walking

La Molina

~ Kate Wilson ~ 1 Comment

We took the train from Canovelles Granollers Nord on Saturday, risking snow and freezing temperatures to go to the mountains to look for mushrooms.
Ah the mushroom hunt!  It always takes place in wooded areas and you can’t walk along the main pathes but must bend and twist under branches and through thickets.
All very slowly!
For me it is an act of love to go along as I want to walk fast and forward, especially when it is so cold.  I don’t think I am a natural mushroom hunter and I am not crazy about eating them either.
But the colours were lovely

 The area around La Molina where we got off the train was almost deserted

 Except for fierce looking cows with large horns which would appear as if from nowhere to scare us

 The town itself is hardly a village and almost all the houses were shuttered up as it’s not skiiing season yet. I suppose this is what a resort looks like in the low/dead season

 There were three lonely cafes open and when we went into the one by the station we were the only customers.  When we came back to catch the train home the temperature had dropped radically and the station was as totally empty as the town. For about 20 minutes I considered the prospect of being marooned there – freezing to death without even a hotel or a taxi to save us.  But the train arrived and we were warm at last and Bonnie slept all the way back.
Bonnie had a lovely day and we found many mushrooms, some of which we ate on getting back home…..and survived.

And there was a Dolmen -always a nice reminder of Cornwall.   Next post will be more on the mushroom theme but here are some crocus I found on the way – such a surprise!

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!