I am terribly behind in these posts – every day there is something new I want to write about and yet by the evening I am either tired and lazy or too engrossed in Trollope to download the photos.
So I thought a quick Virtual Vermut could be the answer and I can tell you lots of unrelated bits of news in one post!
For those who don’t know, Virtual Vermut is my name for a post written as I might chat to a friend over a drink in a cafe. It’s a chat, a chance to catch up with life.So, although it is very late on a Sunday or more truthfully very early on a Monday, would you like to join me for a quick vermouth?
There is so much to tell you.
Home Life
As part of a much larger plan to make home life flow better as regards the Resident Adolescent, the three of us went bowling again a week ago. On Wednesday nights there is a special deal where you can play a large number of games for not too much money. The only catch is that the games are for two teams. So with three people it meant two against one and we kept changing the combination so at one point I played against the two males and although I didn’t win, neither did I shame myself.
It was only my third time at a bowling alley and my first time not using the side-guards.
There is something very meditative about bowling and I need to breathe and centre myself before throwing otherwise I make a mess of it. So true for many other things in my life as well!
Sant Nicolau again
The following weekend included a public holiday. Some people here worked through October 12th – Columbus Day – as it is celebrates the Spanish State and the armed forces and so doesn’t have a good feeling in Catalunya. Especially at the moment.
But it is also my friend Tiffany’s birthday so well worth celebrating!
We took the chance to get away and go back to Sant Nicolau to look for mushrooms.
Blue’s statue is looking good and has a lovely solid presence in the garden
The flowers were incredibly vivid in the intense autumn light
There were some edible mushrooms in the woods, as well as a wild boar and a solitary hunting dog with big bloody jowls and a large bell around its neck. But the weather wasn’t really cold enough for a lot of ‘bolets’ although there was a beautiful line of them leading down to where Blue is buried
Back to Granollers and to our relief the house was fairly tidy and clean. Perhaps adolescence really does begin to fade away in the late teens? Or is it to do with the New Deal we have created?
The weather began to cool down and the shops to fill their windows with pumpkins and panellets
Walking
At last we managed to organise a walk with Oreneta in the hills above the Maresme.
We reached a viewing point above Barcelona from where the city looks quite neat and small
Barcelona
Last Monday I went down for the evening to dance tango. Wandering around Gracia before meeting my friend, I thought that if I ever get a flat in the city it should be here.
It feels like Stoke Newington by the Mediterranean.
There were lots of Catalan flags hanging from windows.
Imagine having a Palestinian restaurant nearby!
Milongas finish late so I came home for the first time on the night bus.
There are several that come to Granollers and I caught the 72 which takes 40 minutes from Plaça Tetuan to Granollers bus station. What a peaceful way to travel and it only cost 3.70 euros. It is just as comfortable for sleeping as the train to Passeig de Gracia in which I can rarely keep my eyes open.
There is so much more to tell you but I know you have to get going soon so I’ll finish with a story about cats and dogs that happened today.
More Walking
Montnegre is a mountain range lying behind seaside towns such as St Pol and Arenys de Mar. It is much quieter than the Serralada Litoral where we met Oreneta or the Montseny where we often go to the woods. After parking in St Iscle de Vallalta we followed a path up into the hills, passing a large property called Mas Olles. What the book didn’t warn us about was the pack of dogs that live there. First one barked in the distance, then another and another. One by one they all came thundering over the land towards us. I couldn’t count them – perhaps there were 15 or 18 – all large and all rather excited to see two people and a dog walking by
Luckily there was a stout fence but it’s impossible to know the stoutness of a fence until you have tested it. Once safely past, we discovered we had taken the wrong path so had to go past them again. Of course they had left an early warning party waiting by the fence just in case we did just this. I imagine it has happened before and this is their main enjoyment of the day.
It isn’t a place I would walk past on my own.
Later we found these wild cats on top of a ledge
They looked very well but when winter comes I imagine they have a hard life.
So now good night and thank you for visiting and listening to these odd bits and pieces of life.
Have a good Monday – it is now definitely Monday morning!
