Living La Vida Loca

The last few weeks have been incredibly busy – filled with visitors, a camino, more visitors, and the growing anticipation of a summer in Seattle reacquainting ourselves with old friends.  As the weather gets sunnier, the temperature starts to creep up from blustery to gorgeous, and stuff is blooming all over the place, it drives home for me why Andrew and I love living here – and showing Barcelona off to guests.  Nothing very profound to say at the moment, I just feel like sharing some of the “summer is coming” that is making me smile…

Walking on Aigues overlooking the city with my girlfriends…Becca and Jessica have both lived in Barcelona longer than I have.  Becca has made the tough decision to move back to the States with her family for many reasons – none of which include anything negative about Barcelona!  She is an amazing photographer, and she regularly captures such delightful and soulful snaps of life here, I will dearly miss her and the beauty of what she brings to life in such a special way through her art.  Jessica (#1 on my left) is as passionate about walking caminos as I am – she’s setting off in a couple of weeks to hike over the Pyrenees!  Our backyard.  She is an inspiration.  Jessica (#2 – on the far right) is visiting for a few days – and Barcelona is her very first taste of Europe…ever.  The reviews so far are excellent – no surprises there.

I just LOVE taking visitors through the Boqueria. It is the most incredible collection of food merchants and their wares…everything from these little animals too cute to eat (well, maybe not too cute) to hundreds of cheeses and a like amount of different cuts of jamon (pork) to globally-collected spices, scads of nuts and dried fruits, to – well – name anything and it’s there!  You can graze your way into oblivion or just gawk and take pictures. Or, even better, buy something you’ve never tasted before and cook it up for dinner.  So many choices, so little time.

I no longer am surprised when someone – or a large crowd of merrymakers – walks by in some incongruous get up. If they look happy, I’m happy.  This on a Saturday morning hike in the hills with his family, it appears.  It works.

And it is all blooming now – these are my Mom’s favorites, the bougainvillea – they grow here and in SoCal…a special bond, I think.

Till next time…