Congost

Nature Notes

~ Kate Wilson ~ 2 Comments

So, I am back in Granollers and as I am finding it hard to feel settled and that is not an easy thing to write about, I decided to post some words about what is going on in the natural world.
Pathways
I am out walking Bonnie every day and as we meander along the paths which are edged with plastic bottles and beer cans and strange fluffy red sponge things, (it makes a change from the brambles and honeysuckle we were forced to endure in Lamorna), I try to find some way of encouraging my roots to sink down into the dusty earth.
Birds
It’s always good to watch the birds.
Amazingly the swifts are still here. Not so many, not so often seen but as of yesterday there was a crowd of them shrieking above the city.
By the river which is very low after a long and unusually hot summer, I saw a bird with a large yellow patch on its tail. I can’t identify it. I didn’t see it for long enough to describe it better. I looked  at images on Google and found one almost identical but it too had evaded identification and was only named ‘Bird with yellow marking on tail’ .
It was lovely though.
The heron is still feeding on the river in spite of the mass of floating plastic bags and we also saw fish – quite large ones – swimming near the bridge
Weather
At 6pm this evening the temperature was 24C. The last two days have been cloudy which has meant Bonnie and I could walk in the morning without having to get up at some unearthly hour to avoid the sun. It doesn’t really feel like Summer but neither is it Autumn yet.
The Streets
The trees have blossom in the streets around our home. Yet again I must confess to not knowing what sort of trees they are. The flowers are pink and large and plentiful. I have realised one tree near the house is a pear tree as it suddenly dropped lots of fruit on the pavement. Or was it someone with a broken bag coming home from the market?
The River
The most wonderful thing about the river just now is the field of yellow flowers on tall green stems. What on earth are they?  Surely not Jerusalem artichokes but they remind me of that kind of wild abundance.

Well, that is today’s nature diary.  I am ashamed of how much I don’t know the names of what I see. That somehow reflects my general feeling of ignorance at the moment. In answer to almost any question I feel the most honest reply is ‘I don’t know’

 

Wild Flowers of the Congost

~ Kate Wilson ~ 3 Comments

Here are some pictures of the walk I took with Bonnie last week.
We went all the way from home to the Vienna Cafe and back.
Past the church at Palou. It strikes every quarter hour and reminds you of the Catalan way of telling the time – un quart, dos quarts, tres quarts meaning quarter past, half past and quarter to. In the days before clocks and watches people always knew the time by hearing how often the bell rang.
Of course it helped if you had a vague idea of which hour it was too.

The whole walk was about 11 km, most of it along the side of the River Congost.
The flowers are incredible at the moment.
I wish I knew their names – I know the little blue one is Borage of course!

After four hours of walking we were very relaxed and began to see pictures and patterns in everything around us. I love that state of mind. It’s the first stirrings of creativity I’ve had for months.

~ 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.