure out how to make the blog scratch and sniff. It's spearmint and lemon and I would happily just wander around with around my neck. It smells so good. Thanks Jacqui! You realise, I will be putting Hello Kitty stickers on all out going parcels now.
On a less happy note, we had a bad scare with Loki this past week. He has congenital heart failure and we have him on meds to try to control it and make him happy. But he had built up so much fliud that he looked like a barrel. The vet was very concerned and said we might not have much time left. He drained the excess fluid and we're adding another heart med to his regime. He seems as happy and goofy as ever, so I hope the vet is wrong. Loki's family and I don't know what we'd do without him. Okay, I could do without the appalling farts he lets go. He walks up to you, farts, gives you a dirty look and goes to the other side of the room. Acts like the stench was all you. Clever little beast.

Go Canucks Go!

I like this man a lot!
And hey, what's not to like? He's italian, but not smarmy, very flexible and he's keeping pucks out of the net. That's huge, the keeping pucks out of the net thing.
Now. If we could just give Sopel a good bath and a haircut...
Oh, and no more seven period games please. I could outskate you guys after seven periods of hockey. It's just not civilized.


The massive egg basket finished and full of stuff I can't tell you about. Soon all will be revealed, but for now, mystery.
The monkey's yarn is done. My tendonitis is less painful than it was a couple of days ago and I drew up two patterns yesterday. Things are chugging along.
Roz and I leave for the Sock Crusie in less than two weeks, so things should maybe be flying rather than chugging, but you take what you can get.
Go Canucks!

How I Spent My Easter Long Weekend

While the monkey was up at his mom's for the weekend, being pampered, eating ham and chocolate, I was at home doing this:


I've been spinning this corrie for almost a week solid now. I have 6 and a bit of the 10 bumps spun. I've being spinning at a rate of about 80g per day and, at this rate, should be done by Monday at the latest. That'll be almost two pounds of 3 ply double knit weight when it's done. The monkey's trying to think of what sort of sweater he wants.
I anticipate something plainish. Men are sooo dull. He thinks the self-striping sock yarn is "girly".


oooh, aaah...Russian support spindles!
I've been pretty restrained lately when it comes to spindles, but these were just too pretty. One's cocobolo nd the other is tulipwood. I can't wait to see what the plying spindles are like. I've never tried the russian spindles, but I have to now.

Blocking Day

You thought I was kidding when I said no more plain socks for a while, didn't you.
I had to wait for the sun to make another appearance, because I like blocking outside. Today I got lucky. Monday snow, today 17 C. Go figure. Thought I'd better take advantage of the good weather 'cause who knows how long it will last or what will come next. Tornado? Water funnel? Hate to guess.



Luna Moth Shawl done in Alpaca with a Twist Baby Alpaca. It's a small shawl that took about two and a half balls and just two days of knitting.



Shetland Triangle from Interweave Knits Wrap Style. I saw Melanie's last month and instantly wanted to make one. I even stole her idea of beads along the bottom. I did a few more repeats and still had yarn left, but the pattern is only a ten row repeat and it was getting a little dull. The yarn is a hand dyed bamboo that I got at Fibrefest last year from a weaver. Can't remember which one, but I love the colour. The bamboo was very slippery and a little on the splity side. Feels nice and looks shiny though, so it was worth the struggle. I started this Saturday night during the last period of the game and finished Tuesday afternoon
The spinning for the monkey's three ply corrie gansey has begun!

Uh, WTF?

I enjoy a good joke as much as anyone, but seriously, this is NOT funny. If it had happened yesterday, I might have seen some humour in it, but come on, it's April 2nd.
Yesterday, the monkey was out doing yard work all afternoon with his new lawn mower and edge trimmer. That trimmer is a scary thing. I tried it and let it dip a little and *poof* the grass in that spot was gone. Nothing left but dirt. Turned a little and the damned thing went through a plastic plant pot like it was butter. Good thing we got what the guy at the store called the wussy one. Can't imagine what the "real" ones would cut through. Yikes.
But, that was yesterday. The sun was shining and I was thinking of switching out the winter clothes for the summer ones. Good thing I waited. Apparently, while we slept, our house was moved up into the freaking artic. Even Loki tried to get back into the house when we were starting off for our walk. Normally, he's waiting for me impatiently on the driveway when I come out with his leash. Not today. He was scratching at the door as I tried to get the harness on him. He kept looking up at me like I was insane to want to go out in that weather. Even when we got to the beach, he didn't want to get out of the car. He was looking at us like, "uh, why don't you guys go and I'll just wait for you here. In the car. Where it's warm and not full of that cold white stuff."


The almost week of sunny warm weather did help me get back on track with some projects more interesting than plain socks. This predrafted BFL got turned into this:


It's more three ply sock yarn, but I promise it won't be plain socks. I have a couple of sock patterns sitting in my head and I think I'll try them out with these last two batches of handspun.
I also started the Shetland triangle saturday night and it should be done later today. Pulled out some corrie that I had processed that's going to be a sweater for the monkey. I'm thinking three ply DK in a gansey. It's a really dark chocolate colour. Very Manly.
Gotta go make some tea now, still a bit frozen from the "bracing" walk on the beach. Hope to thaw out by the end of the week.

Yay! It's finally spring

Would ya look at that! A cherry tree in full glory. Love it. Means the cold, icky, horrible weather we've had is likely at an end. I was starting to think that we'd never see the giant yellow orb in the sky again. I actually left the house without a jacket today and did not get hypothermia. Not even a goose bump. Yay!
This afternoon was spent spinning with friends. It was great. Lots of laughs and Judy made some really yummy treats and tea to help us keep spinning all afternoon.
This is Judy spinny with her corgi in her lap. They both look pretty relaxed, don't they.


The change in the weather has really helped me be more productive. The plain socks are done, fancier socks are on the needles, the Nihon sweater is designed and cast on, and I pulled out some fiber to spin. I didn't feel like climbing into the wool room (don't ask, Holly peeked in when I opened the door and wound up snickering every time she looked at me for about a half hour), but lucky for me, the Lisa Souza fiber I ordered a while back was right up near the door.


This is BFL in LimenViolet. I split it into three roughly equal sections and predrafted it out. Then made a nice three ply sock weight. Hopefully it will be socks by the next post, but no guarantees.


I want to thank everyone for being so positive about the book, especially you, Denise. Hopefully you'll let me cry on your shoulder every now and then. I think I've come to terms with the fact that it won't be for everyone. It's nice to know that others are as tired of the recent trend in knitting designs as I am. I'm ready to do something about it and you're all welcome to come along for the ride. At the very least, it should be pretty interesting.

Drive by Gnoming

Holly and her daughter Orion came up for a visit this weekend. There was much shopping, driving and eating. Not necessarily in that order.
We went to the Sewing fest out in Abbotsford which, unfortunately, was very sad. There used to be a mix of booths, sort of half sewing and half crafts. Now it's pretty exclusively sewing. Which is great if you sew, but not so much for the likes of us who do other stuff. It was a little disappointing, but I did manage to get a great deal on a couple of Aussie stumpwork bug books. Even the monkey likes looking at the pics in them.
We decided to pick up assorted coffee influenced beverages at the great coffee corporation on our way home and were treated to this:
Disembodied voice: Welcome to Giant Coffee Corp! Can I take your order?
Holly: Uh yeah, two tall, unsweetened, green tea lemonades...
DV: Two grande sweetened-
H: No, tall, unsweetened
DV: Oh! Extra sweetener-
H: NO, unsweetened!
DV: Okay, two tall, unsweetened green tea lattes-
H: No. Two. Tall. Unsweetened. Green. Tea. Lemonades.
DV: Got it! Two tall, unsweetened, green tea lemonades. Is that all?
H: Nope. One tall mocha frappe light with coconut syrup...
DV: The frappes are iced.
H: I know, I said light.
DV: Okay, with ice.
H: Light!
DV: Iced.
Holly: Light. L. I. G. H. T. Light
DV: Oh! Light! So a grande mocha frappe light...
Holly: Tall. With coconut syrup and a tall java chip frappe.
It went on a little longer and screwier from here but you get the idea. Funny, but kinda not.
They went to dim sum this morning with Angela and her guy, but we begged off. We missed the dim sum so we could put 20 garden gnomes on Angela's front lawn. It was the only way we could do it while she wasn't home and still have Holly get to see it. Of course, I'm a twit and forgot the damn camera. So you'll have to hope Ang or Holly post pics. It was truly weird and her neighbor must think we're nuts. This poor guy was out gardening when we pull up, unwrap almost two dozen garden gnomes and place them around the front yard.
Definitely a drive by gnoming.

I have been unable to get motivated to do anything I really should be doing for a while now. Maybe it's sleep deprivation. I don't know, but it's making me crabby. Feels like I've got all this stuff to do and all these deadlines, and I just don't do it. WTF?!
I've decided to start a pattern book. I'm sick to death of all the "knit it this weekend!" crap out there and want to do something challenging and wearable. There's a certain designer out there who needs someone to slap her and let her know that a 36" bust is NOT a large. No more waify little models, who obviously haven't knit a stitch, wearing knitted skirts on cliffsides with their hair blowing in the breeze. I wanna see knitters. Knitters of all shapes, sizes and ages, doing things that knitters do, perhaps even, god forbid, KNITTING! No more sandwich deprived 15 year olds pinned into garments that some brain trust decided we'd make even though they're only showing the effing collar. (That one's for you Kerry)
The problem is, how challenging can I make it without alienating everyone? It keeps me up at night. I don't want to hold anyone's hand, be a grown-up people. Read the instructions. But will people actually read the instructions? This is going to take me a while to figure out. And I haven't even got to all the legal end stuff and printing and test-knitting and and and and
Crap. Hyperventilated a bit there.
So bear with me. Today I give you a picture of plain socks. It's all I've been capable of lately. Sorry.

Answers, Winners and an FO

First, the answers to my little quiz:

1. Monty Python. "Spell bolour with a "k"? Kolour! Oh what a silly bunt!" I used spinny to avoid being sued and because it worked for me a bit better. BTW, people have to do something truly appalling for me to spell "bunt" with a "k".

2. Cat hair, but I would have accepted any answer. And Lorinda, it's always been Kirk. I mean, come on! The guy has managed to avoid dying from galactic vd who knows how many times. You've got to admire his resilience if nothing else.

3. A garden shed that may someday soon become his new home so that I could use the old garden supply room as my wool room.

4. Older than me! He will always be older than me. That is the only acceptable answer.

5. Guitar building or Luthiery. And yup, I actually did make a decent living in my chosen field for a little while. Got some REAL interesting stories about musicians too. Ask me sometime.

6. Johnny Depp.

7. Aie ya IS a sentence. I use it in polite company instead of swearing. It manages to convey all sorts of emotions, but mainly horror and disgust.

8. I got tendonitis from knitting for the Vogue Nihon class. My Dr kindly suggested I just stop knitting and spinning for a few months and it would clear up. He then went on to suggest that I knit and spin less to stop it from flaring up. He stopped talking when he saw the look on my face and then suggested tylenol and ice.

9. I am continually treating my addiction with wool. So far, it hasn't let up. Hmm, I wonder why methadone doesn't work...

10. Tubal ligation with a rusty steak knife. Usually after a trip to the mall or mistakenly finding myself in a Chuck E Cheese.

And now, the winners!
Uli - sock yarn
Frauke - bags of mohair
Dad - food stuff
Irene (Rusty) - sock yarn turned into socks
Myriam (via write in vote) - topknot
Lorinda - handspun skein (please email me with your address)
Denise - roving (now you must tell me where you live, mwahahaha)
Anthea - sock book
Kerry - socks ( I KNOW where you live)
Heatherly - laceweight mohair (address please)
Jacqui - sock yarn ( I need your address too please)
I added an extra prize 'cause it seemed silly that only one person wouldn't get something. Ian Sim doesn't count as he is the monkey. Silly bunt thought he was being clever. I think his prize shall be a cuff upside the head. He didn't even get #6 right!


These are the finished monkey socks from the Second Sock Syndrome Swap. Debbie knit the first one for me and now I've got a pair. I like this someone else knitting one sock for me business. Any volunteers? I have a 7.5 foot, it's not that big, doesn't take long to knit a sock for that size foot.

Blogaversary Contest

Well, it's been almost a year. As usual, it's just whizzed by and I didn't get nearly enough done. It all started with this pic:


In honour of my managing to post on a semi-regular basis without offending a large amount of people, I'm going to give away some of my vast and terrifying stash. There's some of my handspun, a pair of socks, laceweight mohair from Ami Ami, Fancy Image sock yarn, Regia, a topknot, some BFL, the Vintage Sock book and TWO FULL bags of Rhapsody! Before you get all excited, you have to answer a few questions to earn the goods. Everyone can enter, especially my friends! I love sending stuff to my friends. Come on guys, everyone wants free stuff!


These are the prizes. Good incentive? Dad, the red peppers and peppercorns are your prize.
So, here's the deal. Answer one question, answer a few it doesn't matter. I will give points for creativity.

1. Where did I get the idea for the name of my blog? Your answer must include the word "bolour" and the letter "k".

2. What is this?


a) dryer lint I plan to collect and make into a sweater for the monkey.
b) the amount of fur I got off the duvet cover in one day.
c) a desicated tribble that ran out of grain on the Enterprise.

3. Last summer, the monkey built a:
a) garden shed.
b) his new home.
c) a wool room.

4. How old is the monkey?

5. What is the career I actually went to college to learn?

6. Who would I leave the monkey for in a cool second?

7. Use the phrase "aie ya" in a sentence.

8. How did I get tendonitis and what did my doctor suggest would clear it up?

9. Do you think I have a treatable or untreatable fibre addiction?

10. What operation do I threaten to perform on myself?

Have fun! I'll post the winners after March 17th.

What a Great Pal

It is a small world. My spoiler for the Second Sock Syndrome Swap was my spoilee for SP9. Debbie sent me all kinds of wonderful stuff. There are great smelling candles, a beading mag, a very pretty bracelet, bath stuff, tea, woolwash (a brand I haven't tried yet), and, of course, weird candy. I love weird candy! She found me cackling chocolate eggs. There were a lot more of them, but those sort of things don't last long around here.
The absolute best thing in the parcel was the sock. It's the monkey sock from Knitty done in a bright blue Jitterbug. She claims it is only her 5th sock, but I think she's lying. It's really nice and I plan to make it's mate as soon as I can.
Thanks Debbie! You spoilt me rotten and I had an awful lot of fun opening all the goodies.

Effing Groundhog!!!

Meet Punxsutawney Phil. He said we'd have an early spring. I say, he'd probably make a tasty stew as this is NOT my idea of an early spring on the Westcoast:


Just yesterday morning, crocuses, snowdrops and even daffodils were blooming. Today, this. Obviously large hole-living rodents aren't accurate predictors of the weather.
On the up side, my Spin to Knit swap pal sent me this beautiful skein, a pair of vanilla candles, some great goodies and a pen the monkey will never steal (it has marabou and a chocolate on the top).


The skein is three ply romney/mohair/merino/silk chunky weight. It's very soft and has a nice little halo that I think will really bloom when it's knit. This one's looking like a chunky ribbed hat for me. Many thanks Jaimie, it's gorgeous!


I think the cats have the right idea. Snug in and sleep till spring comes.

Uh yeah, I needed another hobby

Since I have oh so much time and never really enough to do, I have decided to try my hand at basketry.
You can all stop laughing now. I am doing this voluntarily, they have not finally come to take me away. Stop. Laughing.
After five weeks of great instruction with Irene (she taught me to spin as well, multitalented lady), this is what I have so far:


The start of an Appalachian egg basket (it's already been mentioned that those must be some big ass eggs), a little wall basket and two little rectangular ones. The tiny rectangle basket isn't quite done yet.
There's been knitting going on as usual. I've actually been working through some of the stuff I got at Madrona. It's been pretty much instant gratification knitting, hats, socks, bags, etc. I still have to get back to the spinning homework, but now that the cotton I have to spin up for dyeing in level 5, I don't have any excuses. And time's running out.


Must go spin and do research!

SP9 The Big Reveal

Sadly, I am frequently the one you all know. Gotta love the look on the non-tardy owl though, can't you almost hear the, "aw fer cripes sakes"?


My Secret Pal was Maggie. She disects seals. There are pics. No. She's not some sort of weird seal serial killer, she's a vet student. Her blog has lots o' pics. Go check it out. She sent me this great fibre from a local mill. It's mystery mill ends and the colour and feel of this stuff is wonderful. Once again I wish for touch'o'vision. I plan to spin it woolen to keep it fluffy and soft and make something fluffy and soft with it. No idea what yet, but I've been dying to spin with this stuff since it arrived and I haven't been able to because of other stuff that had a deadline. I've had to put it out of my line of sight (and feel) so I could stay focused and not be tempted.


This is the last of the vacation pics as I was unable to get a photo of the body bag coming off the ship when we landed in Miami. Now THAT would have been an interesting picture!
You'll just have to settle for the happy monkey and his new friend the stingray. I don't think I've ever seen the monkey so happy and relaxed. And I have to tell you guys, stingrays are the coolest things ever! They are incredibly gentle and the underside of them feels like velvet. The top side is a bit like elephant hide. This one was very happy to just be supported in our arms and look at us. This stingray place is on an atoll just off Nassau in the Bahamas. They have about ten female stingrays and breed them. The 'rays have all been debarbed and have a fairly large ocean pen to roam around in.
This was easily one of the neatest things we did on the trip.

To Whom it May Concern

Dear Sirs/ Madam,
Please add 4 to 6 hours to every day. As I am currently falling behind at approximately that rate, I think this would help me stay afloat.
I promise to not use any of this most precious "found" time for anything as trivial as sleep or say maintaining a thin pretense of sanity.
Thank you for your attention.

Madrona

Last weekend was Madrona Fiberfest in Tacoma. Lynne and I drove down on Thurday night and spent the next four days taking classes, eating (lots of good Thai food and martinis), catching up with friends, making new friends and of course, SHOPPING.
Yup. I bought a little bit of fibre. BFL, merino, silk, cashmere, the usual suspects. Check out those batts! I got them from this lady who was very nice, but kept bringing more stuff that was nearly impossible to resist. By day two, we were openly comparing the vendors to crack dealers. "Here little girl, the first bit is free, tell your friends." Insert evil laugh here.


Purchased a small amount of yarn as well. Blue Moon was the first booth to decimate my cash supply, but others quickly joined the fray. I'm nothing if not consistant.


I only bought the two Spindlewood spindles on the left at Madrona, and yes, one of them is square. I did notice. It spins really well despite it's obvious deformity. The two spindles on the right were waiting for me on Monday night. They're the now infamous Bosworths, a featherweight in really deeply coloured pink ivory and ebony and a moosie. They are exquisite. And they're actually here. Amazing.


The other nifty thing waiting for me on Monday was this package from my SpintoKnit pal. It's a large skein of very soft spindle spun merino/silk and some nice teas. I think the yarn needs to be a scarf. Many thanks to the nice person who sent it!


And if you've stuck with this post to the bitter end, here's a pic of the guy who drove our troop carrier (you read that right) in the Dominican Republic. We stopped in a sugar cane field and he whipped out a rather large knife to cut some for us to try. The Dominican Republic was an interesting place. Sugar is their main product for export followed very far behind by rum. Our tour took us to the back of a cafe where two people were making cigars, through huge cane fields and out to a refinery. Every time we stopped, we had to drink some rum. So basically, they got a bunch of tourists loaded and then put them on a boat that felt like it would sink at any moment. Exciting! I especially liked guessing which drunken tourist would puke first. Fortunately, no one did. Not even me. And we made it back to the cruise ship without having to swim for it. A nice and somewhat surprising bonus.

Last week was very productive.
Things were dyed:
Like this merino/silk for Holly.
Things were knit:
A pair of plain old socks in superwash merino.
Things were reknit:
It's the right size now and we're not to speak of this again.
This is the beach I enhanced my dose of skin cancer on in St Maarten. No one needs to ask why I want to live there anymore do they? Okay, except for the half-naked (as in only swimsuit bottoms) aging tourists, it's pretty much paradise. Be happy I spared you the view of the very large old man wearing nothing but a bright orange string thong that greeted our arrival.

Oh! I almost forgot. Chrissy had posted this on her blog a while back and I think everyone needs to see it. It's real. I know, I couldn't believe it either, but apparently it was made in New Zealand last year and is looking for distribution. I could not stop laughing. Enjoy.

Got Gauge?

I don't. I am an idiot. I got cocky and didn't swatch and now I have the joy of reknitting the sweater that I had pretty much finished last week.
Crap.

Some retail therapy occurred in the recent past in the form of the CTH New Years Sale, a trip to a sort of local YS and spindle enabling via Kerry. The spindles are a Beeswing and Satinwood Lizzie and a Mahogany and Purpleheart Emily. Both are from Adam 's Woodshop.


After five days at sea with nothing at all around us except half naked europeans and flying fish, we docked in Guadeluope. This island is technically part of France, so I got to subject people to what I remembered of school french. We bought lots of spices and some beautiful fresh fruit and wandered around the town a little. It was off-season there, so it was very quiet. We did go on a tour here to a nature preserve.
The brochure said, "Suspended walkways allow you to wander through the canopy, from one tree to the next at a height of at least 15 metres aboove the ground." This was the reality:


Being tethered by two carabieners to cables so you can inch your way along a pair of 1 x4s didn't seem very condusive to "wandering". Not to mention the fact that a have a fear of heights and spent the entire time staring at my feet so I wouldn't plunge off the tiny pieces of wood to my certain and surely embarrassingly slow death.

Snow, WIP and some FOs

New new year is already almost two weeks in and I'm behind. How does this happen?! I'm always doing stuff, so how am I so behind? WTF!?! But it's not all bad so far. The monkey finally said, "uncle" and gave up his old beater. This is his new baby. He loves it more than me I suspect. He gets this sappy grin on his face every time he looks at it.
And while dealing with car salesmen was not a treat, it was fun to tell one of them that the monkey's only stipulation was that it be blue. The salesman only paused for a moment, but it was a fun moment.


I have managed to get a few things done. I've got my Second Sock Syndrome package ready to mail. I used STR in the light weight and Sivia's Reptilian Lace pattern from Knitty. My pal wanted to try knitting socks on two circs, hope she likes the colours. Sorry,but I can't remember what that colourway is called. I've also got the first skein for the Spin to knit swap done. I used some Targhee roving that had been dyed in red, purple and brown and spun it to a light DK. That parcel will be ready for mailing by Saturday.


Here's the Kochoran hoodie finally sewn up. This sucker's been sitting on the arm of the couch for over a week. I just didn't want to do it. I have no idea why. I love this sweater. It's huge, soft and really warm, things that I desperately need since it decided to snow again yesterday. I hate snow! St Maarten here I come!


And on the needles right now is the Trinity pullover from CTH in potluck bulky. Weird pattern, it's knit from cuff to cuff and then picked up and knit down for the front and back. It's working up very fast and despite big shade variations in the skeins, it doesn't seem to show in the knitting. Should have it done by Monday. Wonder how long it'll sit on th earm of my chair before I sew it up...


The second stop on our cruise was Tenerife in the Canary Islands. We were a little thrown when we arrived as we'd both expected a quaint tropical island, but it's a modern bustling city. We didn't have a scheduled tour here and spent the first part of the day wandering around. We found a public market and bought spices and fruit and then used my pathetic spanish to take a cab to the other side of the island to a place called "La Casa del los Balconies".
La Casa is a tourist spot where they've restored one of the old houses to the way it was when the missionaries were there. It's sort of like a museum complete with mildly creepy mannequins playing house in the rooms. It was a bit of a disappointment, but the view of the ocean and the volcano from there was great! The cabbie was really nice and took us on a site-seeing tour of that side of the island. Banana plantations, black sand beaches and wild poinsettias everywhere. It's a really pretty place. This pic of the Tenerife parliament building and an old fort called the Black Castle. It's kind of a neat contrast with the ultra modern and the very old side by side.