People often ask me what I miss about Cornwall. After more than a year in Catalunya I am getting clearer about my answer although probably it would change depending on when you ask me and on who is asking! I am back in Penwith for a week. It stirs you up coming back and at the same time you have so much to do that you hardly have time to sit back and think let alone feel.
Here is my answer for today and I’m not including the obvious answer – friends and family.

It is not easy to buy flowers in Granollers. Not just a normal ordinary reasonably-priced bunch of garden flowers for the house – which I like to do every week and used to do here when I lived in Penzance.  The florists in Granollers have posh flowers and houseplants and they are expensive.

I really really miss second hand shops and charity shops. They don’t seem to exist in Granollers. I miss being able to rummage through books and china and clothes. I also miss having somewhere convenient to take things I want to get rid of. What do people do with their old stuff?  Dump it?

 

Here is the wonderful Honeypot in Penzance. Not only is it a great place to meet friends and to watch the world go by but they have fantastic food. There are always several vegetarian dishes. This day I had delicious sweet corn fritters with a spicy sauce and cornish potatoes and salad. I just wish it was easier to find vegetarian food in restaurants in Catalunya. Interesting, tasty and spicy vegetarian food.

I love the cliffs here – I love the landscape in Catalunya too but what is lovely here is that I can drive for no more than ten minutes along quiet country lanes and end up here.
And of course I miss my dogs – two border collies who can bark too much, don’t really know how to behave in town, sometimes growl at strangers but are intelligent and loving and beautiful. I want to pack them in the van ( which by the way broke down as soon as I arrived here) and take them home with me to Granollers. But what sort of a life would they have without a garden? And what sort of life would I have with three dogs to walk twice a day in town?
Tomorrow I go home, I say goodbye to my dogs and my house and the cliffs, rain, wind and mud. I feel I am going home – I look forward to arriving back in my life in Granollers – so much awaits me.  Each time I make the journey it is another letting go, another chance to make the decision and to say Yes. But it is complicated and making the choice doesn’t mean that one is better than the other. Just different.