Bon Nadal

December 18, 2012December 18, 2014 ~ Kate Wilson ~ 4 Comments

Phew! A marathon of card making and writing and posting is almost over.

I send fewer since leaving the UK. People here don’t have this custom and as time passes I don’t get so many from ‘home’.

I enjoy the process and it always feels like a special day remembering friends and family while writing messages. But it is also a moment for thinking about those who have gone – some because they have actually left the planet or others who have just slipped out of my orbit.

I’m getting much better at letting go of those people who never reciprocate. I used to send cards to all my old friends, hoping to keep contact even when they were obviously trying to shake me off. But I am pleased to find I now am much more philosophical – and I can even send them love as I scratch out their names from the list!

And I have finally stopped trying to write little personal notes inside each card. It was all – too much!
Today I sent around 30 cards – there was a time it could be as many as 150! I expect to receive about 15 if I am lucky. Perhaps it wouldn’t be any different even if I was still in Cornwall? Times change.

I went to the Correo at 8pm and found it empty!

Swanned in, got served straight away and it was all done in 5 minutes.

It cost 33euros to send three parcels and those 30 cards. That seems reasonable to me and I like thinking of how nice it is to get a real envelope popping through the letterbox – sending pleasure!

On the way back through town there was a bell tolling and I looked up to see a little chapel that I’d never noticed before.

It is squashed in between two houses.

Santa Esperança is a tiny chapel which was moved from the old medieval walls and re-erected here in the shopping centre

As we get closer to this exciting and powerful solstice I wish everyone lots of hope and send my best wishes for a Happy Christmas and a very wonderful New Year.

Christmas lights

December 9, 2012December 18, 2014 ~ Kate Wilson ~ Leave a comment

The Christmas lights are up in our street.

They start at our house and go all the way into the centre of town

I like them although I know that they probably use up a lot of electricity and, of course anyone anti-xmas will scowl and mutter about waste and hypocrisy.
They make me feel happy when I come out of the house with Bonnie.
I wonder if they will do the usual piped Christmas carols this year blaring out from the lampposts?

It’s hard to believe it is December 10th already. I have done nothing at all to prepare except buy some Turrons to send to the UK and book a cottage at Sant Nicolau to retreat to for the festive week.

I will send out cards even though I know they will arrive late – I haven’t even started making them yet!
It is something I love doing but this year I’ll cut down on numbers – I think after three years here I should begin to accept that there are people who have slipped away out of my life, leaving only memories. It does make me sad but perhaps it is the natural way. I hate losing people and only today was searching yet again on google for three old friends who have ‘disappeared’. No luck though!

What do you think? At what point do you just let go? Can you ever really stop missing old friends who disappear?

My third christmas

December 27, 2011November 16, 2014 ~ Kate Wilson ~ 1 Comment

Christmas has been and gone and I haven’t written anything.
Nothing about the beating of the Tio, nor the traditional Catalan Christmas dinner of Escudella i carn d’olla. I haven’t shown you the Christmas market in Barcelona nor the nativity scene in Plaça St Jaume. No photos of bubbling cava or delicious turrons……nothing! Res! Niente! Nada!
Sorry. I have just been so involved in getting the dogs settled here in their new home and trying to find a rhythm that allows me time for myself between sorties to the plaça with anxious Bonnie, hyperactive Duna or slow Blue or some combination of those three. I haven’t been to Barcelona at all and I didn’t go to beat the Tio and sing ‘El Noi de la Mare’ this year.
But I did finally make it into Granollers centre to look at the Christmas market. It’s not really very exciting compared to the Santa Lucia one in Barcelona but I did take a good look at the figures for the all important nativity scenes and bought a little set for home

I remember unpacking the nativity scene was one of the lovely parts of Christmas in Troon when I was young. We used to set them up inside a toy garage which must have deeply influenced my idea of the stable in Bethlehem.
If you have been following this blog at all you’ll know that Catalunya has a strong tradition of scatalogical customs. the beating of the Tio is to make it shit presents. and in the nativity scenes, the pessebres, there must be somewhere hidden a caganer, a little man with his trousers down shitting in the bushes

I bought one of these for a friend but couldn’t decide on one for our pessebre so for the moment it has only Josep, Maria, Jesus, a donkey, (by the way did you know the donkey or burro has been adopted as a symbol of Catalunya and many cars have a bumper sticker with one on it?) and a cow, una vaca. Oh and an angel of course!

Christmas dinner was lovely this year and I have to say much easier now that I can speak a little more Catalan. I took my own nut roast and ate parts of the typical Catalan dinner.

Of course there was Cava – here’s a glass with icecream mixed in
And a tower of turrons to be carefully demolished like an edible pikastix

The other reason I didn’t write too much was because it’s taken me a bit of time to get settled back in here after all the turmoil of the move and three months in Cornwall where of course I feel totally at ease. I have had some days of feeling like this

but now that the stress of Nadal and Sant Esteve is past I seem to be sniffing the air and, like Blue, finding it full of interesting smells

Christmas Menus

December 22, 2011December 19, 2014 ~ Kate Wilson ~ 4 Comments

On the way down through France I treated myself to a food processor – a Magimix! The old Kenwood Chef died before I left Cornwall after about 20 years of service. So it is time for something new!
I wanted one with a two pin plug so decided to buy it in France and when we stopped off in Cahors I found a kitchen shop and indulged. It felt like a big buy but hopefully I will still be using it in 2021!

Today I made my favourite nut roast to eat on Christmas day.

I have special permission to bring my own food as this is my third Christmas here and the meal in Catalunya is a melange of pork, chicken, beef and sometimes lamb. It is called Escodella i Carn D’Ollo and is thought to be one of the most ancient of Catalan dishes.

It actually creates two courses – the first is a clear soup with large pasta shells and the second is the vegetables and meat that were used to make the soup. I have eaten it in the past (or those parts of it that I could swallow) and it is very interesting but this year I feel the need of something traditional for me. I want to actually enjoy the dinner!
The recipe I like is Sarah Browns Layered Cashew Nut and Parsnip Roast. Usually I use button mushrooms for the middle layer but today we bought some lovely Girgoles in the Thursday market which makes the whole dish feel more exotic

Today I was also doing a roast potato experiment. You need floury ones and here the choice was between White ones and Red ones – not a Maris Piper in sight! The stallholder thought the white ones would be best but the Red ones are the floury ones. So I got both and after parboiling, put them in the oven, hoping that I wouldn’t forget which was which.

They did taste totally different and although all were crunchy on the outside, the red ones definitely had a better consistency inside

Now….can I remember……the yellow ones are the red and the white the white? Or are the yellow the white and the white the red?…..oh dear!
The dinner for Sant Esteve is in our home and the plan is to have a more traditional British Christmas dinner so an ‘ecologic’ chicken has been ordered from the butchers and I will be testing my ability to produce a roast dinner without tears or trauma. Or burnt brussel sprouts and parsnips and wounded pride!

Christmas childrens park

January 9, 2011December 19, 2014 ~ Kate Wilson ~ 1 Comment

Between Christmas and New Year there are various organised activities for children here in Catalunya. I don’t have children so wasn’t part of that world in the UK and I don’t know if it happens there too but the Catalan way is to do it on a very big scale.

The biggest one here was a three day Christmas park – Parc Infantil Nadal or PIN – which took place in the Granollers sports centre.

It is the same place where I went to see Amma but now transformed into a giant playground where you pay a few euros to enter and then can do as much as you want.

It was impossible to photograph but strung across this hall was a high wire – you get attached to a harness at one end and fly across to the other.
Why didn’t I do it? I was a bit scared I suppose but it looked wonderful.
There were areas to learn circus skills of course