View from the top

On the way to climb the hill/mountain that towers over the house, I saw some wildlife! First was this bird, and then something that looked like a chipmunk, maybe a squirrel-type thing? That was unfortunately too fast and small to take a photo of, although it did freeze and stare suspiciously at me for a little while before hiding in the stone wall. 

 

A cricket I think.

 The view from part-way up my climb, yes all by myself! Perilous rocks etcetera, and a bee that had a black and white striped bottom were my only obstacles. I think if I had named that bee I wouldvé called it a robber bee. It was all by itself so I decided it wasn´t trying to sting me, instead was wondering if I ad pollen attached.There were some parts of the ascent that meant climbing using all my limbs up rock, but this was far less than the climb with Nora the other day. The main issue was coming down again, because volcanic rock has a tendency to be very crumbly and shingly in places on the slope. So there was an element of sliding happening every now and then when I couldn´t walk near the rocks that were big and stable in the ground. Walking with bent knees and such on the way down definitely knackered by legs far more than marching up! When you´re leaning against the direction you might fall rather than into it, that´s a lot less effort. The thin line you can see running along the ridge of the mountain in the picture above is a stone wall that has been assembled by people, by hand, to act as partial protection for the goats that are roaming all over the mountains. Though hiding a lot from me.

  

Here´s one!

The picture above looks like a river doesn´t it? Well it is, but there is absolutely no water running in it. Silverio told me that occasionally it does, in the winter when it is a little bit wetter here, but in reality these rivers are never as full as they were thousands of years ago when this was a tropical island. In the time of the dinosaurs...

You can very slightly see here what I think are caves maybe formed from lava flow, or something to do with rocks that I don´t really understand. Anyway these were on the side of the mountain away from the the house, roughly southside (hence the slight tiny trees) that was far too steep for me to climb. But to the right hand side you can just make out the cluster of goats that were happily browsing here.

The view of the land just lightly to the right of the house. Below is one of a pair what maybe an Egyptian buzzard that were hanging around the mountain, coming closer to see if I was a rabbit or a threat.

A closer view of the stone wall. Additionally I realise I haven´t put up a picture of the house here, this is it from outside with the Euphorbia Canariensis sitting right by the window.

By the by, for our English lesson today, Nora and I played food shops.