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Despite decades of talk and a couple of years of clear policies and promises, it seems that 2021 will continue with the endless change of clocks for spring and autumn. Nearly five million EU citizens responded to an EU consultation in 2018 saying they wanted to stop the clock changes twice a year, and it was proposed that by now, this spring, EU member states would have decided their preferred time zones. None the less, although the EU Commission has tabled that proposal and it’s been revised by the EU Parliament, the EU Council has still not come up with a joint position even two yearsREAD MORE

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Guía de Isora ayuntamiento has announced that despite the work it’s been putting into designing a safe Pascua Florida for the town this year, the regional Government’s announcement of Level 3 means that it can’t go ahead after all. The council apologises for the inevitable … for the second year running covid has forced the cancellation of the Pascua Florida, the unique and internationally famous Easter floral displays evoking the stations of the cross throughout the old part of Guía de Isora town. The images below from a few years ago show how the plazas and pretty cobbled streets are filled with floral displays andREAD MORE

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I think most of us have some sort of interest in volcanoes given our love of Tenerife, so HERE is a link to a webcam showing the eruption ongoing right now in Fagradalsfjall, Iceland. You might also find this drone footage quite stunning … I did!READ MORE

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Photo: In Tenerife. Updated 20 March: The Cabildo has released this video of the renovated Masca barranco route, safer, with more visitor information; as they say “better conditions to enjoy this incomparable space”. ⛰️🎒 Este es el renovado camino del Barranco de #MASCA. Más seguro, con más información para el visitante, en mejores condiciones para disfrutar de un espacio inigualable. 👨🏻‍💻 Visitable a partir del 27 de marzo, previa solicitud de acceso en la web. ℹ️ https://t.co/2d5nj1MlNB pic.twitter.com/NtnWFFuif3 — Medio Natural Cabildo de Tenerife (@MedioNaturalTF) March 20, 2021 Updated 17 March: The Cabildo has issued further details about the reopening of Masca barranco. The walkREAD MORE

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Today, at around 9.30am I believe, was the start of spring, certainly today is the vernal equinox … and vernal is the word! Everywhere is green and sprouting, spring is most definitely an accurate word! Here are a few pictures from the garden this morning … as you’ll see, the almond blossom has now turned into actual almonds, the spring cactus has sprung into life, the apricot tree is now in full leaf and its blossom is already tiny apricots (let’s see how long they survive before being nobbled by the canaries or blackbirds!). The orange bush is lagging behind, only now coming into blossomREAD MORE

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Whether it will have any effect on the hopes of non-Spanish residents who wish to adopt Spanish nationality without giving up their own is uncertain, but it’s certainly no longer an outright impossibility. Hitherto, apart from those from south-American countries, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea, Andorra or Portugal, anyone taking up Spanish nationality had to renounce their own nationality. Now, however, Spain has signed a bilateral agreement with France to allow French nationals to acquire Spanish nationality without losing their French citizenship. The agreement was announced a couple of years ago and it’s now reality. President Macron, calling Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez a dear colleague andREAD MORE

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To comply with measures trying to limit the spread of covid, travellers to and within the EU have been asked to date to provide any of a range of documents like test results, personal declarations, etc, but obviously these have not been of a standardised format, and the EU Commission says that this has resulted in travellers experiencing problems when moving within the EU, as well as generating reports of fraudulent or forged documents. The Commission has therefore been working on a common approach to what’s been popularly called a vaccine passport, and today it has announced plans for a Digital Green Certificate, avoiding theREAD MORE

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I know photos with weather or views are appreciated but today’s has neither … but it does have a blackbird and an apple, two words which actually played a part in the first “proper sentence” our eldest ever said! This bird and apple are just on the little breakfast terrace outside the garden door, so this is taken from the living room through the glass. On the existing feeder, the Canaries are stuffing themselves with tiny seeds, the blue tits are pigging out completely on a bit of Parmesan rind while also enjoying sunflower seeds … blue tits are called herrerillos in Spanish, the wordREAD MORE

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Loro Parque has announced that a further 20 red masked parakeets have been returned to their natural habitat in Ecuador after being victims of illegal trafficking. They join 39 already released as part of a project that has been supported technically and financially by Loro Parque Fundación since 2019, joining Fundación Jocotoco and other organizations whose objective is to help this species. The red masket parakeet is classified as near-threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and these works are wholly aimed at preventing its continued population decline since it is a favourite species for illegal traffickers as well as being made vulnerableREAD MORE

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photo: Bajadadelavirgen Updated 12 March 2021: After the five-yearly performance being cancelled last year we were waiting for the announcement as to whether it would take place this year but the sad decision has been made to give up on it entirely for this lustrum. It has now been rescheduled to 2025 when it would have taken place naturally anyway. As a religious festival at heart, the decision was that of the Tenerife bishopric, and Bishop Bernardo Álvarez has said today that there’s no way it can sensibly be proposed for later this year given current circumstances with the pandemic unabated, and the extensive planning andREAD MORE