Everything about things to eat and drink. Recipes and restaurants and cafes too.
And made this
Such comfort food for a December day as we approach the solstice.
First go to a cafe and relax with a drink, a plate of almonds, a notebook of vocabulary to memorize and an ipod.
Yes I am also having a cigarette (still also possible inside cafes here until after Christmas)
And what was I listening to? A podcast of Thinking Aloud which, I know, doesn’t fit in well with my intention to immerse myself in non-english but I need to relax sometimes.
Second, wander through the streets and look at the variety of interesting buildings- not only Gaudi.
Third – go to another cafe – this one Granja M Viader is the oldest granja (milk bar) in Barcelona – and enjoy a drink of hot chocolate with melindros (large sponge fingers). Thanks to Marta for introducing me to a new place.
That must be more than 3 nice things- more like 100!
At busy times it seems I move like a butterfly landing on first one flower and then moving to another. It makes it hard to write about my life in little chapters as if I am experiencing things in a very structured way. But the last two weeks have been dominated by the rhythm of the summer school so each day has started with four hours of artistic activity in one way or another and then the afternoons and evenings have provided different variations on the theme of relaxation.
Acrobatics
Clay
Cave art
Back stage
Performance
The cave dwellers
At the beach Duna waits patiently
Swimming with my friend from school days in Troon – the water is bliss
Family party with barretines i mantellines
Butifares – negra, blanca i d’ou ( sausage – black, white and eggy)
Fuet, tomàquet per sucar pa, vi i síndria ( raw pork sausage, tomato for soaking bread, wine and water melon)
Day trip to Barcelona – Orxata cafe 
Mountain swimming pool in Montseny – Xof!!!!
So, after a rather long gap I have at last found time to write the next post.
I think about this blog a lot and gather information and photos but then sometimes it is hard to get started – what to include? what to leave out? How to write about my life here while steering away from the ‘too personal’ which involves other people? Too many questions can stop you from just getting on with it! 
It was my birthday and we went away in my van for the first time here in Catalunya. I drove late at night to the Delta de L’Ebre which is near Tarragona and about 200 km from here. The Romans named this river the Iber and this maybe where the term Iberian Peninsula came from. Being behind the wheel made me nervous – after more than 35 years of driving in the UK and in France I suddenly felt like a beginner again. I couldn’t understand why. Yes it meant keeping to the right and also sitting on the right so visibility was a bit restricted but…..could it be that after 10 months of being a passenger I had lost confidence? There is something here that feels different – perhaps it is the speed and the sheer amount of traffic on the roads.
We arrived well after dark and I felt rather than saw the surrounding waters. I crept along. In the morning this is what I saw….
and this……
The Delta is one of the most important wetlands in Europe and is a vast water-land which is now both a protected haven for thousands of birds and an agricultural centre for growing rice. The narrow roads lead from one little settlement to the next and are only slightly raised above the paddy fields. Houses sit out on watery fields
and the intensive work of rice production means there are complex irrigation systems to fill up and empty the fields as the season requires.
Like so many mirrors the fields reflect light and colour
We spent hours on the long empty sandy beaches creating sculptures from the wood that had been washed up and stripped clean by the sun the sea and the wind
The van sheltered us from the strong winds that blow in this region and we parked beside the water with only ducks and stars and a new moon for company.
That night in the very far away distance we could hear horns tooting and bangers exploding when Barca won the Spanish League cup and although we listened on the radio to the celebrations they all felt like sounds from another planet. Here only peace and sunshine, wind and open skies, birds and sand. 
And delicious rice!
It is very seasonal and during the time when it is available people organise special events to eat them. These parties are called Calçotades and are usually organised to take place in the open air with a barbeque and a lot of friends. As this happens in the early Spring it coincides with a celebration of the warmer weather and thoughts of the summer to come.
Best cooked on a fire the calçots are then wrapped in newspaper and distributed around the party to be stripped of their outer leaves
dipped in a special sauce
and then eaten in one long delicious mouthful straight from your hand
The sauce is called salvitxada and is made from almonds, tomatoes, garlic, peppers, vinegar and oil.
In case you can’t read Catalan here is my version of the recipe but it loses something in translation. If you click on the photo it will be large enough to read.
We only fire-branded half of the pudding as for some reason that I still can’t understand some of the women present prefered to eat it without the extra sugar layer!
I look forward to a happy relationship between the two of them!
