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Festa de Grácia

Grácia is one of Barcelona’s neighborhoods, and by luck we were in Barcelona during their annual street festival.

The neighbors on different streets get together and decorate their street according to a theme.  I think there were around 10 or 15 participating streets this year, and we didn’t make it around to all of them, but a few of the ones we did see were really spectacular.

Here was one street that set up a machine to blow suds:

Grácia Festival

Grácia Festival

The theme of this street was laundry hanging out to dry:

Grácia Festival

This street was celebrating winter:

Grácia Festival

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Barcelona, Spain

Barcelona City Beach

This is more of a beach if you are looking for a sun vacation. Above is a picture of Barcelona’s city beach.

Most of our holiday was spent in Spain this year. Steph and I both studied Spanish for a number of years, but hardly get to use it. We make a point of going to Spain from time to time, so we don’t lose it completely. We both like Barcelona, and there are frequently cheap airfares there. The official language in Barcelona is not Spanish, rather Catalan, but Spanish is widely spoken. Catalan is related to Spanish and often understandable if you speak Spanish.

If you go to Barcelona you can’t help but seeing some Gaudi. Here are two pictures from Park Güell, home to Gaudi for a while and where some of his art is featured.

Here’s Steph in front of the famous Gaudi Lizard:

Steph in Park Güell

Here’s one of the buildings in the park:

Gaudi Building

There was a neighborhood festival while we were there, and I’m going to put some pictures of that in a separate post.

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German Islands

We’re back!

First we went a few days to the northern part of Germany, a region called East Friesland.  The province of Friesland proper and West Friesland both reside in the Netherlands, and we have spent a lot of time there.  The purpose of this trip was to have a look at the German side of the area that shares a lot of the same culture, history and natural beauty.  All through this area, on both sides of the border, are very friendly and easy going people.

By historical definition, Friesland extends through Poland, the Baltics and a small part of Russia across the border from Estonia.  Friesland also includes a small piece of southern Denmark.

The highlight was trips to two of the nearby islands, Heligoland and Norderney.

Here are some of Heligoland’s cliffs.

Heligoland

On both sides of the Dutch/German border the old languages of Fries and Low German are still spoken a bit, making it interesting for language buffs. The common greeting there is the Low German or Fries ‘Moin’.  By itself it’s a greeting, but if you literally translate it it can mean either ‘Good’ or ‘Day’.  That means you sometimes hear people saying ‘Moin, Moin’, meaning ‘Good Day’.  It’s a very funny word and sometimes bothers people who believe language must be something precisely defined, including many of their fellow countrymen.  This is one of the reasons Low German didn’t really survive as a language, because it is so loosely defined and very fragmented with lots of different dialects.

Fries is interesting as a language because it’s the only language spoken in modern times that has elements of old English and Scots within it.  An example of how closely related to English it is, is the Fries word ‘tjiis’.  This means cheese and it’s pronounced the same in both languages.  There is a Fries saying that goes ‘Bread butter and Green Cheese, Good English, Good Fries’.  If you use a search engine like Google, you can find the Fries language version of this that’s spelled differently but pronounced the same.

Very little English is spoken in this part of Germany, making it a bit of a challenge because our German is very limited.  It was only a three hour drive from Amsterdam.

Here is Heligoland’s harbor.

Heligoland

Here is a picture of the dunes next to the island.

Heligoland

This is the beach on the north shore of Norderney.

Norderney

On both islands, as well as the nearby mainland, there was loads of nature to be had.  The area is great for bird watchers.  As any northern European will tell you, usually without any prompting, the area is not good if you want a sun vacation.  The beaches were gorgeously clean and lightly used.  Walking along the sand you can feel fresh shells crunching under your feet that have recently washed up.  Not a speck of litter to be found anywhere.  While the temperature was very pleasant, it did rain from time to time while we were there.

Heligoland is a duty free zone, and is a popular destination for people wanting to stock up on their tax free allowances.  Tobacco and alcohol are significantly cheaper there, and the cost of the €30 boat ticket can be completely recovered if you return with your full allowances.  This made the island a little on the commercial side, and also meant the boat schedule didn’t allow for much sightseeing because most people weren’t there for that purpose.  The boat trip was 2 hours each way through rough seas.  Each table on the boat sat about 4 people and had a stack of 10 barf bags, which a few people were certainly using.

Norderney was a nicer island to visit, with a shorter and smoother boat trip.  It was also a much more popular and busier tourist destination.

As well as the islands we drove through the villages on the mainland which were also pretty and friendly.

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Vacation

We’re off for a couple of weeks.  First a short visit just over the border in Germany, then a longer visit to Spain.  I might have occasional Internet access but please excuse the delays in answering emails and approving comments with links in them, which may have to wait until I get back.

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Oxford – Please Confirm!

It’s been a little while since I last posted an update on the status of the upcoming meeting in Oxford, so I thought I would do a quick post.

Please Confirm Your Attendance by 20 August

The following bloggers have said they may attend.

Those marked with a * have already confirmed, or I’m pretty sure are going to come, and don’t need to reconfirm.

The number next to the blog name is the number of seats I have reserved for you.

Bifurcated Carrots (2)*
MustardPlaster (2)
Spade Work (1)
Daughter of the Soil (1)
The plot thickens (1)*
Joanna’s Food (1)*
Growing Our Own (2)
The smallest smallholding (2)
A Blog Called Fuggles (2)
Veg Plotting (1)
Soilman’s Allotment Blog (1)*
My Tiny Plot (1)
Manor Stables Veg Plot (1)
Fluffius Muppetus (2)*
NomeGrown (1)
A Nice Green Leaf (1)*
Hills and Plains (1)*
Horticultural (1)
Speaker:  Real Seeds (1)*

Total people attending:  25

Total number of seats available: 25

Please check to make sure the information I have here is correct, and let me know if it’s not as soon as possible!  If you need an extra seat, I can probably figure something out.  If you have an extra seat, please let me know!

If I don’t hear from you by 20 August, I will try to contact you directly.  If I can’t get a firm answer from anyone by 1 September, I won’t necessarily cancel your reservation unless someone comes along who says they want to come.  If you are still unsure by 1 September, you are welcome to wait until the last minute to see if there’s still space available.

If there is anyone else who wants to come, let me know.  If I have unconfirmed seats on 1 September, I will happily offer them to you.  At the moment I have no waiting list, and it seems likely at least one or two people listed above won’t attend.

It’s still the intention to find a place for everyone who wants to attend, if at all possible.

Speaker

We have one speaker already arranged.  The Real Seed Catalogue have said they would send someone to meet with and speak to us.

We might consider a second speaker if anyone has concrete ideas.  The best thing would be if you contacted the person you were thinking of first and get an agreement in principle they would be available, then give me contact information and I will confirm it with them.

It needs to be clear to me the person is appropriate for our meeting.

Costs

I am still expecting the costs to be between £10-15.  It depends on how many people show up to share the costs, so I will calculate it on the day.

The cost of entrance to the Oxford Botanic garden is included in the price of the room we have reserved.  Please don’t pay the usual entrance fee, just tell them you are there for the food growing get-together.

Place and Time

20 September 2008, 9:30am – 5:30pm

Oxford Botanic Garden, High Street, Oxford

Please arrive between 9:30am – 10:30am for coffee and tea.  We will begin shortly thereafter.

Closer to the time I will publish a proposed schedule for the day.  Much of the time will just be spent socializing, and perhaps visiting the gardens, but there will be a few planned speakers as well as the picnic and seed swap.

Picnic

Rain or shine we will have a picnic, so bring any food you want to share with others. Since most of us are gardeners, consider bringing something from your garden, but anything you want to bring is fine.

Also bring something to sit on, and anything else you want for the picnic.

Our room can be locked, so personal belongings can be left inside while we go outdoors.

In case of bad weather, we can eat indoors.

Seed Swap

Be sure to bring any seeds or other propagation materials you want to share with others. I will bring some seeds and other things from my garden.

The most interesting of course are seeds you have grown and saved yourself, but don’t be afraid to bring any seeds you think anyone else might be interested in.

You don’t need to bring seeds in order to receive them from others.

We Have a Banner

FoGroBloMe

For more information see Simon’s post.

Phone Number

I will have my mobile phone with me on the day, and you are welcome to call anytime until then if you have any questions:  +31 6 40109417.