Bonnie

Back in Sant Nicolau

~ Kate Wilson ~ 3 Comments

I am back in Sant Nicolau.
It’s a wonderful feeling to drive up the AP7 and see the mountains in the distance, getting closer, until at last you see Mare de Deu del Mont and seemingly beside it, but actually much farther away, the peaks of Canigo, covered in snow even though it is April.

Then the drive down the bumpy sandy lane, through the woods until the sanctuary of Sant Nicolau comes into view.  Getting out of the van there is a smell of pine and herbs and a cuckoo is calling.
Dogs come out to greet you first. Bob is a deeply satisfying mountain of a dog with gentle eyes and large strong paws which he folds one over the other when he is lying down. Lucy is steady and solid and calm. And at the moment there is another guardian of the house – Nero is waiting to be rehomed in Germany and is having the best time of his life so far, chasing balls in the garden here.
Bonnie made an instant friend. They have a shared love of chasing balls

We arrived and settled in and just as I felt myself start to relax completely, Bonnie got sick. She’d been off her food and slightly peaky for days but that first night she began vomiting and was getting very thirsty and troubled.
So off to the vet the next day who diagnosed gastroenteritis – an inflammation of the whole digestive system. We went to the Canis vets in Figueres who were wonderful and calming for my anxious nerves. I hate it when an animal is sick and with Bonnie I am especially good at worrying and catastrophising. It is almost a year since Blue died here and I want to believe that Bonnie is still  young and strong but she will be 11 in June!
Several injections and a few pills later she began to perk up and we drove to the sea to cook up some white rice and chicken for her invalid lunch in the van. She was very hungry – it had been three days since she had a proper meal.
We stopped at Roses, parked beside a little sandy beach and went for a walk along the rocks

It was lovely but oh dear, look at that hill covered in houses and flats. They are so tightly packed in together that you feel dizzy looking at them. However often I see the  coast-line developments here, I can’t stop myself asking “How could they do that to such a beautiful place?”  I actually feel it was criminal. Money and greed must have been the motivation and the extreme beauty of the beach and the sea only makes the ugliness of the buildings more painful.
However, it was a great day. The sun was shining and Bonnie got stronger and happier by the minute.
The sea was a little too cold even for me to swim in but the sun is shining and the birds are singing lustily at the Mas.   Cuckoo  cuckoo cuckoo cuckoo cuck!

Virtual Vermut

~ Kate Wilson ~ 2 Comments

I’ve needed a few actual vermuts this week.

It was the sort of week you dread in advance and then when it’s taken step by step – poc a poc – it isn’t so bad.  But I was feeling a bit on the edge – easily irritable – could it be the Spring?  That seems to be the explanation for most things at the moment.

We got our potatoes in at last.

For the first time I have planted some in sacks on the terrace and the rest of them are in four rows in a large allotment in Llica D’Amunt.

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee
And live alone in the bee loud glade

Marc, the owner, has lots of vegetables growing there down by the river Tenis, with a chicken run and cherry blossom trees. Bonnie had to be stopped from digging holes – she seems to have forgotten how to behave on a vegetable patch or perhaps she was just over-excited

In 90 days we should be eating our own Charlottes and Pentland Javelins.

Early one morning Bonnie was unusually restless and something in her little plaintive whines made me decide to get up and actually take her out rather than just open the door to the terrace.  It was 6am. She led me rapidly through the empty streets, down to the New Park

A dog with a mission. Once there she found some grass and began to munch. It was fascinating how she chose which bits to eat and which to reject. Pure instinct

If we were sitting down now to share a drink I might tell you stories about the family party we had at the weekend. We had planned a barbecue on the terrace and even though it was cloudy and threatening rain, we went ahead. It wasn’t cold – just a little breezy. But so lovely to be outside. Somewhere along the line we had forgotten that not everyone likes to sit outside on a cloudy day in early Spring. There were lots of complaints. And I drank lots more vermuts to keep myself smiling!
These are calçots!

The celebration?  Funnily enough this year both father and son have significant birthdays.
The resident adolescent is now officially an adult.
We are watching closely for signs of the change.
I made three cakes – two of them were disasters as the sponges rose very high in the oven and promptly collapsed on coming out. For the third I gave up the idea of cake and instead made chocolate brownies at the last minute.  In the fridge were chocolate candles given to the boy by a friend – one 1 and one 8. Unfortunately by the day of the party he had nibbled off half of the 8 and so we had a cake for a 13year old!

The birds are beginning to pair up.  I’m looking out for swallows.
People are starting to talk about Spring!  And when they say “La Primavera” they say it with a twinkle in the eye. It means much more here than sprouting potatoes and budding trees

Bonnie met her friend Azlan in the park -it’s good to see her so happy.

There is certainly something in the air. something explosive and strong. For me it meant having to hold my tongue on several occasions when I felt frustrated.  I need to be out of the city – somewhere  I can ‘live in the bee loud glade’. Perhaps not alone but certainly away from the constant presence of computers games and crisp packets, disinterested shop assistants, piles of rubbish on the ground and shops full of bored unfriendly people buying more clothes.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings
There midnight’s all a glimmer and noon a purple glow
And evening’s full of the linnets wings

Daily Rumi

~ Kate Wilson ~ 3 Comments

I can’t stop taking pictures of the blossom. I love this time of year

And Bonnie is always my favourite model – she attracts a lot of attention as we walk through town. It’s such a pity she doesn’t like strangers touching her.
Almost every day someone passes by saying ‘Que guapa!’  And they don’t mean me.

I have a new thing on my mobile phone called Daily Rumi. Quotes from Rumi are a lovely way to start or end the day. Here is the one I just read:
“It is love that holds everything together, and it is the everything also”

Happy Spring to you all!

Dog friendship

~ Kate Wilson ~ 1 Comment

Since Duna went to her new forever home in Norfolk, Bonnie has been blossoming in confidence. She has always been a nervy dog and not used to lots of people or noise or traffic. But every day she gets more comfortable with city life here in Granollers. The route through the narrow streets that takes us down to the river is now very familiar and she knows every crossing and corner. When we arrive down at what we call the New Park she is running around as soon as she comes off the lead.

Because she had months of anxiety here when Duna was attacking her in fits of jealousy, Bonnie totally lost trust in other dogs and when we met one in the park she would take a wide circle to avoid them. Azlan the black and white collie was the first who managed to play with her and make friends.
But look at her here with her friend Grace in Cornwall!  She is a friendly dog at heart.

But I noticed yesterday that she has relaxed a whole lot more because when a large brown dog came bounding over, Bonnie stayed put, only stretching out her nose to say hello.

Their subsequent conversation went something like this:

Brown Dog       ‘Hi there, you’re new, can I sniff your bottom?’
Bonnie              ‘OK…… I don’t know why you lot always want to do that’
Brown Dog       ‘Mmmmmmm‘
Bonnie              ‘That’s enough now – I’m going to have a pee’
Brown Dog       ‘ Me too!’
Bonnie              ‘Hey this patch of grass smells interesting?’
Brown Dog       ‘OH YES!! I like that. Just let me pee on it’
Bonnie               ‘Me too’
Brown Dog        “I’ll have to do another now. Can I sniff you again?
Bonnie               ‘No, that’s enough – leave me alone’
Brown Dog        ‘Are you sure?’
Bonnie               ‘Bugger off I told you!’
Brown Dog        ‘Bye then!’

And so we walked on.

Taking your dog to live abroad

~ Kate Wilson ~ 3 Comments

I took Bonnie for our normal walk this morning. We don’t always go to the same place but 4 or 5 times a week we go to the Park by the river.
First we crossed over the little square Jacint Verdaguer where there are nice large beds of sand around the tree trunks, used by many dogs as their local toilet.
(Just in case you are not a dog person and are beginning to breathe rapidly and get all worked up about dog shit, I will add now that although some people do not ‘pick up’ the vast majority do, including me!)
There is a colony of pigeons that live in the trees that circle the fountain and today, like most days, they were eating some food left by a neighbour

We went along narrow streets until we arrived at the green space near the river.
I wondered where the swallows are now – of course it is far too early for them to arrive but when they do, this is the place I watch them flying and feeding.

There is a lot of human rubbish all around this zone and I have to defocus otherwise I would be walking every day in a steaming tizzy.
I have a plan to work one day a month clearing up this path – it doesn’t look too bad here – but it is!

I’ve got the bags and just need to contact the council to ask them where I can leave them when they are full. I am attracted to the idea of being ‘that crazy British woman who picks up rubbish’

We passed the vegetable plots and the wild and chaotic yard where Lola the Border Collie lives. She wasn’t there today so we couldn’t do our normal greeting from afar – HOLA GUAPAAAAA!  QUE TAL?  WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF in response.

People do stare at me – I have a secret exhibitionist trying to get out, I think.

We said hello to the little dog who lives on a balcony in one of the flats that look out over the river. Many people here have dogs that spend their days on the balconies, barking at every passing dog. I feel sorry for them but try to cope with it by shouting hello when we pass.

In the park there are always lots of dog walkers and this is one of our favourite places. I don’t usually throw balls and Bonnie just gets on with her newly discovered addiction to sniffing around on the path. She never used to do this in Cornwall – she was too busy running and playing with friends and balls. But now she seems very happy with her head down, checking out who has passed by and whatever other secret messages dogs leave in their pee trails.

This all set me thinking about how we both have adapted to our new environment. We lived in a beautiful paradise in Cornwall, beaches, fields, woods, peace and fresh air. Now we live in a polluted and noisy industrial city, surrounded by rubbish and graffiti, with few green areas to walk in unless we go further afield

But we both seem to have learned to get on with enjoying life. I look at the flowers and the birds and enjoy the view of the distant mountains. She gets very excited by all the new and strange smells and obviously loves the way every day brings more news from the doggy world

This is the funny face  she makes when she is sniffing for scents – her mouth hangs open slightly

At least once a week we can go to the beach or the hills and get more into wild nature.  We have the Pyranees and the Mediterranean on our doorstep.  Granollers is not our perfect dream place to live but in general it is fine.  I worried about all this before bringing Bonnie to live here but like all dogs she lives in the present moment and I don’t think she spends any time dreaming of Cornwall and our past life. She also adores Pep and so long as we are all together and there are new things to explore, she is happy.  Me too!