Daily Life
The Spanish Plane Tree (Platanus Hispanica) is a popular urban roadside tree in Mallorca, a deciduous tree that grows to a good size and with smooth bark that falls off […]
Customs & Traditions
The very able Mallorcan country folk have created fairs and markets for just about everything Mallorcan one can think of: wine, sobrassada, olive oil, horses, honey, shoes, botifarrons, dogs, mushrooms, […]
Mallorca
On my last trip to the island of Sa Dragonera I went to one of the lighthouses, the Far de Tramuntana. After setting over from Sant Elm by boat, the […]
Animals
Last Sunday was the last day of the 2009-10 hunting season in Mallorca for caza menor (small animals such as rabbits, hares, pheasants, partridges, wild pigeons, thrushes and such like). […]
History
Mallorca has a bit of a history of seismic tremors, believe it or not. Last Saturday, for example, a minor earthquake with a magnitude of 3.2 on the Richter scale […]
Daily Life
I forgot to tell you that the Jewish festival of Tu Bishvat, the New Year of the Trees, always coincides with the full moon. January’s full moon in Mallorca could […]
Customs & Traditions
Even though Winter is seemingly a passive time in nature, with the countryside apparently dormant, appearances can be deceptive. Mallorcan farmers are rather busy planting their potatoes and tomatoes, pruning […]
Daily Life
Last year seemingly was one of the wettest years on record in Mallorca, or so we hear. In total, 546 litres of rain were recorded per square metre at the […]
Animals
I imagine that not many caterpillars were amongst the blessed animals last Sunday, least of all the procesionaria (Thaumetopoeidae Pityocampa). I wonder what Sant Antoni would have made of this […]
Boats
We have been very lucky lately with the weather, here in Mallorca. Yesterday, a rather pretty formation of Cirrocumulus clouds could be observed in the late afternoon, as seen here […]
Customs & Traditions
I have an admission to make: I have failed you. I am terribly sorry. This is about the event of the Winter Solstice. You may know (or you may have […]
Daily Life
Earlier this week, this Winter’s first snow fell in Mallorca, along with snowy conditions in mainland Spain and freezing temperatures in most of northern Europe. Snow was reported here in […]
Animals
Bats do not seem to have a large following. The poor little creatures are indeed on the retreat everywhere in the modern world and are now slowly becoming an endangered […]
Animals
Over the last few weeks, you may have seen large flocks of small birds in the Mallorcan skies. The birds are starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), and there seem to be millions […]
Daily Life
Earlier in the year I commented that 2009 was going to be a special year, a year with 13 moons. Last night we could witness the first of two full […]
Animals
Tordos (lat. Turdus philomelos, Song Thrushes) are migratory birds which come to our Mallorcan shores during the month of October. This year, the hunting season for these birds started a […]