Author: Kate Wilson

New Homes

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Yesterday – the last day of February – I said goodbye to my rooms in Carrer Valencia and brought all my things to my new home in Granollers. The flat was in central Barcelona, in an area called Eixample (roughly pronounced Ah-sham-pla) which is the 19th century extension of the old cityIt is famous for its grid pattern of streets, octagonal blocks of houses and shops whose chamfered edges create open intersections giving a sense of space and light and of course many people come to see the modernist architecture of many of the buildings. The building of the Eixample in the area outside what were the city walls connected the old town with what had been outlying villages. It is the first major example of modern urban planning on a grand scale.In 1859 the city council ran a competition to find a designer for this area. It was won by Antoni Rovira i Trias but then as now, politics intervened and a decision was made in Madrid to give the job to someone of their choice. The Eixample was designed by Idlefons Cerdà but eventually his plan too was plan was ignored in some of its parts – especially the vision of each block having a central garden to give the people more green space and peace. The spaces exist but generally look like this.I had two rooms in a large flat which I shared with my friend Marta. There is no lift and we lived on the forth floor. ……………103 stairs. You tend to remember to buy the milk. Or do without!
The floors are called Entresuelo, Principal, Primero, Segundo, Tercero and Cuarto which means that if you live on the 4th then it’s really the 6th.
Some entrance halls are magnificentThe flats are generally airy and spacious with beautiful floor tiles. Yesterday I had my first party there to say thank you to all the friends who have helped me over the past 7 months. A lunch party that began at the traditional time of 3pm and ended about 8pm. Then we packed my things – amazing how much stuff you accumulate over a few months – lugged it down the 103 stairs, and drove home.

Spring Clean

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A couple of weeks ago I went to a beautiful castle in the hills nearby to take part in an inipi. I wasn’t sure what this would involve but knew it was something like a sweat lodge and would be a new experience. We arrived to find this fire already prepared and the circular lodge constructed from branches and covered with blankets standing nearbyInside there were carpets and a large hole in the centre for the hot stones.
We all were given small bundles of dry twigs which we lit and then used to start the fire Then when the large stones in the fire were hot enough a group of about 20 people stripped off and crawled inside the lodge. It was cold outside but after the stones were brought in and placed in the central hole, water was poured over them and with the smell of herbs we breathed and sang and sweated in the darkness. It was a strange experience but the heat was never so intense that I felt uncomfortable and at the end when we were sitting in total darkness enveloped in steam I recognised one of the songs and surprised myself by singing alone in English while the others hummed.
“The river is flowing, flowing and growing, the river is flowing, down to the sea.”
Memories of Greenham Common although I actually never spent time there!
Duna came too and was very patient as she waited outside during the ceremony.Coming out into the freezing night was interesting and I was the only one to use the icy water provided for a wash down – I was impressed that people here who are more accustomed to warmth and sunshine were willing to stand naked in 0 degrees on a hillside.
It felt very cleansing and a good way to celebrate the New Moon and to say goodbye again to my mother who died this day 9 years ago.

Dogs

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I now live here in the same house as a dog. She’s called Duna and is a Springer Spaniel, age eighteen months, female. I always knew dogs have different lives outside the UK and that this could prove to be a challenge to my decision to have an open and uncritical attitude in this new country. And so it is!

Walking in the countryside there are many empty houses where the owners only come at weekends or for holidays. For security they often have two or more dogs who live there alone being fed by some custodian, sleeping outside or in a kennel and having as their main stimulation each day those moments when someone walks past the fence. Then there is a cacophony of barking and huge excitement as they race up and down alongside your path. They sound fierce but in a life of great boredom it must be the highlight of their day.

Duna came here from a family home where she lived for her first year, I don’t know how much time she spend indoors but it is very likely she slept outside and spent most of the day alone as the parents were at work and the children at school. All credit to them, the family decided they couldn’t give her the life she deserved so she came here. She was not house trained but had been taught some fairly useless tricks such as giving a paw on command and lying down to play dead. She is very willing to learn and has a very gentle nature. When we take her out for walks in the countryside she loves rummaging in the woods and looking for mushroomsWe live in a town. It is a big house and has a roof terrace and a half enclosed patio but no garden. When she first arrived she slept on the patio and used this for her toilet. It has taken a long time for her to learn bladder and bowel control and to wait until we take her out for a walk.
As the weather got colder last autumn I started to campaign for her to sleep indoors. It is hard to explain to UK dog owners how totally weird this seems to Catalan people. Here it is normal for dogs to be outside and any suggestion that it is too cold for her is met by wide eyed disbelief. I might as well be saying she should be given a chair at the table and a knife and fork to eat with! But the problem of her using the patio as a toilet made it easier to convince others that an indoor life would make it easier to know when she needs to be taken out. However, toilet training here is also of the old school variety – accidents happen and then she is made to put her nose in the puddle or pile and then summarily banned outdoors again. I knew it would be a challenge and it is definitely the hardest thing I have battled with since coming here. Last night I looked up web sites on dog training and found a mountain of information in English but very little in Catalan(which I knew would be more convincing than anything written by us softies who treat our dogs like babies!)It is interesting for me to have found my bottom line – most things like eating, speaking, house cleaning, socialising, time keeping, shopping I can happily adapt to and try to accommodate. But I can’t seem to keep my mouth shut when it comes to the lives of dogs.
However, Duna’s life is hugely better than it was before and a million times better than many dogs who live outside all their lives, with little human contact and no opportunities to explore the outside world. Or those who live in apartments in Barcelona who stay at home alone all day until that late evening hour when all the streets are full of dogs and their owners out for a stroll.
Duna has been to the seasideto the Costa Bravato France, on a skiing holiday, for a weekend camping and many times to the mountains and the woods and she is very lovedShe knows how to drink from the ubiquitous drinking fountainsI have to admit too that she is better behaved than my own dogs – she sleeps patiently most of the day, she only barks when the shop opposite opens or closes its shutters and she can be safely left tied to a lamppost while I am shopping without fear than she will bite passing children.

A new way

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For years I have prepared tomatoes for a sauce by pouring boiling water over them and then, after a few minutes, carefully and painstakingly removing the skins and stalks. I have now learnt this new method which is so much easier and quicker and seems to make no difference to the result!Cut a tomato in half then, using a cheese grater, grate the tomato onto a plate until all you have left in your hand is the skin. Add the tomato mush to the pan of onion and oil and whatever else you decided – in this case carrots! Don’t forget the salt. Y Roberto es tu tío!

Safe-keeping

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I am going to Barcelona later today to see friends and dance some tango. Then tomorrow back home to Granollers which is a town about 40 km outside of the capital. (More about this place soon as I want to take a walk with my camera and show some of the beautiful buildings that are here.)
But today I will take the train to ‘the city’ and the buzz.

Last week I did this same journey and when I arrived I went to a cinema, the Alexandra on Rambla de Catalunya to retrieve the clasp I use to keep my hair in order. I lost it on Sunday while watching the film Agorra and was amazed and impressed to find they had kept it for me until Wednesday. Barcelona may be a big city but it hasn’t lost it’s human kindness and honesty.

Rambla de Catalunya has an exhibition of Rodin sculptures at the moment which make it even more of a pleasure than usual to walk along the central pedestrianised pavement. Actually when I first saw them I assumed they were copies but when I was researching it for this blog I found they are actual Rodin sculptures. And they stand there untouched or damaged in the centre of Barcelona.