another year gone in a blink, today is 7 years since eilleen passed away and we miss her even more. she came to spain with us and loved the street life, the fact that old and young sat in the streets all night long. old people here are more included, the community revolves around young and old. this week in Vejer, they celebrated carnival – kids and adults have dressed up all week long dancing with music in the streets; carnival derives from the words ‘farewell to flesh’ a reference to the excesses that lead up to the sombre lent.
i recently discovered federico garcia lorca’s sketches of spain and am taken by his evocative words, his poetic prose magically expresses the spirit of the landscape – romantic gardens, splendid plains – its a beautiful book, that you can pick up and read sections at any time.
A romantic garden.
” Spanish gardens are disappearing. Tidy, symmetrical English parks are replacing them….Only very infrequently, walking along a deserted path leading to humble places, do we come across a shadowy deserted garden.
The romantic gallant soul of the eighteenth century beats along its avenue. The garden loves pallid ladies and gentleman poets. Twilight gardens from an age of sentimental dramas. Misty gardens that made Juan Ramon Jimenez, the great poet of mists, suffer so ……
The garden was alone. Pink and white hollyhocks flourish their flowering staffs among green waves of myrtles that run riot. The green dome of a pergola overgrown by a tea rose rises in the centre of the garden. Inside dry leaves cover a black stone table. The benches have sunk into the wet ground and a cascade of ivy does its best to hide them……”
christina wilson sweet nothings 