Animals

Dogs and cats and all other four legged creatures feature here

Today in the Market

~ Kate Wilson ~ 3 Comments

Today in the market I saw this man

What is in his hand?
They are bird cages – many people not only have caged birds here but sometimes carry them around with them. Some of the market stalls have their birds behind the table, just as you might have your dog.
Walking around the streets I have been noticing recently the increase in bird song – unfortunately much of it is coming from the balconies where the cages are hung.
They have competitions too – for the best singing bird.

There is also a plaça where they have all the chickens and ducks for sale. I always have to scurry across there to get to the fruit market. Today the quacking almost reduced me to tears but it’s one of those things I won’t allow myself to avoid although I hate it.
The dark corners of these photos are due to my camera lense not always opening fully after it’s unexpected encounter with the kitchen floor. I quite like the effect here. But will try to remember to open it by hand in future.

Dogs in the bedroom?

~ Kate Wilson ~ 4 Comments

It is winter and I have lived here in Granollers for 12 months. One of the big changes of the past year has happened in the life of Duna.

I wrote here about how dogs have different lives in Catalunya.
Now less so.
Here she is getting ready for bed!   This is our bedroom.

Here is another of her beds.  This is the resident adolescent’s bedroom.

Please note
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Is there anything you miss?

~ Kate Wilson ~ 7 Comments

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.

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?

Dogs Dogs Dogs

~ Kate Wilson ~ Leave a comment

 

Seems a while since Duna made an appearance here. I have been collecting photos of dog related street signs for a while so perhaps now is a good time to show some of them.
General theme – dogs must be kept on leads and you must clean up after themThere are various ways of reminding us It seems most people here do it – I hardly every see any dog shit on the streets. And some of the town squares have boxes dispensing little plastic bags in case you get caught short!

Living in a town mean Duna often comes along when I go shopping and it’s so nice when the shops provide an easy place to leave herOne thing I very much appreciate here is that you can take your dog onto the beach in spite of signs saying you can’t. Unlike in the UK where someone officious and red faced would come over and start haranguing you about The Law, people here are more tolerant so long as you don’t let the dog annoy them or, of course, leave little piles around in the sand.
Here is Duna doing no harm, not spreading germs or attacking anyone, just enjoying St Pol
And I don’t want my British dogs to be left out so here they are, living their very different country life in Cornwall while we wait for a home with a garden here in Catalunya