Author: Kate Wilson

Walking from Granollers to Milpins

~ Kate Wilson ~ 5 Comments

We have often gone with the dogs to Milpins – a park with woods not too far from Granollers. We always drove there but today I wanted to see how long it takes to walk all the way.
The great thing about Granollers is how quickly you are out in the countryside

In spite of the industry and the pollution here, there is another side to Granollers which sometimes pokes out from under the concrete and tarmac. This hidden side is like a ghost of times past, it is country rather than town, it is quiet with birds flying past and only a brush of wind through the leaves breaking the silence

 One moment you are walking alongside a busy dual carriageway and then you dip under a bridge and there is a stream, wild flowers by the roadside and the noisy road has turned into a dusty track.
This is what happens when you walk to Milpins via Corro´ D’Avall.
Even the people I met were from another world.  They were page`s – country people.  I had to ask the way twice and they were friendly and open in a very different way from people in the town.
At the water fountain Bonnie managed for the first time to drink directly – a great step forward.

Milpins means a thousand pines

But in the woods there are also native deciduous trees and the oaks – roure – were laden with acorns

Coming back we took a different route through Les Franqueses. Some interesting buildings amidst the new blocks
And at the roundabout near our home there are great fat olive trees looking healthy but slightly out of place in such an urban landscape

Oh and today I saw a group of swallows – still here!

A Day in Barcelona

~ Kate Wilson ~ 7 Comments

Today I went up (down?) to Barcelona.
My intention was to go and dance some tango at Tangoneta but somehow once I got there, it felt nicer to just wander around and soak in some city energy.
At Plaça Catalunya suddenly the wind got up and autumn arrived

One moment it was a pleasant late summers day and the next we were shivering and fighting against buffeting gusts.
After a good while poking around the sports clothes in Decathlon I emerged to find it was now also raining. But the light around the cathedral was beautiful.

As always, everyone else seemed to have an umbrella.  I never do!
Like a needle to a magnet I was drawn to my favourite streets in the Gotic area

Everything is like a film set or a story.
Coffee and cake and a bit of Trollope. Then a quick visit to ‘my’ church Sant Just de Pastor. It’s always a good place to sit for a while and tune in. Thank god for city churches – you don’t have to be Christian, or to pay anything, or to explain yourself or pretend. You can just go in and be.

Then I set off on the journey back home. I usually walk from the Gotic back to Passeig de Gracia because the journey on the metro, although it looks direct, involves a lot of tramping down long corridors.  But as it was chilly I went down at Jaume I to catch a train. The link from the yellow line to the Renfe platforms is a full scale hike – up hill and down dale.

And now it is even worse as there are works at Passeig de Gracia so you have to emerge and change stations to catch a train to Granollers

 Underground there are still lots of independent and more original cafes along the way

I’m sorry this is rather a boring post. It’s been hard recently, since my brothers death in fact, to write anything at all. There is a lot going on inside me but not much of it communicable. And there is always the sense of ‘what’s the point?’ ‘what do I do this for?’  and ‘who is it for?’

But let me finish with this photo of a happy dog sleeping on the beach yesterday, when it was still summer and the sun was warm.

Independence and other things to do

~ Kate Wilson ~ 1 Comment

I want to write about Catalunya and independence but I keep getting distracted.

Perhaps it is because I don’t feel I know enough yet.  I listen and strain to understand the news in Catalan, I hear conversations around the table and try to get a better grip on what people are thinking and saying. I buy newspapers and spend an hour or two slowly translating for myself and hoping I am not missing something important.

There are lots of flags still hanging from windows and so far, everyone I have spoken to is pro independence.  Almost everyone went on the demonstration in Barcelona on September 11th.
People are talking about it.

It feels like an exciting and important time and I will write about it – soon!
I wish my language skills were better – it’s so frustrating to know there is something going on and yet not be able to really really understand the details.

Meanwhile ….life continues in Granollers.
Today I went to the dentist – a visit to the hygienist cost 20 euros.

The sun shone on the Porxada and some people were still wearing shorts

I unpacked some more sculpture tools and created some stone dust

Ah the smell of wax crayons! I always have to bury my head in them and breath in.

Catalan Radio

~ Kate Wilson ~ 2 Comments

Walking Bonnie this morning I listened to a podcast of a Catalan radio station El Millor de Casa.
It helps to improve my comprehension especially when they speak fast and I don’t have to smile and pretend to understand as I do in real conversations.

Today starts the huge Barcelona festival The Merce. On the programme they were interviewing people who are involved in one part of the festival, a celebration of music and culture from Asia. It was interesting listening to the interplay of languages. The interviewer was speaking Catalan of course.  One of the guests started off in Catalan but gradually words from Castellano intruded and after a few minutes she totally gave up any attempt at Catalan. The interviewer continued in Catalan, without missing a stroke and clearly she understood all he said.
Then another guest began to speak, he spoke Catalan fluently and this encouraged the Asian woman to try again, her sentences became 50/50 and stayed that way till the end. It also became clear that  Castellano was also not her first language. She said she had been studying it at the Official School of Idiomas in Barcelona.
The way she spoke was pretty near perfect for me – bits and pieces of Catalan and Castellano, an ease of switching and perhaps an underlay of English. I understood her every word.  I thought how brave of her to go on the radio to speak in public. Also I felt pleased that I am now able to track the changes between the two languages.

But as always the most striking thing for me is how language here is such a complex thing. Catalan is the language of the nation but because everyone also speaks Castellano there is a possibility of switching, between people, between sentences, between words.
And it all happens without breaking the flow.  It creates more and more layers in every conversation.