In progress

 Not finished with this yet. A kind of work in progress :

 

 

one of those free feelings

the whole smell of the

desk—empty unhurried

space—old varnish

ole

a walk a day back

exposed a big foam rubber

mattress—one

torn corner half gone

a giant something

breakfast toast

if you’ve ever

slept rough

any kind of weather

Cedar

 close up of the trunk of an old cedar tree 

in the cloister of Pedralbes monastery, Barccelona

 

 

Cumulus

 

Cumulus

 

Or stratocumulus I can’t …

The way they seem just

To hang there unmoving

 

White and gray in a bright blue sky

 

Then the distant mountains bluish

The fields a shift of green then

Autumnal yellows toned oranges

Move your gaze back up

Life's renewals

 From a photo taken some years ago in Viladrau

 

Pyrenees photos revisited

 Two photos from the Vall Fosca region of the Pallars Jussà comarca

The trail from Gento Lake and Erica growing on the mountainside

Nuria Valley

 Seeking cooler weather and a change of scene .... The photos show a growth of foxglove along one of the streams near the hotel and (2) spring water coming out of the mountain area.

Barcelona Poetry Week 2022

 Lots of poetic activities scheduled for Barcelona's 2022 event. Below is a link that sets out schedules and other information in Catalan and Spanish. Exploration is the word, however, and the website is very well set up.

https://www.barcelona.cat/barcelonapoesia/

April 12, 2022

 The Mediterranean Sea, from Vilanova i la Geltrú ....

In celebration of World Poetry Day 2022

 I first posted the poem below, a translation, to celebrate Barcelona's Poetry Week 2018. The original is Joan Timoneda's "Só qui só, from the version sung by Raimon. As will be obvious it's a love poem/song. It can be found on YouTube among other places. Wikipedia has information about Timoneda (~1518-1583) but as far as I can see only in Catalan and Spanish, although it should be easy enough to get that translated. So Happy Poetry Day---taking poetry in the ample sense of creative activity! The poem and translation:

Só qui só

Só qui só, que no só io,

Puix mudat d’amor me só.

Io crec cert que res no sia,

o, si só, só fantasia,

o algun home que somia

que ve alcançar algun do,

puix mudat d’amor me só.

Só del tot transfigurat;

só aquell que era llibertat,

i ara d’amors cativat

me veig molt fora raó,

puix mudat d’amor me só.

Sí só, puix que en lo món vixc

i a mi mateix avorrixc,

i segons que discernixc

veig la qui em dóna passió

puix d’amor mudat me só.

                                                                                          Joan Timoneda, 1556

My translation (version 1):

I am who I am

I am who I am, I am not I,

for by love changed am I.

I well believe that nothing is,

and, if I am, I’m fantasy,

or some man who dreams

he may attain some gift,

for by love I’m changed.

I am fully transfigured;

I am who was freedom,

and now by loves made captive

I see myself gone mad,

for by love am I changed.

Yet I am, for in the world I do live

And do weary even myself,

and by my discerning

do see her who fires my passion

for by love changed am I.

New shoes

 

Planning rural trips again. The weather is still cold but for the most part the days are sunny. And the pandemic seems to be diminishing just now. So maybe it’s time to go out and hike to keep warm. In any case I’ve bought a new pair of hiking shoes in hopes of doing some trail walking soon. Meanwhile preparing a text on Virginia Woolf for publication.

Notes

 Not every journey is downhill........  A view of one of the entrances to Antoni Gaudí's beautiful Parc Güell. Not a bad place for inspiration, like many parks. And then, it occurs, sometimes going downhill is more strenuous than going up.

De Luge Journal

 Much thanks to De Luge Journal for publishing one of my recent poems in the Winter 2021/22 Issue.

I admire DLJ's project and feel sure others will as well. So please look in and consider contributing to future numbers. The url:

https://www.delugejournal.com/index.html

The harsh times we live in these days make imaginative dreaming a big plus, it seems to me. The way to better times in more ways than one.......

Winter River

 A view of the River Sègre in Lleida, from 2019, as December of that year closed. With luck and the continued global fight against Covid-19 we'll be able to spend time walking the river again from the city.

Good health to all !

Winter Ivy

 Winter ivy on a graffiti'd section of the wall on the bank of the Sègre River, Lleida. 

First posted, some may remember, on December 25, 2014. Happy Holidays to All !!

A view of the Segre

 El riu Sègre, a prop de la confluència Noguera-Pallaresa (principis d'octubre, caminant...)

Near the Noguera-Pallaresa confluence (on a walk in early October). Great memories of a sunny day, from today's cloud covered Barcelona........

 

 

Autumn walks and drives

 A cell phone view of the Pre-Pyrenees from our hotel, the Cal Taverner, in Monsonís. This is in the La Noguera comarca of Catalonia. It's about a 30 minute drive from Balaguer. I'll post some more texts soon. It is beautiful to get out and walk around the countryside. Coldish mornings, though!

Pyrenees photos

 

We spent four days in August in the Pyrenees, in the Vall Fosca region of the Pallars Jussà comarca (county). This area has been lucky to have very low rates of Covid 19 infection, which of course is one reason for our choice. One of our walks took us from Gento Lake along the old narrow gauge railway line, which leads to more lakes in the system. I’ll post more on this but for the moment these three pictures give an idea of the views—and the great sunny weather! 

Gento Lake

 

A little farther along the trail ...

Erica and clear blue skies ... Taken from the trail, no actual climbing ...

Summer holidays

 

 

It isn’t only short trips like our recent ones between Barcelona and Vilanova i La Geltrú. Summer inspires longer trips as well, the kind that may require air travel, which obviously means adding to the world’s large carbon footprint. So thinking about ways to make travelling a part of the sustainable environment, I’ve looked around the web a bit for some ideas. An organisation called Sustainable Travel has information on this topic, including things like staying closer to home, investing in carbon offsets, generally slowing down. Their website is worth a read:

 

https://sustainabletravel.org/how-to-reduce-travel-carbon-footprint/

 

Also, on the theme of airplane travel, the Environmental Defense Fund speaks about the same themes but with a focus primarily on the aviation industry and vacationers. New information (to me, at least) includes the Carbon Offsetting Reduction Scheme for International Aviation. As much as 2.5 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions could be kept out of the atmosphere with full implementation of Corsia. The link on this is:

 

https://www.edf.org/climate/aviation

 

Finally, I looked in the direction of architecture. What I found is surprising and I’m going to save it. Don’t worry, you won’t have to wait long. I hope some good poetry (in the ample sense, whatever your creative activity) comes out of this. Stretch those desires….

  Another view of the sea from Vilanova. We hadn’t seen some of the friends at yesterday’s birthday celebration for a year…. And it was a beautiful reunion, masks off when possible, proper distancing and greeting—and who would have believed we’d be talking this way before the pandemic! However, mild, sunny weather. Light traffic on the highways. All in high spirits. From the restaurant we could look down and see the beach with people running and playing, and colorful parasols here and there on the sands, then the long shallows of the sea, something like in this photo taken some time back (and at a different time of day). This morning, back in the city and ready for a longer trip.

 

 

By the sea.....

 Longing to take a long walk along these shores, which is the plan for today. With the new rise in Covid figures we’re limiting activities of course. We’re permitted to be without masks in the open air inside cities now, but in Barcelona often keep the mask on out of habit. A bad sign? I hope not! In any case for today the sea awaits….