Granollers

Virtual Vermut

~ Kate Wilson ~ 4 Comments

It’s Friday and time to wind down and relax.
Which is what we did. We went to La Garriga to the Balneari for a few hours of swimming and floating and steaming and cleaning. We had invited a friend from Barcelona to come as a birthday present and it was even more special as we had the place to ourselves almost all the time

We were there over two hours and it cost about 30 euros each.
It was my second visit there and next time I must try the other one – Termes de La Garriga. Then there is the Victoria in Caldes,  several in Santa Coloma de Farners and the special one in Puigcerda. If I am ever to write the English guide to Catalan balnearis (mineral bathes) I better start exploring.
If we sat together for a vermut today I would probably show you my photos of the wall near our house
I love the colour of this door. The notice is about the Grua which is the lorry that comes and tows away your car if it is parked in the wrong place. Here they are taking a coffee break near the Toy bar.

It’s easy to be in the wrong place as almost every second door is an entrance to a garage and you can’t park or even stop there. It makes Granollers a nightmare for parking

Also I always hesitate before saying ‘I am sorry’ as the words are too close for my liking. An apology is Em Sap Greu.  Greu and Grua – not so different.  The literal meaning of Grua is a crane. Then there is the word Gual as seen above. What on earth does that mean?

I have been in a cooking phase this week. Is it something to do with the absence of resident adolescent?  It is heart sinking to cook when he is around as he won’t eat anything that isn’t simple meat, pasta, pizza or chips. Somehow it takes the fun out of it. And he hates anything spicy.
So this week I have made
1/ Nut and Vegetable rissoles
2/ Rice Pudding
3/ Mexican Tortillas
4/ Baked salmon with potatoes dauphinoise
5/ Fideua`

This last you do in a paella pan – the sort with little holes in them

I hadn’t made this dish before and it is typically made with seafood and a fish stock. I was experimenting with a vegetarian version and it worked better than expected, especially nice with a little alioli on the side.  And a glass or three of cava.
And now as I am trying to watch Pa Negre on the TV why not drop by Bodhi Chicklet and see if she has dug out her bottle of vermut.  I need to concentrate to understand a film totally in Catalan. It was put forward for the Oscars this week as Spains foreign language film and almost got nominated. Imagine that – and it’s not in Spanish!

Kings

~ Kate Wilson ~ 1 Comment

Today just lots of photos. It is the day before Epiphany – when the Kings arrived to greet Jesus with their gifts. This is a big holiday here and in fact perhaps more happily anticipated than Christmas.  I went out to watch the parade in Granollers and on the way home bought the cake of the Kings.
I started off at the corner of our street

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

saw Gaspar

Melchor

and Balthazar

on their tractor driven floats.
Got pelted with sweets from the lorry with all the pages

almost was trampled by the people fighting over said sweets

(some people brought umbrellas to catch as many as possible)

and then finally we ate the cake after supper

This year I found the little figure of the king hidden inside.
This means I am King for the day.
If I had found the little bean it would have meant paying for the cake
But what does Kings mean?  Kings means presents!!!!!

The Resident Adolescent got a new snowboard and boots.

I got a brand new CD by Anna Roig with this wonderful track which translated means  ‘I will draw a moustache with a red pen on the photo we took in Paris’.  It’s in Catalan by the way – not Spanish!

 

~ Kate Wilson ~ 1 Comment

Walking three dogs is a bit like painting the Forth Road Bridge. No sooner have you finished than you have to start again. I am experimenting with taking a longer walk in the morning with the two agile ones while Blue sleeps at home after her shorter trip to the square. Hoping to gain some time for myself after lunch

As I said yesterday Granollers is spread along the banks of the Congost – not a great rushing river but a good enough stream of water to have ducks and today – a heron

You can walk upriver – away from Barcelona and towards La Garriga – then cross the bridge and come back down on the other side. Today we went via what we call the New Park which we have been visiting since it was under construction. It is still mostly doggy people who know about it and those mystery rubbish dumpers haven’t yet started to do their worst.
Further upstream we crossed over to return on the road side which is much used by runners and cyclists and has signs marking the kilometers and strange contraptions for exercising along the way

I saw a charm of goldfinches.

A lone duck sitting on an island in the stream.

And a little bit further away a grey heron balancing on one leg in the shallows.
There are some new cultivated parts.

People seem to claim a little patch and then clean it up and plant vegetables

These hortas suddenly appear, seemingly without effort as I have never seen anyone doing anything more strenuous than a casual sweep around of leaves. I’m sure these allotments are not official but they are tolerated and create a lovely garden feel to this industrial landscape.
We also bumped into Lolita and her owner – he also has an horta with chickens and ducks. My first border collie friend in Granollers was walking free and came over to see me – then her master too arrived to ask in Spanish how I am getting on. Bonnie and Lolita greeted each other with a collie kiss. It’s really all very lovely down there by the river.
I always wish I had taken binoculars and that I could find a bird expert here to help me identify all the birds I see.  I have the feeling there are lots of species living in this long snakey un-peopled belt of water and greenery, so close to industry and commerce but a little world of its own.

Up to the Tower

~ Kate Wilson ~ 1 Comment

Granollers is a long town built along the banks of the Congost River and surrounded by hills. When you go up to the tower behind the hospital you can see the shape of it, and how although it feels very built up and in parts industrial, it does have edges and there are natural spaces all around

It’s so very different from walking the dogs along the coast path in Cornwall but the high land with the tower is beautiful in its way and one good thing about dog company is that they don’t complain, they just get on with enjoying what is there. So long as there are smells and they can run free, they are happy.  They even call a truce and investigate the same paths and bushes.

There are lots of olive trees up here – old ones with thick gnarly trunks.

Unfortunately there is also the inevitable rubbish which you find everywhere here unless you are far far away from ‘civilisation’

I wonder who are the people who take the trouble to carry televisions and cupboards and lumps of concrete up a hill to dump it under a tree?  Catalan people?  Andalucian people? Moroccan people?  Old people? Young people?  Men?  Women?  Who are these people and why do they ignore the council dump which is conveniently situated at the bottom of this hill?  It makes me sad but also curious. Anyone have any ideas?

I don’t want to finish on that image so here is another. It’s in Montseny the mountain I can see in the distance from Granollers and where I am hoping to take the dogs soon for a winter ramble in the sunshine

Granollers today

~ Kate Wilson ~ 2 Comments

Every day there is high humidity and often………a downpour.
Today the rain turned to hailstones and the rain was so fierce it came in through various holes in the roof! And through the door to the terrace which I had left open! There were little pebbles of ice on the carpet.
Is this summer?  I often have to remind myself which month we are in – can it really be July, the time when normally I am seeking out shade and rejecting most of my clothes as they are too hot for comfort. This evening I was thinking I needed a jacket for sitting in the Jijonera to drink an orxata.

I am feeling better after yesterdays outpouring.
Women Who Walk with Wolves also reminded me that for creative energy to mature and grow there must be times when we take on the inner assassin and face those dark questions about who we are and what we are doing.

(I notice here that the book is actually called Women Who RUN with Wolves. How typical of me that I slowed it down a pace!)
The assassin, the predator within us, is that voice which tells us we are no good and periodically it tries to knock us down and destroy what we are making. Then is the time to gather strength, take a breath and fight back.

Today in Granollers I went shopping.  Against a terrible fatigue of body and spirit I walked down to the centre of town and tried on shoes. It is the time of the July sales – called Rebaixes in Catalan. Pronounced  ‘rebashes’
I don’t know what this sign means – how can a sale be %?

While in one shop looking at bags I heard a big kerfuffle in the shop next door – Pull and Bear. A large group of people gathered to enjoy the show. Everyone started to talk and shout and smile – it was like we were waking up from our shopping dream.

After a lot of noise and yelling,  two women came out with pushchairs, arguing with the security guard and eventually walked away up the road. Then someone saw the Mossos (police) arriving from the other end of town. A shout went up – Here, Here, Quickly, Quickly!
The crowd, which now was acting as one, pointed in the direction of the women and the police ran past – three, four, five of them. Later I saw the security guard return with some tee shirts in his hand and also the girls talking with the police in a discreet alleyway.  What was incredible was the crowd energy for the chase – wow, I wouldn’t like to have those people after me. A few moments before they had been barely alive.

Well, that’s enough excitement for today!  A storm and a robbery and two new pairs of shoes.
No bag –  though – look at the price!