Author: Kate Wilson

To rescue or to leave alone?

~ Kate Wilson ~ 5 Comments

 

The weather here has been very changeable recently – some days sunshine, most days rain and occasionally a gigantic thunderstorm. The local news is full of stories of flooding and 6 metre waves lashing the coast.   As today was a festa we drove up to the Costa Brava to see the sea.It wasn’t really stormy by Cornish standards but fairly bracing and pleasantly quiet on the beaches. We had lunch in Lloret de Mar which in summer is a nightmare of tourists and traffic and, like so many beautiful coastal towns has been blighted by the Francoist property developers in the 60’s and 70’s. But if you turn your back on the ugly apartment blocks and look out to sea it is stunning. There is a colony of wild cats living here.They were more tame than their city cousins – it is unusual to be able to stroke a street cat but these ones were heart-breakingly interested in getting close. I want to write more about the cats I meet here soon – they have a tough life. People feed them but it’s not easy on the streets. There was one tortoiseshell here in Lloret who wound her way around my legs and seemed accustomed to being with humans. She was very thin although her fur was soft and glossy. Of course I thought about taking her home but what does this ‘rescue’ mean?  Would life as a well fed city cat without a garden be better than being part of this wild free colony by the beach? What do you think?

Driving the Van

~ Kate Wilson ~ 3 Comments

The van now has its new glass fitted – I found the insurance will pay at least half the cost – and I now have only to keep it safe from further attacks until I drive to Cornwall via Santander in a week or so It’s a long drive from here to the port and I am not thinking about it too much given my anxiety about driving in Catalunya. A friend is coming to visit from Cornwall and will keep me company on the trip.
When we went to France/Catalunya Nord I felt myself relax as soon as we crossed the border. For some reason it is easier (for me) driving in France. There are less cars, people drive fast but they keep a safe distance from your rear bumper and the roads somehow feel wider and more friendly. Around here it is impossible to go anywhere without having to negotiate endless busy intersections and fast carreteras. If you leave a good braking distance between you and the car in front, someone else will immediately overtake you and fill it up. People only slow down for the radars and clearly think that the brakes are there for using hard, fast and often. I drove for years in London and have no fear of driving alone from Cornwall to Glasgow but for some reason the traffic here has turned me into a rabbit!
There was a car glass replacement centre right on our street which was handy! And less traumatic for my nerves.Perhaps the answer if to drive more – I must try the trip to Barcelona, and as a priority I need to go somewhere all by myself……the supermarket is fairly close and I will set this as a goal before I leave for Cornwall. Will report back here!

Is it safe?

~ Kate Wilson ~ 1 Comment

Collecting mushrooms – I never understood why my partner called it ‘catching mushrooms’ until we started to do it regularly. It is not as if the mushrooms actually hide from you, nor do they run away, but is not very easy to find them in the quantities that you dream of. It is like a hunt. In Gerona they describe it this way – ‘Caçar bolets’
You go to the woods. There are pine trees – because mushrooms like to grow under pines along with other trees like these cork oaks (alsina surera)which look very naked where the outer bark has been removed to make stoppers for wine bottles Sometimes there are other animalsThere are paths which look tempting but to find the elusive mushroom you must dive into the undergrowth, crackle through brambles, clamber over fallen branches and use your intuition, or your nose or something very specialist which I seem to lack. The mushrooms that you see are often not the ones you want to collect. But sometimes they are – like these Apagallums.
This one is closed when it opens it is like thisThey are so called after the candle snuffers which ‘apaga’ the’ llum’ – turn off the light. Sometimes you find a gem. This is a RovellóUsually where there is one there are more…..but on this occasion there were not!
We had enough to eat though and survived the feast without any ill effects.Mushrooms have lovely names whether they are edible or not.
Peu de Rata Groc – Yellow Rat’s Foot
Llengua de Gat – Cat’s Tongue
Trompetes de la Mort – Trumpets of Death
Rossinyol – Nightingale
And of course you need a beautiful basket to catch them in

Is there something funny in the air?

~ Kate Wilson ~ 1 Comment

I’ll get onto writing about gathering mushrooms soon but first I have two odd/annoying things to report. Is it just me or is there something strange going on at the moment? It feels like every day I am thinking ‘ What next?’
Last night a neighbour rang the bell late at night to tell us that someone had heaved a large rock through the back window of my VW van. It was sitting in the street behind our house, where there are lots of cars and although the road is a bit dirty and neglected it isn’t really a dark lonely isolated spot It always feels personal doesn’t it? And I wonder if my UK registered van attracts some negative attention but perhaps it was just a spur of the moment thing. Nothing was stolen but they tried to get the radio out and failed. Rather sweetly they put the plastic cover tidily away in the glove compartment before fleeing. There was a lot of glass and a bit of blood where they cut themselves climbing in through the back window. Not professionals perhaps as it would have been easier to break the passenger window and unlock the door!
I found myself wanting to clean the whole street as I swept up the glass – as if it would make a difference to potential robbers if the street was better looked after!

And today I am in the middle of a boring but familiar and almost meditative task – arranging the receipts for Llançdora in monthly piles in preparation for writing up the booksAs always some are scrunched up a bit after being stuffed into pockets so I did what I always did in Cornwall – ironed them. But there must be something different in Catalan paper receipts – here is the result – after only a brief sweep with the ironPS it helps to have a dog under the table when you are doing the accounts….

What’s in a Name?

~ Kate Wilson ~ 3 Comments

 

Prada de Conflent (Prades) is also famous for being the town which sheltered Pau Casals the world famous cellist who was also known as Pablo Casals. Many Catalan people were obliged to use the Spanish version of their names and it is important to realise that this name changing is political and not just a personal choice.

Is the language we know as Spanish, the only Spanish language?  Or is it better called Castillian in order to differentiate it from Catalan and Galician or Basque?   It is actually the language of Castille even though it has come to be the language spoken all over Spain.

If I write Catalunya I am using the Catalan spelling. If I write Cataluña I am using the Spanish spelling.

My partner’s name is Josep shortened to Pep. But in Spanish this would be Jose or Pepe.  He is used to it and doesn’t react but I notice when friends in the UK call him Pepe.

There are a lot of possible mistakes if you don’t understand the background and the history.

Of course it is possible to be over sensitive – I no longer get upset if someone calls me English but I do give a gentle reminder that Scotland is part of the UK not a subsection of England.  But sometimes I don’t bother.I came to live here with a very minimal knowledge about the history of Catalunya.  I make many mistakes and put my foot in it all the time, but it is wonderful to learn about what has happened here, how people feel about their country and language and to find new ways to expand my understanding.

It is worth knowing if you visit this region that Catalan people do not consider themselves Spanish. The language of Catalunya is Catalan and that the language commonly known as Spanish is actually Castilian or Castellano.  Spain has four official languages – Castellano, Català, Gallego(Galician) and Euskera(Basque) You can see it is a bit complicated!To return to Pau Casals – he refused to return to Catalunya while Franco was in power and this sadly meant he never lived to see the return of democracy nor was able to come back in his lifetime.

I found this wonderful recording of his music.

And here he is playing El Cant dels Ocells (the song of the birds) a popular Catalan song