Category: Barcelona

Dancing in the Street

Dancing in the street – music in the street – is part of our heritage. Part of the heritage of just about every nation on earth. Music helps us celebrate moments of spontaneous community togetherness. It provides rhythm and atmosphere for traditional dancers in town streets and squares who’ve come to entertain us, of course, but who would cheerfully make music and dance together even if we hadn’t turned up.

Here in the UK, brass bands appear when there’s a civic or community event to celebrate.

And individuals with guitars, saxophones, voices, even pianos scratch some kind of living by performing to any pedestrians prepared to listen.

My header image – the worst photo on earth – is one I love, for somehow conveying the joy in this community in Barcelona – Gràcia – brought together for one special day of events, singing and dancing to celebrate their love for their own special corner of the city.

So why not get out onto the streeets today and see what music you can find?

Ritva is our host for this week’s Lens-Artists Challenge: Music. Some of the photos I chose were monochrome, so for consistency I made this a post of black and white images. To the undoubted disgust of some of my readers – looking at you, Jo.

Buying and Selling in Black and White

Buying and selling. Where to start? Well, if you’re selling, setting your wares out appetisingly is probably the traditional way to go, so my featured photo is of a front window in Betty’s, Harrogate’s well known tea room and bakery.

The soft sell continues inside. But when curiosity prompted us to stick our noses through the door of this jewellers’ in Seoul, we very promply departed, realising this was Not Our Scene. Or budget.

Of course, sometimes shop window and point-of-sale are one and the same, as with this sales van, where all the driver has to do is park up, leave the driver’s cab and pop behind his built in counter.

These days though, shopping can be all about the shopping mall. Clean, cool seductive surroundings are intended to sooth us into opening up our wallets and come prepared to spend, spend, spend. Here’s the Victoria Gate Shopping Centre in Leeds.

Life couldn’t be more different in another modern shopping centre, Mercat dels Encants, Barcelona. Crazily juxtaposed ceiling mirrors reflect the scenes below of bartering, haggling over anything from rolls of cheap fabric to flea market goods that look as if they’ve been around for decades.

My favourite shopiing experiences are often serendipitous. On our way to Scarborough last week, we paused in a small town, Kirkbymoorside, to stretch our legs and have a coffee. It turned out to be market day. And there was someone selling rather exotic mushrooms: some that he’d foraged – others that he’d grown himself. We couldn’t buy as we weren’t going to be home that night. But his enthusiasm had him talking to us for quite a while as he described his wares in detail, even though he knew he wouldn’t make a sale to us that day. He now has two loyal fans who will hunt him down very soon.

Moorside Mushrooms

So what can you tell us in monochrome photos about buying and selling? You may have seen someone shaking hands on a deal. You may have visited a trade warehouse and seen forklift trucks going about their business. You may have visited a cattle market, or an auction. Or you may just like to show us your weekly shop. When you have a post ready to publish (do join in!) please link it back to this post, and to Leanne’s Monochrome Madness page, as without Leanne, there would be no Monochrome Madness.

For Leanne’s Monochrome Madness

Eternal Animals

By which I mean animals that have been immortalised in stone. I thought a gargoyle or two would be appropriate on a Sunday. But it turns out not one was part of a religious building. Here are gargoyles from Barcelona, Bury and Bath. Whaddya mean, dragons and frogs aren’t – strictly speaking – animals?

For Debbie’s One – er Two – Word(s) Sunday

… And Just for You, I’ve Chosen Blue

This week, for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, Ritva asks us to Pick A Colour.

I ruminated on red, pondered about purple, almost opted for orange, nearly yielded to yellow, gleaned several greens, prevaricated over pink, but in the end, went for ….

Well, obviously you have to have sky … even if day is long past and evening’s getting on for being midnight blue …

And water’s a must too. Nothing idyllic here. Just industrial sprawl near Rotterdam.

And let’s keep up our less-than-picturesque watery scenes, on the River Thames….

… before nipping off to the fishing town of Arenys de Mar in Catalonia. That’s better. Mended nets hung out to dry.

Let’s stay in Catalonia, but head to Barcelona and some street art …

We’ve got ourselves about a bit. Maybe we need another car wash. That’s where we began, and it’s shown in the featured photo.

Shadowed

A quick look at shadows, the enigmatic feelings of mystery they can sometimes produce.

The featured photo shows the early morning sun, somewhere near here. No mystery perhaps. More a feeling of unknown promise in the day ahead. And below, this quiet photo from Laberint d’Horta in Barcelona reminds me of a morning I spent there discovering , hidden amongst the trees, apparently ancient statuary.

Two urban photos: one from the once gritty underside of Leeds, suggesting its dirty and industrial past, the other from a up-to-the-minute quarter of Barcelona. I like the hard-to-decipher shadows on the textured overhanging roof.

And lastly, another from canal-side Leeds. Someone should write a story about this young woman sitting contemplatively beneath the shadows of the trees.

For Leanne’s Monochrome Madness …

… and for John, the week’s Lens-Artists Challenge host. He’s chosen ‘Shadowed’.

A Capybara in Cosmo-Caixa

Here he is. The world’s largest rodent. The capybara. He lives in Barcelona’s Cosmo-Caixa Science Museum, in the Bosc Inundat (Flooded Forest) . This, along with other South American species, is part of a huge simulated Amazon rainforest ecosystem, with animals, birds and fish. 

Monday Portrait

Park-Dwelling Parakeets

The parakeets that live round and about Ciutadella Park in Barcelona are opportunists. They know that all they have to do is hang around tourists, looking winsome, and the next meal will appear. If they’re lucky, maybe specially purchased nuts and seeds from equally opportunist street vendors. Otherwise, croissant crumbs and biscuits. They don’t seem fussy.

For Monday Portrait.