Showing posts with label Zarautz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Zarautz. Show all posts

Monday, 28 May 2018

SAYING GOODBYE TO THE JONES: NO SURRENDER!

The Grandma & The Broom, Sant Boi de Llobregat
After buying a new house in Zarautz for The Jones, The Grandma is thinking about her own future again. Last Saturday, when she was in Sant Boi with her families, she remembered her childhood. Sant Boi was an important place for her when she was a child, first, and a teenager, later. She spent the most unforgettable moments of her life in this city with many loved friends. 

It was when she was arriving to her appointment with her families that she crossed a beautiful little forest full of broom and, suddenly, all the memories returned like if all of them were the real life. She remembers Marianao Park, the Montbaig range, Sant Ramon Mountain, the Ateneu, the almond trees, the cherry trees, the rosemary, the carob trees, the lignum trees...

Now say: "The broom tree blooms,
everywhere the fields are red with poppies.
With new scythes we'll thresh
the ripened wheat and weeds."

The Grandma has considered these memories as a message. She must continue her searching of happiness and she has decided to search Corto Maltese, the man who stole her heart some decades ago and one day disappeared in Stonehenge. The Grandma hasn't got news since that moment and although she has never stopped the searching, she thinks that perhaps she was taking a wrong path. If Corto Maltese was born in Malta, perhaps she must start to search in this Mediterranean island. This is the reason because of The Grandma is going to travel to Malta to find her old friend.

Ah, young lips parting after dark, 
if you only knew how dawn 
delayed us, how long we had to wait 
for light to rise in the gloom!

The Jones are going to continue with their lifes. The Grandma is totally sure that they are going to be happy, find good jobs and enjoy their new families without forgetting this one, because, whatever happens, they will be always a Jones and they are predestined to write great pages in our history.

Good Luck, Dear Jones and No Surrender!

The Grandma & The Broom, Sant Boi de Llobregat
The broom is considered the national plant in Catalonia because two of its most important poets have written about it: Joan Maragall and Salvador Espriu. These poems are considered vital messages of hope about future, resistance about difficulties, faith in changes and the deep desire of surviving as a culture. To sum up, broom is a symbol of no surrender.

Genisteae is a tribe of trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants in the subfamily Faboideae of the legume family Fabaceae. It includes a number of well-known plants including broom, lupine (lupin), gorse and laburnum.

The tribe's greatest diversity is in the Mediterranean, and most genera are native to Europe, Africa, the Canary Islands, India and southwest Asia. However, the largest genus, Lupinus, is most diverse in North and South America. Anarthrophytum and Sellocharis are also South American and Aryrolobium ranges into India.

But we have lived to save your words, 
to return you the name of every thing, 
so that you'd stay on the straight path 
that leads to the mastery of earth.

The Genisteae arose 32.3 ± 2.9 million years ago in the Oligocene. The members of this tribe consistently form a monophyletic clade in molecular phylogenetic analyses. The tribe does not currently have a node-based definition, but several morphological synapomorphies have been identified.

The Grandma and The Fennel, Sant Boi de Llobregat
Brooms tolerate, and often thrive best in, poor soils and growing conditions. 

In cultivation they need little care, though they need good drainage and perform poorly on wet soils. 

They are widely used as ornamental landscape plants and also for wasteland reclamation, e.g. mine tailings, and sand dune stabilising. Many of the most popular brooms in gardens are hybrids, notably Kew broom and Warminster broom.

We looked beyond the desert, 
plumbed the depth of our dreams, 
turned dry cisterns into peaks 
scaled by the long steps of time.

The Plantagenet kings used common broom, known as planta genista in Latin, as an emblem and took their name from it. It was originally the emblem of Geoffrey of Anjou, father of Henry II of England. Wild broom is still common in dry habitats around Anjou, France.

Charles V and his son Charles VI of France used the pod of the broom plant, broom-cod, or cosse de geneste, as an emblem for livery collars and badges.

The flower buds and flowers of Cytisus scoparius have been used as a salad ingredient, raw or pickled, and were a popular ingredient for salmagundi or grand sallet during the 17th and 18th century. There are now concerns about the toxicity of broom, with potential effects on the heart and problems during pregnancy.

Now say: "We hear the voices 
of the wind on the high sea of crested grain." 
Now say: "We shall be ever faithful 
to the people of this land." - Salvador Espriu


We made a promise we swore we'd always remember:
No retreat, baby, no surrender.

Bruce Springsteen

Sunday, 27 May 2018

ZARAUTZ: THE BEGINNING OF NEW PROJECTS AND HOPES

Selfie in Zarautz's entrance
After an intensive day with Cambridge University Exams, The Jones are preparing their new objective. The family has decided to establish their central residence in Zarautz, in Euskalherria. Although they are the owners of other residences, they have chosen this as the main one.

Meanwhile The Jones are finishing their last exam about occupational hazards, The Grandma has travelled to Zarautz to buy a house and talk to Zarautz City Hall to announce their arrival. They are going to be excellent neighbours. Zarautz's inhabitants can be sure that they are going to welcome a fantastic family.

The Grandma has visited one of her old friends, Kepa Junkera, a Basque composer and music, who she adores. In her opinion, he's one of the biggest genius in folk music nowadays. She remembers him playing his accordion while Ginesa Ortega, a Catalan Gypsy artist, was singing Maitia nun zira, one of the most beautiful Basque songs that talks about absence and love.

More information: Zarautz

Zarautz is a coastal town located in central Gipuzkoa, in Euskalherria. It is bordered by Aia to the east and the south and Getaria to the west. It has four enclaves limiting the aforementioned municipalities: Alkortiaga, Ekano, Sola, and Arbestain. It's located about 15 kilometres west of Donostia

The Grandma is arriving to Zarautz's City Hall
As of 2014, Zarautz has a population of 22,890, which usually swells to about60,000 in the summer.

The Palace of Narros, located adjacent to Zarautz's 2.8 km long beach, is where Queen Isabella II and Fabiola of Belgium once spent their summer holidays.

The beach is known for being the longest in the Basque Country and one of longest of the Cantabrian cornice.

-1237: The city is awarded status as fuero by king Fernando III of Castile.

-1857: The beginning of the Industrial Revolution in Zarautz, thanks to the enterprise Fabril Linera. An era of economic growth and development begins.

-1936: The Civil War begins and Zarautz overwhelmingly supports the Republican cause.

-1937: The province falls to Falangist forces in the Spanish Civil War, who carry out reprisals against the Basque nationalists.

The Grandma is leaving The Jones' new home
At the end of the 19th century, and the beginning of the 20th century, the popularity of Zarautz as a luxury tourist destination grew, and many well-known people began to holiday there. 

A number of lavish houses and mansions sprang up, particularly along the beach. Nowadays, many of these buildings have become public buildings or have been demolished and replaced by chic apartment buildings.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Zarautz became a more affordable destination, and is now perhaps best known for its surfing and water sports.

As it is tradition in the Basque Country, gastronomy is a very important part of Zarautz. Many restaurants can be found in Zarautz, offering traditional as well as modern fine cuisine.

More information: Turismo Zarautz

Zarautz is home town of one of the most famous cooks, Karlos Arguiñano, whose restaurant can be found right in front of the beach. He also created a prestigious cooking school called Aiala. As in all cities around The Basque Country there are a lot of gastronomical societies in Zarautz. They are very traditional and called Txoko in Basque.

There are two museums in Zarautz, the Photomuseum and the Art and History Museum of Zarautz. In Dorre Luzea there are frequent art exhibitions. The town also has many other picture galleries.

The Grandma in Zarautz beach
Zarautz has first class sporting facilities, such as an old and elegant Golf Club. But Zarautz is renowned worldwide as a surfing destination. Over the last few years, it has become incredibly popular among surfers, and even a number of surfing schools have been established.

Zarautz is the birthplace of the Basque Weightlifting Federation as well as the Gipuzkoa Weightlifting Federation. Since 1968 weightlifting, ZKEhalterofilia, has been one of the sports that can be practiced at the local sports club, Zarautz Kirol Elkartea. Since then, every summer an international weightlifting event has taken place in the town. At first, very famous athletes took part in that competition such as Serge Reding and Alain Terme to name a few.

More information: Hotelka

The town is also famous as one of Basque's most popular surfing spots. Its 2.5 km beach offers highly consistent surfing with many different peaks for all standards of surfers. The town is a great place to learn how to surf. Zarautz is one of the places where the world championships in surfing takes place.

 

Maitia, nun zira? Nik ez zaitut ikusten,
ez berririk jakiten, nurat galdu zira?


Where are you, my Love? I do not see you,
I don't know anything, anymore, are you lost?

 Kepa Junkera & Ginesa Ortega