Today, The Grandma has received the visit of her closer friend Nuria. Nuria is from Tenerife, CanaryIslands.
They have been talking about their lives and their future projects and Nuria has been explained to TheGrandma an interesting story about Sicutdudum, a papal bull promulgated by PopeEugene IV on a day like today in 1435, which forbade the enslavement of Guanches, the local natives in the Canary Islands who had converted or were converting to Christianity.
Canary Islands have an amazing an exciting history that must be explained and remembered. Their native people, Guanches, suffered all kind of repression -including genocide- by the Spanish colonizers who wanted to submit these peoples to the Spanish culture and religion.
Sicut dudum, in English Just as Long Ago, is a papal bull promulgated by Pope Eugene IV in Florence on January 13, 1435, which forbade the enslavement of local natives in the Canary Islands who had converted or were converting to Christianity.
Sicut dudum was meant to reinforce Creator Omnium, issued the previous year, condemning Portuguese slave raids in the Canary Islands. Over forty years after Creator omnium and Sicut dudum, Pope Sixtus IV found it necessary to repeat the prohibition in his papal bull Regimini gregis, which threatened the excommunication of all captains or pirates who enslaved Christians.
Christianity had gained many converts in the Canary Islands by the early 1430s. The ownership of the lands had been the subject of dispute between Portugal and the Kingdom of Castille. The lack of effective control had resulted in periodic raids on the islands to procure slaves.
Acting on a complaint by Fernando Calvetos, bishop of the islands, PopeEugene IV issued a papal bull, Creator omnium, on 17 December 1434, annulling previous permission granted to Portugal to conquer those islands still pagan. Eugene excommunicated anyone who enslaved newly converted Christians, the penalty to stand until the captives were restored to their liberty and possessions.
Slave raids continued in the islands during 1435 and Eugene issued a further edict (Sicut dudum) that affirmed the ban on enslavement, and ordered, under pain of excommunication, that all such slaves be immediately set free:
We order and command all and each of the faithful of each sex, within the space of fifteen days of the publication of these letters in the place where they live, that they restore to their earlier liberty all and each person of either sex who were once residents of said Canary Islands, and made captives since the time of their capture, and who have been made subject to slavery. These people are to be totally and perpetually free, and are to be let go without the exaction or reception of money.
Eugene went on to say that, If this is not done when the fifteen days have passed, they incur the sentence of excommunication by the act itself, from which they cannot be absolved, except at the point of death, even by the Holy See, or by any Spanish bishop, or by the aforementioned Ferdinand, unless they have first given freedom to these captive persons and restored their goods.
The specific reference to Spanish bishops and Bishop Ferdinand of San Marcial del Rubicón in Lanzarote suggests that the Portuguese were not the only ones engaged in slave raids in the Canaries.
Joel S. Panzer views Sicut dudum as a significant condemnation of slavery, issued sixty years before the Europeans found the New World.
Eugene tempered Sicut dudum with another bull (15 September 1436) due to the complaints made by King Duarte of Portugal, that allowed the Portuguese to conquer any unconverted parts of the Canary Islands. The king suggested that Portugal be authorized to evangelize and civilize the islands, as other less reputable persons were unlikely to heed the pontiff. Political weakness compelled the Renaissance Papacy to adopt an acquiescent and unchallenging position when approached for requests for privileges in favour of these ventures. Without a navy of his own to police the islands, the Pope opted in favor of the Portuguese as the lesser of two evils.
In 1476 Pope Sixtus IV reiterated the concerns expressed in Sicut dudum in his papal bull, Regimini gregis, in which he threatened to excommunicate all captains or pirates who enslaved Christians.
Today The Grandma and her friends have climbed MountTeide the most spectacular mountain in Tenerife, symbol of all the Canary Islands and one of the active volcanoes in Europe which was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2007.
It has been an incredible experience for everybody but especially for The Grandma,a person who loves volcanoes. During the trip by special jeeps, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Intermediate Language Practice manual (Grammar 24).
Mount Teide is a volcano on Tenerife in the Canary Islands. If measured from the ocean floor, it is at 7,500 m the highest volcano in the world base-to-peak outside of the Hawaiian Islands, and is described by UNESCO and NASA as Earth's third-tallest volcanic structure.
Teide's elevation makes Tenerife the tenth highest island in the world. Teide is an active volcano: its most recent eruption occurred in 1909 from the El Chinyero vent on the northwestern Santiago rift. The United Nations Committee for Disaster Mitigation designated Teide a Decade Volcano because of its history of destructive eruptions and its proximity to several large towns, of which the closest are Garachico, Icod de los Vinos and Puerto de la Cruz. Teide, Pico Viejo and Montaña Blanca form the Central Volcanic Complex of Tenerife.
The volcano and its surroundings comprise Teide National Park, which has an area of 18,900 hectares and was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO on June 28, 2007.
Teide is the most visited in Europe and the eighth most visited in the world, with some 3 million visitors yearly. Teide Observatory, a major international astronomical observatory, is located on the slopes of the mountain.
Joseph, Jordi & Tonyi visit Teide National Park
Before the 1496 Spanish colonization of Tenerife, the native Guanches referred to a powerful figure living in the volcano, which carries light, power and the sun. El Pico del Teide is the modern Spanish name. Nowadays the name Teide is also used as a personal name.
Teide was a sacred mountain for the aboriginal Guanches, so it was considered a mythological mountain, as Mount Olympus was to the ancient Greeks. According to legend, Guayota (the devil) kidnapped Magec (the god of light and the sun) and imprisoned him inside the volcano, plunging the world into darkness. The Guanches asked their supreme god Achamán for clemency, so Achamán fought Guayota, freed Magec from the bowels of the mountain, and plugged the crater with Guayota. It is said that since then, Guayota has remained locked inside Teide. When going on to Teide during an eruption, it was customary for the Guanches to light bonfires to scare Guayota. Guayota is often represented as a black dog, accompanied by his host of demons (Tibicenas).
The Guanches also believed that Teide held up the sky. Many hiding places found in the mountains contain the remains of stone tools and pottery. These have been interpreted as being ritual deposits to counter the influence of evil spirits, like those made by the Berbers of Kabylie. The Guanches believed the mountain to be the place that housed the forces of evil and the most evil figure, Guayota.
Guayota shares features similar to other powerful deities inhabiting volcanoes, such as the goddess Pele of Hawaiian mythology, who lived in the Kīlauea volcano and was regarded by the native Hawaiians as responsible for the eruptions of the volcano.
The stratovolcanoes Teide and Pico Viejo are the most recent centres of activity on the volcanic island of Tenerife, which is the largest and highest island in the Canaries. It has a complex volcanic history. The formation of the island and the development of the current Teide volcano took place in the five stages shown in the diagram on the right.
Tina Picotes & Mount Teide, Tenerife
Like the other CanaryIslands, and volcanic ocean islands in general, Tenerife was built by accretion of three large shield volcanoes, which developed in a relatively short period. This early shield stage volcanism formed the bulk of the emerged part of Tenerife.The shield volcanoes date back to the Miocene and early Pliocene and are preserved in three isolated and deeply eroded massifs: Anaga to the northeast, Teno to the northwest and Roque del Conde to the south. Each shield was apparently constructed in less than three million years, and the entire island in about eight million years.
The initial juvenile stage was followed by a period of 2–3 million years of eruptive quiescence and erosion. This cessation of activity is typical of the Canaries; La Gomera, for example, is currently at this stage. After this period of quiescence, the volcanic activity became concentrated within two large edifices: the central volcano of Las Cañadas, and the Anaga massif. The Las Cañadas volcano developed over the Miocene shield volcanoes and may have reached 40 km in diameter and 4,500 m in height.
Around 160–220 thousand years ago the summit of the Las Cañadas I volcano collapsed, creating the Las Cañadas (Ucanca) caldera. Later, a new stratovolcano, Las Cañadas II, formed in the vicinity of Guajara and then catastrophically collapsed. Another volcano, Las Cañadas III, formed in the Diego Hernandez sector of the caldera. All of the Las Cañadas volcanoes attained a maximum altitude similar to that of Teide, which is sometimes referred to as the Las Cañadas IV volcano.
Two theories on the formation of the caldera exist. The first states that the depression is the result of a vertical collapse of the volcano triggered by the emptying of shallow magma chambers at around sea level under the LasCañadas volcano after large-volume explosive eruptions.
The Grandma climbs Mount Teide, Tenerife
The
second theory is that the caldera was formed by a series of lateral
gravitational collapses similar to those described in Hawaii. Evidence
for the latter theory has been found in both onshore observations and
marine geology studies.
From around 160,000 years ago until the present day, the stratovolcanoes of Teide and Pico Viejo formed within the Las Cañadas caldera. The lava flows on the flanks of Teide weather to a very thin but nutrient- and mineral-rich soil that supports a wide variety of plant species. Vascular flora consists of 168 plant species, 33 of which are endemic to Tenerife.
Forests of Canary Island Pine (Pinus canariensis) with Canary Island juniper (Juniperus cedrus) occur from 1,000 to 2,100 metres, covering the middle slopes of the volcano and reaching an alpine tree line 1,000 m lower than that of continental mountains at similar latitudes.
Within the Las Cañadas caldera and at higher altitudes, plant species endemic to the Teide National Park include: the Teide white broom (Spartocytisus supranubius), which has white flowers; Descurainia bourgaeana, a shrubby crucifer with yellow flowers; the Canary Island wallflower (Erysimum scoparium), which has violet flowers; and the Teide bugloss (Echium wildpretii), whose red flowers form a pyramid up to 3 m in height. The Teide daisy (Argyranthemum teneriffae) can be found at altitudes close to 3,600 m above sea level, and the Teide violet (Viola cheiranthifolia) can be found right up to the summit.
These plants are adapted to the tough environmental conditions on the volcano, such as high altitude, intense sunlight, extreme temperature variations, and lack of moisture.
Joseph de Ca'th Lon visits the Teide Observatory
Adaptations
include hemispherical forms, a downy or waxy cover, a reduction of the
exposed leaf area, and a high flower production. Flowering takes place
in the late spring or early summer, in May and June.
Teide National Park contains a large number of invertebrate species, over 40% of which are endemic species,
and 70 of which are found only in the National Park. The invertebrate
fauna includes spiders, beetles, dipterans, hemipterans, and
hymenopterae.
In contrast, Teide National Park has only a limited variety of vertebrate fauna. Ten species of bird nest there, including the blue chaffinch (Fringilla teydea teydea), Berthelot's pipit (Anthus berthelotii berthelotii), the Atlantic canary (Serinus canaria) and a subspecies of kestrel (Falco tinnunculus canariensis).
Three endemic reptile species are found in the park: the Canary Island lizard (Gallotia galloti galloti), the Canary Island wall gecko (Tarentola delalandii), and the Canary Island skink (Chalcides viridanus viridanus).
The only mammals native to the park are bats, the most common of which is Leisler’s bat (Nyctalus leisleri). Other mammals, such as the mouflon, the rabbit, the house mouse, the black rat, the feral cat, and the North African hedgehog, have all been introduced to the park.
Starred night at Mount Teide, Tenerife
Teide National Park is a useful volcanic reference point for studies related to Mars
because of the similarities in their environmental conditions and
geological formations. An astronomicalobservatory is located on the slopes of the mountain, taking advantage of the altitude, above most clouds, good weather and stable seeing from the site. The Teide Observatory is operated by the Instituto deAstrofísica de Canarias. It includes solar, radio and microwave telescopes, in addition to traditional optical night-time telescopes.
Teide is the main symbol of Tenerife and the most emblematic natural monument of the Canary Islands. An image of Teide appears gushing flames at the centre of Tenerife's coat of arms. Above the volcano appears St. Michael, the patron saint of Tenerife.
The flag colors of the island are dark blue, traditionally identified with the sea that surrounds the island, and white for the whiteness of the snow-covered peaks of Mount Teide during winter. The logo of the Cabildo de Tenerife, governing body of the island, includes a symbol of Teide in eruption.
In the Canary Islands, especially on Tenerife, Teide has cultural symbolism deeply rooted in traditions and history. It is popularly referred to as Padre Teide (Father Teide).
Today, The Grandma and her friends continue
resting after the night of Carnival in Tenerife. The Grandma and John de Ca'th
Lon are very interested in the CanarianHistory and especially in the ancient
native inhabitants known as the Guanches.
Joseph de Ca'th Lon has gone to the public
library in Santa Cruz de Tenerife to search some information about the Guanches and the
latest studies about their DNA while The Grandma has studied a
new lesson of her IntermediateLanguage Practice manual (Grammar 22).
Guanches were the aboriginal inhabitants of the Canary Islands. In 2017, the first genome-wide data from the Guanches confirmed a North African origin and that they were genetically most similar to modern North African Berber peoples of the nearby North African mainland. It is believed that they migrated to the archipelago around 1000 BC or perhaps earlier.
The Guanches were the only native people known to have lived in the Macaronesian region before the arrival of Europeans, as there is no evidence that the other Macaronesian archipelagos (Azores, Cape Verde, Madeira) were inhabited before Europeans arrived.
After the Spanish conquest of the Canaries they were ethnically and culturally absorbed by Spanish settlers, although elements of their culture survive to this day, intermixed within Canarian customs and traditions such as Silbo, the whistled language of La Gomera Island.
Statue of a Guanche, Tenerife
The native term guanchinet literally translated means person of Tenerife, from Guan = person and Chinet = Tenerife. It was modified, according to Juan Núñez de la Peña, by the Castilians into Guanchos.
Though etymologically being an ancient, Tenerife-specific, term, the word Guanche is now mostly used to refer to the pre-Hispanic aboriginal inhabitants of the entire archipelago.
Roman author and military officer Pliny the Elder, drawing upon the accounts of Juba II, king of Mauretania, stated that a Mauretanian expedition to the islands around 50 BC found the ruins of great buildings, but otherwise no population to speak of. If this account is accurate, it may suggest that the Guanches were not the only inhabitants, or the first ones; or that the expedition simply did not explore the islands thoroughly.
Tenerife, specifically the archaeological site of the Cave of the Guanches in Icod de los Vinos, has provided habitation dates dating back to the 6th century BC, according to analysis carried out on ceramics that were found inside the cave.
Strictly speaking, the Guanches were the indigenous peoples of Tenerife. The population seems to have lived in relative isolation up to the time of the Castilian conquest, around the 14th century, though Genoese, Portuguese, and Castilians may have visited there from the second half of the 8th century onwards. The name came to be applied to the indigenous populations of all the seven Canary Islands, those of Tenerife being the most important or powerful.
What remains of their language, Guanche –a few expressions, vocabulary words and the proper names of ancient chieftains still borne by certain families– exhibits positive similarities with the Berber languages. The first reliable account of the Guanche language was provided by the Genoese explorer Nicoloso da Recco in 1341, with a translation of numbers used by the islanders.
Statue of a Guanche, Tenerife
According to European chroniclers, the Guanches did not possess a system of writing at the time of conquest; the writing system may have fallen into disuse or aspects of it were simply overlooked by the colonizers. Inscriptions, glyphs and rock paintings and carvings are quite abundant throughout the islands. In 1878 Dr. René Verneau discovered rock carvings in the ravines of Las Balos that resemble Libyan or Numidian writing dating from the time of Roman occupation or earlier. In other locations, Libyco-Berber script has been identified.
During the 14th century, the Guanches are presumed to have had other contacts with Balearic seafarers, suggested by the presence of Balearic artifacts found on several of the Canary Islands.
The Castilian conquest of the Canary Islands began in 1402, with the expedition of Jean de Béthencourt and Gadifer de la Salle to the island of Lanzarote. Gadifer would invade Lanzarote and Fuerteventura with ease since many of the aboriginals, faced with issues of starvation and poor agriculture, would surrender to Spanish rule.
The other five islands fought back. El Hierro and the Bimbache population were the next to fall, then La Gomera, Gran Canaria, La Palma and in 1496, Tenerife.
In the First Battle of Acentejo (31 May 1494), called La Matanza (the slaughter), Guanches ambushed the Castilians in a valley and killed many. Only one in five of the Castilians survived, including the leader of the expedition, Alonso Fernandez de Lugo.
Lugo would return later to the island with the alliance of the kings of the southern part of the island, and defeated the Guanches in the Battle of Aguere. The northern Menceyatos or provinces fell after the Second Battle of Acentejo with the defeat of the successor of Bencomo, Bentor, Mencey of Taoro –what is now the Orotava Valley– in 1496.
Mencey Pelinor
Genetic evidence shows that northern African peoples, possibly descendants of the Capsian culture, made a significant contribution to the aboriginal population of the Canaries following desertification of the Sahara at some point after 6000 BC.
Linguistic evidence suggests ties between the Guanche language and the Berber languages of North Africa, particularly when comparing numeral systems. Research into the genetics of the Guanche population have led to the conclusion that they share an ancestry with Berber peoples.
The islands were visited by a number of peoples within recorded history. The Numidians, Phoenicians, and Carthaginians knew of the islands and made frequent visits, including expeditions dispatched from Mogador by Juba. The Romans occupied northern Africa and visited the Canaries between the 1st and 4th centuries AD, judging from Roman artifacts found on and near the island of Lanzarote. These show that Romans did trade with the Canaries, though there is no evidence of them ever settling there. Archaeology of the Canaries seems to reflect diverse levels of technology, some differing from the Neolithic culture that was encountered at the time of conquest.
It is thought that the arrival of the aborigines to the archipelago led to the extinction of some big reptiles and insular mammals, for example, the giant lizard Gallotia goliath, which managed to reach up to a meter in length, and Canariomys bravoi, the giant rat of Tenerife.
A 2003 genetics research article by Nicole Maca-Meyer et al. published in the European Journal of Human Genetics compared aboriginal Guanche mtDNA,collected from Canarian archaeological sites, to that of today's Canarians and concluded that, despite the continuous changes suffered by the population -Spanish colonisation, slave trade-, aboriginal mtDNA, direct maternal, lineages constitute a considerable proportion (42 – 73%) of the Canarian gene pool.
The genetics thus suggests the native men were sharply reduced in numbers due to the war, large numbers of Spaniard men stayed in the islands and married the local women, the Canarians adopted Spanish names, language, and religion, and in this way, the Canarians were Hispanicized.
A simulation of a Guanche
An autosomal study in 2011 found an average Northwest African influence of about 17% in Canary Islanders with a wide interindividual variation ranging from 0% to 96%.
According to the authors, the substantial NorthwestAfricanancestry found for Canary Islanders supports that, despite the aggressive conquest by the Spanish in the 15th century and the subsequent immigration, genetic footprints of the first settlers of the Canary Islands persist in the current inhabitants. Paralleling mtDNA findings, the largest average Northwest African contribution was found for the samples from La Gomera.
According to an international investigation whose results were given in 2017, a small part of the Guanches aborigines had as relatives the first European farmers from Anatolia, present-day Turkey. This data has been discovered thanks to the analysis of the genome which also confirms that the vast majority of Canarian aborigines come from North Africa but were also related to the first European farmers, whose genetics were introduced into Europe from Anatolia through the migrations of farmers during the Neolithic expansion, around 7,000 years ago.
Little is known of the religion of the Guanches. There was a general belief in a supreme being, called Achamán in Tenerife, Acoran in Gran Canaria, Eraoranhan in Hierro, and Abora in La Palma. The women of Hierro worshipped a goddess called Moneiba. According to tradition, the male and female gods lived in mountains, from which they descended to hear the prayers of the people.
On other islands, the natives venerated the sun, moon, earth and stars. A belief in an evil spirit was general. The demon of Tenerife was called Guayota and lived at the peak of Teide volcano, which was the hell called Echeyde; in Tenerife and Gran Canaria, the minor demons took the form of wild black woolly dogs called Jucanchas in the first and Tibicenas in the latter, which lived in deep caves of the mountains, emerging at night to attack livestock and human beings.
Statue of a Guanche, Tenerife
In Tenerife, Magec (god of the Sun) and Chaxiraxi (the goddess mother) were also worshipped. In times of drought, the Guanches drove their flocks to consecrated grounds, where the lambs were separated from their mothers in the belief that their plaintive bleating would melt the heart of the Great Spirit. During the religious feasts, hostilities were held in abeyance, from war to personal quarrels. Idols have been found in the islands, including the Idol of Tara and the Guatimac but many more figures have been found in the rest of the archipelago.
Most researchers agree that the Guanches performed their worship in the open, under sacred trees such as pine or drago, or near sacred mountains such as Mount Teide, which was believed to be the abode of the devil Guayota.
Mount Teide was sacred to the aboriginal Guanches and since 2007 is a World Heritage Site.
Mummification was practiced throughout the islands and was highly developed on Tenerife in particular. In La Palma, the elderly were left to die alone at their own wish. The Guanches embalmed their dead. In Tenerife and GranCanaria, the corpse was simply wrapped up in goat and sheep skins, while in other islands a resinous substance was used to preserve the body, which was then placed in a cave difficult to access, or buried under a tumulus. The work of embalming was reserved for a special class, with women tending to female corpses, and men for the male ones. Embalming seems not to have been universal, and bodies were often simply hidden in caves or buried.
In 1933, the largest Guanche necropolis of the Canary Islands was found, at Uchova in the municipality of San Miguel de Abona in the south of the island of Tenerife. This cemetery was almost completely looted; it is estimated to have contained between 60 and 74 mummies.
Although little is known about this practice among the aboriginals, it has been shown that they performed both animal sacrifices and human sacrifices.
Guanches in Gran Canaria, 15th Century
In Tenerife during the summer solstice, the Guanches were accustomed to kill livestock and throw them into a fire as an offering to the gods.
As for human sacrifices, in Tenerife it was the custom to throw the Punta de Rasca a living child at sunrise at the summer solstice. Sometimes these children came from all parts of the island, even from remote areas of Punta de Rasca. It follows that it was a common custom of the island. On this island sacrificing other human victims associated with the death of the king, where adult men rushed to the sea are also known. Embalmers who produced the Guanche mummies, also had a habit of throwing into the sea one year after the king's death.
Bones of children mixed with lambs and kids were found in Gran Canaria, and in Tenerife amphorae have been found with remains of children inside. This suggests a different kind of ritual infanticide to those who were thrown overboard.
Child sacrifice has been seen in other cultures, especially in the Mediterranean -Carthage (now Tunisia), Ugarit in the current Syria, Cyprus and Crete.
The political and social institutions of the Guanches varied. In some islands like Gran Canaria, hereditary autocracy by matrilineality prevailed, in others the government was elective. In Tenerife all the land belonged to the kings who leased it to their subjects. In Gran Canaria, suicide was regarded as honourable, and whenever a new king was installed, one of his subjects willingly honoured the occasion by throwing himself over a precipice. In some islands, polyandry was practised; in others they were monogamous. Insult of a woman by an armed man was allegedly a capital offense. Anyone who had been accused of a crime, had to attend a public trial in Tagoror, a public court where those being prosecuted were sentenced after a trial.
The Grandma contemplates the Guanches statues
The island of Tenerife was divided into nine small kingdoms or menceyatos,each ruled by a king or Mencey. The Mencey was the ultimate ruler of the kingdom, and at times, meetings were held between the various kings. When the Castilians invaded the Canary Islands, the southern kingdoms joined the Castilian invaders on the promise of the richer lands of the north; the Castilians betrayed them after ultimately securing victory at the Battles of Aguere and Acentejo.
Guanches wore garments made from goat skins or woven from plant fibers called Tamarcos, which have been found in the tombs of Tenerife. They had a taste for ornaments and necklaces of wood, bone and shells, worked in different designs. Beads of baked earth, cylindrical and of all shapes, with smooth or polished surfaces, mostly colored black and red, were fairly common.
Guanche weapons adapted to the insular environment -using wood, bone, obsidian and stone as primary materials-, with later influences from medieval European weaponry. Basic armaments in several of the islands included javelins of 1 to 2 m in length, known as Banot on Tenerife; round, polished stones; spears; maces -common in Gran Canaria and Tenerife, and known as Magado and Sunta, respectively.
After the arrival of the Europeans, Guanche nobility from Gran Canaria were known to wield large wooden swords, larger than the European two-handed type, called Magido, which were said to be very effective against both infantrymen and cavalry. Weaponry made of wood was hardened with fire. These armaments were commonly complemented with an obsidian knife known as Tabona.
Dwellings were situated in natural or artificial caves in the mountains. In areas where cave dwellings were not feasible, they built small round houses and, according to the Castilians, practiced crude fortification.
Today, The Bonds have had an intensive day in Tenerife Island. They have climbed Teide Mountain and they’re now resting in a hut, on the top of the mountain, which is only reserved for special guests.
Before climbing Teide, they had revised some English grammar like Demonstratives and Past Participle and they have read a new chapter of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
MJ has offered two new presents to our family: a book to prepare B2 Exam and one of the greatest novels of Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist.
Next, Eli Bond has offered some interesting information about the importance of colours in our lives, something that this family knows perfectly because there is one of its members, Jaume Bond, who is a professional painter.
The Grandma has talked about colours, flowers and travels remembering two incredible writers, Mercè Rodoredaand Blai Bonet. Both of them are considered excellent writers and both of them had difficult lives full of disasters, sadness and terrible personal conditions.
The Bonds have participated in the Carnival last weekend wearing some butterflies costumes and thanks to this, they’ve won another prize. Jaume, Joanjo and Pedro Bond have joined to David Bond who has been declared the Queen and all of them have won the festival.
The family is very happy for this prize because David has been in Paris, working in a new James Bond’s film, and he has seen how the family has missed him during these days. David’s returning has been the best present for this unforgettable family.
After this moment of glory, the family has talked about environment and recycling using some modal verbs like Must, Haveto and Should and they have shared different experiences in Tenerife, a special place for Irene Bond, who used to spend long seasons in the island after working in her secret and dangerous missions and for Pedro Bond who has remembered his ancestors and who has talked about one of the most beautiful European cultures: the Guanches.
Finally, The Grandma has decided to buy some islands. They name Wild Islands and are situated between Canary Islands and Green Cape. It has been a present for celebrating M. José Bond’s new goal.
If we intend to provide a better life, and a better world,
for future generations, we can't ignore the quality of the environment we leave them.
