tower

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

Unto the Hills I Lift Mine Eyes

~ Kate Wilson ~ 5 Comments

When you go up to the Torre on the hill above Granollers you can really see how the town lies in a valley surrounded by mountains. It is a wonderful view and all the high flats, the industrial buildings, the ugly corners become insignificant as your eye is drawn to the outlines of the hills and the expanse of sky.

The torre is old – officially 14th century but some believe it is much older perhaps dating back to the Romans. It is derelict and the council have erected a pathetic little fence around it to ‘stop’ you going in. At some point they have made an attempt to strengthen the walls with some modern bricks. But they have never accepted their responsibility to preserve and protect this ancient monument. Perhaps that is for the best as so often preservation turns into domination and control

The part of the vaulted ceiling that remains is beautiful.  A work of art. The Torre was probably part of a network of towers used for communication from one settlement to the next. Some researchers believe that light signals were used to pass messages across the countryside.
You can see why it was built here as you have an all round view

 

 

 

 

In one direction lies Granollers and the spreading urban world. Turn around and you can see little vegetable plots and olive trees. Turn further and there is another expanse of green field behind which is another industrial estate. But for now it is hidden, invisible and doesn’t exist.
Only the swifts and the poppies and the sky and the hills

And the sunset