Friday, 25 January 2019

ADELINE VIRGINIA WOOLF, STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Virginia Woolf
Today, The Grandma is relaxing at home. She wants to go to the public library to borrow some books about Virginia Woolf, the English writer who was born on a day like today in 1882. Woolf is a referent in the Modernist literature in particular and in the world one in general. She was the pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness following the Russian authors and she is one of The Grandma's favourite writers.

Before going to the public library, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Elementary Language Practice manual (Vocabulary 7).

More information: Vocabulary 7-Inside the House

Adeline Virginia Woolf (25 January 1882-28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device.

Woolf was born into an affluent household in South Kensington, London, the seventh child in a blended family of eight. Her mother, Julia Prinsep Jackson, celebrated as a Pre-Raphaelite artist's model, had three children from her first marriage; her father, Leslie Stephen, a notable man of letters, had one previous daughter; their marriage produced another four children, including the modernist painter Vanessa Bell.

More information: The British Library

While the boys in the family were educated at university, the girls were home-schooled in English classics and Victorian literature. An important influence in her early life was the summer home the family used in St Ives, Cornwall, where she first saw the Godrevy Lighthouse, which was to become iconic in her novel To the Lighthouse (1927).

Virginia Woolf
Woolf's childhood came to an abrupt end in 1895 with the death of her mother and her first mental breakdown, followed two years later by the death of her stepsister and surrogate mother, Stella Duckworth.

From 1897–1901, she attended the Ladies' Department of King's College London, where she studied classics and history and came into contact with early reformers of women's higher education and the women's rights movement.

Other important influences were her Cambridge-educated brothers and unfettered access to their father's vast library. She began writing professionally in 1900, encouraged by her father, whose death in 1905 was a major turning point in her life and the cause of another breakdown.

Following the death, the family moved from Kensington to the more bohemian Bloomsbury, where they adopted a free-spirited lifestyle; it was there that, in conjunction with their brothers' intellectual friends, they formed the artistic and literary Bloomsbury Group.

More information: BBC

In 1912, Woolf married Leonard Woolf and in 1917 they founded the Hogarth Press, which published much of her work. The couple rented second homes in Sussex and moved there permanently in 1940. Throughout her life, Woolf was troubled by bouts of mental illness, which included being institutionalised and attempting suicide. Her illness is considered to have been bipolar disorder, for which there was no effective intervention at the time.

She published her first novel, The Voyage Out, in 1915, through her half-brother's publishing house, Gerald Duckworth and Company. Virginia Woolf provides insight into her early life in her autobiographical essays, including Reminiscences (1908) and 22 Hyde Park Gate (1921).
 
Virginia Woolf
During the interwar period, Woolf was an important part of London's literary and artistic society. Her best-known works include the novels Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927) and Orlando (1928).

She is also known for her essays, including A Room of One's Own (1929), in which she wrote the much-quoted dictum, A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction", Leslie Stephen (1932) and A Sketch of the Past (1940).

Woolf became one of the central subjects of the 1970s movement of feminist criticism, and her works have since garnered much attention and widespread commentary for inspiring feminism, an aspect of her writing that was unheralded earlier. Her works are widely read all over the world and have been translated into more than 50 languages.

More information: The Virgina Woolf's Blog

A large body of literature is dedicated to her life and work, and she has been the subject of many plays, novels, and films. Some of her writing has been considered offensive and has been criticised for a number of complex and controversial views, including anti-semitism and elitism. Woolf is commemorated today by statues, societies dedicated to her work and a building at the University of London.

In the late nineteenth century, education was sharply divided along gender lines, a tradition that Virginia would note and condemn in her writing. Boys were sent to school, and in upper-middle-class families such as the Stephens, this involved private boys schools, often boarding schools, and university. Girls, if they were afforded the luxury of education, received it from their parents, governesses and tutors. Virginia was educated by her parents who shared the duty. There was a small classroom off the back of the drawing room, with its many windows, which they found perfect for quiet writing and painting.

More information: The Culture Trip

Much examination has been made of Woolf's mental health. From the age of 13, following the death of her mother, Woolf suffered periodic mood swings from severe depression to manic excitement, including psychotic episodes, which the family referred to as her madness.

Virginia Woolf, The New York Times
After completing the manuscript of her last novel, posthumously published, Between the Acts (1941), Woolf fell into a depression similar to that which she had earlier experienced.

The onset of World War II, the destruction of her London home during the Blitz, and the cool reception given to her biography of her late friend Roger Fry all worsened her condition until she was unable to work. After World War II began, Woolf's diary indicates that she was obsessed with death, which figured more and more as her mood darkened.

On 28 March 1941, Woolf drowned herself by filling her overcoat pockets with stones and walking into the River Ouse near her home. Her body was not found until 18 April. Her husband buried her cremated remains beneath an elm tree in the garden of Monk's House, their home in Rodmell, Sussex.

More information: ThoughtCo

Woolf is considered to be one of the greatest twentieth century novelists and short story writers and one of the pioneers, among modernist writers using stream of consciousness as a narrative device, alongside contemporaries such as Marcel Proust, Dorothy Richardson and James Joyce.

Woolf's reputation was at its greatest during the 1930s, but declined considerably following World War II. The growth of feminist criticism in the 1970s helped re-establish her reputation.

A major influence on Woolf from 1912 onward was Russian literature as Woolf adopted many of its aesthetic conventions. The style of Fyodor Dostoyevsky with his depiction of a fluid mind in operation helped to influence Woolf's writings about a discontinuous writing process, though Woolf objected to Dostoyevsky's obsession with psychological extremity and the tumultuous flux of emotions in his characters together with his right-wing, monarchist politics as Dostoyevsky was an ardent supporter of the autocracy of the Russian Empire.

More information: Open


Every secret of a writer's soul, every experience of his life,
every quality of his mind is written large in his works.

Virginia Woolf

Thursday, 24 January 2019

LUAR NA LUBRE, GALICIAN SONGS AROUND THE WORLD

Arriving to Barcelona
The Grandma and Claire Fontaine have flown back from Palma to Barcelona.

This trip has been very exciting for The Grandma and she has preferred to stay at home resting and checking her last photos, videos and memories of the island.

During the short flight from Palma to Barcelona, The Grandma has been studying a new lesson of her Elementary Language
Practice manual (Vocabulary 6).

More information: Vocabulary 6-Jobs

Claire Fontaine is younger than The Grandma and she has continued her intensive and social life when she has arrived to Barcelona. Tonight, she has gone to Barts Theatre to listen to one of the most amazing and wonderful Galician groups, Luar Na Lubre, which has presented their new album Ribeira Sacra in the Catalan capital. Claire has enjoyed the concert a lot and she has discovered new legends and sounds from the Galician lands.

Luar na Lubre is a Celtic music ensemble from Galiza. Luar is Galician for moonlight; lubre is a magical forest in which the Celtic druids cast their spells.

During its career, this musical group has spread Galician music and culture. The band became famous worldwide after Mike Oldfield took interest in their music. Oldfield fell in love with their song O son do ar, The sound of the air, composed by Bieito Romero. Oldfield's cover is on his Voyager album, entitled Song of the Sun.

More information: Luar na Lubre

In 1992 he offered help in their worldwide tour. Their tour together was called Tubular Bells 3. Now it is one of the most famous groups from Galicia. Their first singer Rosa Cedrón is also featured with Mike Oldfield in some songs from his live concert at Horse Guards Parade, near St James's Park, London.

Rosa Cedrón left the band in 2005 and Sara Vidal became the new singer (nowadays is Irma Macías). In 2010, the group's leader, Bieito Romero, said the group was "fully fit". The group recorded a version of Gerdundula by Status Quo.

The folk metal band Mägo de Oz made a cover of Luar na Lubre's song Memoria da Noite. The epic metal band Runic made a cover of Luar na Lubre's song Nau.
 
Claire listens to Luar Na Lubre in Barcelona
Their most famous singles are Memoria da Noite, Os Animais, O son do ar, Tu gitana and Chove en Santiago. Most of their lyrics are in the Galician language. Their song Nau, written by Bieito Romero is about Galicia as a ship with no direction.

Celtic music is a broad grouping of music genres that evolved out of the folk music traditions of the Celtic people of Western Europe. It refers to both orally-transmitted traditional music and recorded music and the styles vary considerably to include everything from trad, traditional, music to a wide range of hybrids.

These styles are known because of the importance of Irish and Scottish people in the English speaking world, especially in the United States, where they had a profound impact on American music, particularly bluegrass and country music.

More information: Folkways

The music of Wales, Cornwall, the Isle of Man, Brittany, Galicia, Cantabria and Asturias and Portugal are also considered Celtic music, the tradition being particularly strong in Brittany, where Celtic festivals large and small take place throughout the year, and in Wales, where the ancient eisteddfod tradition has been revived and flourishes.

Additionally, the musics of ethnically Celtic peoples abroad are vibrant, especially in Canada and the United States. In Canada the provinces of Atlantic Canada are known for being a home of Celtic music, most notably on the islands of Newfoundland, Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island. The traditional music of Atlantic Canada is heavily influenced by the Irish, Scottish and Acadian ethnic makeup of much of the region's communities. In some parts of Atlantic Canada, such as Newfoundland, Celtic music is as or more popular than in the old country.

Further, some older forms of Celtic music that are rare in Scotland and Ireland today, such as the practice of accompanying a fiddle with a piano, or the Gaelic spinning songs of Cape Breton remain common in the Maritimes. Much of the music of this region is Celtic in nature, but originates in the local area and celebrates the sea, seafaring, fishing and other primary industries.

More information: Celtic Wedding Rings


Celtic music will always be around, 
even if with the mainstream crowds it dies out.

Natalie MacMaster

Wednesday, 23 January 2019

SALVADOR DALÍ, SURREALISM & ECCENTRICISM IN PÚBOL

The Grandma & Claire visit Can Alcover
Today, Claire Fontaine and The Grandma have visited some old friends in Can Alcover, Palma, the headquarters of the Obra Cultural Balear, OCB, that works for the Balear culture in the islands and promote it as a part of the Catalan culture.

Mallorcan language is a variant of Catalan that you can listen to only in a little part of Catalonia, Cadaqués, the town where Salvador Dalí died on a day like today in 1989. There are not strong links between Salvador Dalí and Mallorca except the common language and the Mediterranean culture but The Grandma has wanted to read more about this author and his controversial life while she was contemplating the endless horizon from the Port of Palma.

Before visiting Can Alcover, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her
Elementary Language Practice manual (Vocabulary 5).

More information: Vocabulary 5-Places

Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, 1st Marquis of Dalí de Púbol (11 May 1904-23 January 1989), known professionally as Salvador Dalí was a prominent surrealist artist born in Figueres, Catalonia.

Dalí was a skilled draftsman, best known for the striking and bizarre images in his surrealist work. His painterly skills are often attributed to the influence of Renaissance masters. His best-known work, The Persistence of Memory, was completed in August 1931. Dalí's expansive artistic repertoire included film, sculpture, and photography, at times in collaboration with a range of artists in a variety of media.

Dalí attributed his love of everything that is gilded and excessive, my passion
for luxury and my love of oriental clothes to an Arab lineage, claiming that his ancestors were descendants of the Moors.

Salvador Dalí
Dalí was highly imaginative, and also enjoyed indulging in unusual and grandiose behavior. To the dismay of those who held his work in high regard, and to the irritation of his critics, his eccentric manner and attention-grabbing public actions sometimes drew more attention than his artwork.

Salvador Dalí was born on 11 May 1904 on the first floor of Carrer Monturiol, 20 in the town of Figueres, in the Empordà county, in Catalonia.

In 1922, Dalí moved into the Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid and studied at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. A lean 1.72 metres tall, Dalí already drew attention as an eccentric and dandy. He had long hair and sideburns, coat, stockings, and knee-breeches in the style of English aesthetes of the late 19th century.

At the Residencia, he became close friends with Pepín Bello, Luis Buñuel, and Federico García Lorca. The friendship with Lorca had a strong element of mutual passion, but Dalí rejected the poet's sexual advances.



In August 1929, Dalí met his lifelong and primary muse and future wife Gala, born Elena Ivanovna Diakonova. She was a Russian immigrant ten years his senior, who at that time was married to surrealist poet Paul Éluard.

In the same year, Dalí had important professional exhibitions and officially joined the Surrealist group in the Montparnasse quarter of Paris. His work had already been heavily influenced by surrealism for two years. The Surrealists hailed what Dalí called his paranoiac-critical method of accessing the subconscious for greater artistic creativity.

The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dalí
In 1931, Dalí painted one of his most famous works, The Persistence of Memory, which introduced a surrealistic image of soft, melting pocket watches.

The general interpretation of the work is that the soft watches are a rejection of the assumption that time is rigid or deterministic. This idea is supported by other images in the work, such as the wide expanding landscape, and other limp watches shown being devoured by ants.

Dalí and Gala, having lived together since 1929, were civilly married on 30 January 1934 in Paris. They later remarried in a Church ceremony on 8 August 1958 at Sant Martí Vell. In addition to inspiring many artworks throughout her life, Gala would act as Dalí's business manager, supporting their extravagant lifestyle while adeptly steering clear of insolvency. Gala seemed to tolerate Dalí's dalliances with younger muses, secure in her own position as his primary relationship.

While the majority of the Surrealist artists had become increasingly associated with leftist politics, Dalí maintained an ambiguous position on the subject of the proper relationship between politics and art.


More information: The Art Story

In 1940, as World War II tore through Europe, Dalí and Gala retreated to the United States, where they lived for eight years splitting their time between New York and Monterey, California. They were able to escape because on June 20, 1940, they were issued visas by Aristides de Sousa Mendes, Portuguese consul in Bordeaux, France.

Salvador and Gala Dalí crossed into Portugal and subsequently sailed on the Excambion from Lisbon to New York in August 1940. Dalí’s arrival in New York was one of the catalysts in the development of that city as a world art center in the post-war years. After the move, Dalí returned to the practice of Catholicism.

Salvador Dalí and Gala
In 1948 Dalí and Gala moved back into their house in Port Lligat, on the coast near Cadaqués. For the next three decades, he would spend most of his time there painting, taking time off and spending winters with his wife in Paris and New York.

In 1968, Dalí had bought a castle in Púbol for Gala; and starting in 1971 she would retreat there alone for weeks at a time. By Dalí's own admission, he had agreed not to go there without written permission from his wife. His fears of abandonment and estrangement from his longtime artistic muse contributed to depression and failing health.

Gala died on 10 June 1982, at the age of 87. After Gala's death, Dalí lost much of his will to live. He deliberately dehydrated himself, possibly as a suicide attempt; there are also claims that he had tried to put himself into a state of suspended animation as he had read that some microorganisms could do. He moved from Figueres to the castle in Púbol, which was the site of her death and her grave.

Dalí's politics played a significant role in his emergence as an artist. In his youth, he embraced both anarchism and communism, though his writings tell anecdotes of making radical political statements more to shock listeners than from any deep conviction. This was in keeping with Dalí's allegiance to the Dada movement.

As he grew older his political allegiances changed, especially as the Surrealist movement went through transformations under the leadership of the Trotskyist writer André Breton, who is said to have called Dalí in for questioning on his politics. 



There is only one difference between a madman and me.
The madman thinks he is sane. I know I am mad.

Salvador Dalí

Tuesday, 22 January 2019

ABRAHAM CRESQUES & THE CATALAN ATLAS OF 1375

The Grandma visits the Palma Cathedral
Today, The Grandma and Claire Fontaine are spending their last days in Palma. They are very happy with their visit and they are sure they will come back very soon because they love this island, its culture and traditions -common for them- and its people.

Visiting Mallorca is always a hard experience for The Grandma. She's excited every time she arrives to Son Sant Joan but she is also very sad when she is in the island because lots of memories appear on her mind. She misses her lost friends although she tries to enjoy every single moment in the island.

Claire and The Grandma have visited the Cathedral and have contemplated the last work of Miquel Barceló inside this magnificent building. This amazing work has evoked them Abraham Cresques, the Jewish cartographer from Palma who is the author of the Catalan Atlas, one of the most wonderful and awesome maps from the Middle Age that we can contemplate.

Before visiting the Cathedral, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her
Elementary Language Practice manual (Vocabulary 4).

More information: Vocabulary 4-Rooms

Abraham Cresques (1325–1387), whose real name was Cresques son of Abraham, was a 14th-century Jewish cartographer from Palma, Mallorca, then part of the Crown of Aragon. In collaboration with his son, Jehuda Cresques, Cresques is credited with the authorship of the celebrated Catalan Atlas of 1375.

A Mallorcan Jew, Cresques was a master map-maker and builder of clocks, compasses, and other nautical instruments. He was a leading member of the Mallorcan cartographic school.

More information: The Cresques Project

Abraham Cresques's real name was Eliça, a.k.a. Cresques, son of Rabbi Abraham, son of Rabbi Benaviste, son of Rabbi Eliça. Eliça being the name he would have received when he came of age but known as Cresques of Abraham, Cresques being his personal name, Eliça his religious name, Abraham his patronym, but the order is often flipped in most subsequent literature. His son, Jehuda Cresques, was also a notable cartographer.

In 1375, Cresques and his son Jehuda received an assignment from Prince Joan of Aragon, the future Joan I of Aragon, to make a set of nautical charts which would go beyond the normal geographic range of contemporary portolan charts to cover the East and the West, and everything that, from the Strait of Gibraltar leads to the West.


The Catalan Atlas by Abraham Cresques and Jehuda Cresques

For this job, Cresques and Jehuda would be paid 150 Aragonese golden florins, and 60 Mallorcan pounds, respectively, as it is stated in 14th-century documents from the Prince himself and his father Pere IV of Aragon. Prince Joan intended to present the chart to his cousin Carles, later to be Carles King of France, as a gift.

More information: IEC

In that year 1375 Cresques and Jehuda drew the six charts that composed the Catalan Atlas at their house in the Jewish quarter of Palma.

The Catalan Atlas of c. 1375 is the only map that has been confidently attributed to Cresques Abraham. But researchers have suggested that five other existing maps might also be attributed to Cresques, Jehuda or some other worker in the Cresques atelier. Like the Catalan Atlas itself, these five maps -four portolan charts, one fragment of a mappa mundi-, are unsigned and undated, and their date of composition estimated sometime between 1375 and 1400.

More information: My Old Maps

-Catalan Atlas, c. 1375, 6 panels, map from the Atlantic Ocean to China, held at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris, France

-Venice Chart, c. 1375-1400, portolan chart -missing northern Europe-, held at the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice, Italy

-Florence Chart, c. 1375-1400, portolan chart -west Mediterranean only- held (Port.22) at the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence, Italy

-Naples Chart, c. 1375-1400, normal portolan chart held (ms.XII.D102) at the Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III in Naples, Italy

-Istanbul Map c. 1375-1400, fragment of mappa mundi, held (1828) at the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, Turkey

-Paris Chart, c. 1400, portolan chart held (AA751) at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France in Paris, France

According to the last investigations, of the four portolan charts attributed the Cresques atelier, the Naples and Paris charts are more ornate than the other two, with the Paris chart (c. 1400) in particular seeming closest to the features of the Catalan Atlas (c. 1375). However, attribution to the Cresques workshop is only tentative.

As investigators say, That this group of charts is closely related is clear. But it is hard to see, from the colour analysis alone, evidence to confirm that these four charts were the product of supervised work in a single atelier.

More information: Ballandalus


 The fact is that it is still possible to imagine 
a world of peasants without lords. 
Never, however, was it possible to imagine 
a world of lords without peasants.
We always know who is left.
 
Miquel Barceló

Monday, 21 January 2019

THE QUARTER OF CALATRAVA & 'EL DRAC DE NA COCA'

Contemplating the Cathedral, Palma
Today, Claire Fontaine and The Grandma are still in Palma.

Claire is very interested in knowing more things about the Legend of the Drac de Na Coca and The Grandma wants to search her family roots in the Jewish quarter of Calatrava.

The Grandma has also wanted to remember and homage Miquel, one of her old friends who left her some years ago, a great pastry cook and a better person.

Before starting to walk across the old streets of the city The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her
Elementary Language Practice manual (Vocabulary 3).

More information: Vocabulary 3-Free Time

In Calatrava, you live very central in the Old Town of Palma in genuine medieval surroundings, close to the sea and the city beach Ca'n Pere Antoni.

On cobbled stone streets you can walk through the area where history is present everywhere you go.

Wide vaults over the entrances of the buildings are very common to see, as in days past, people used to ride (took out with) horse carriages through the entrance and keep the horses and the carts parked in the patio. Nowadays the stables are rebuilt into garages or green patios where you can have dinner al fresco.


The first floor is called the Planta Noble, as that is where the family lived. The servant lived on the second floor and upstairs, in the attic, was where they held small animals like rabbits and hens.

More information: Red Juderías

In Calatrava you can find a couple of cosy cafés and restaurants. You will also find web agencies, vegan shops and art galleries.

The Grandma with Ramon Llull in Sant Francesc Church
Walking along, you will suddenly discover that you are no longer on the narrow small streets, but instead on the old historical city wall that goes in front of the gothic Cathedral and all you will see is the blue sky and the sea. The park and lake in front is called Parc de Mar which offers a café with views of the Cathedral and the water.

Calatrava is a truly historical and well kept area with a tranquil atmosphere and a perfect location between the centre of Palma and the beach.

You will immerse yourself in the history, mysteries and fun facts of the Jewish community that lived in Palma de Mallorca before and after their exile or conversion up to the 20th Century.

It’s a round tour that begins in Plaça Santa Eulàlia and finishes at the same place. We will deal with different terms used to describe places, customs, religion and the society of the Hebrew community of Mallorca.

More information: Jewish Virtual Library

During the Middle and part of the Modern Age, in Palma there were two calls jueus, that refers to the Jewish quarter of the Aragon Kingdom. Even though being located nearby the most touristic areas in Palma such as the Cathedral, Plaça Cort and Plaça Major, the Jewish district is known for its serenity, peace and quietness that you feel among its streets and alleys.

The main subject will be the Hebrew community in Mallorca from its beginnings until the first half of the 15th Century, when their definitive christian conversion took place or their exile to safer lands, where they could start a new life. Futhermore, we will talk about the life of the converted descendants, also called xuetes, within Mallorcan society up to the current Hebrew community of the Balearic Islands.

Its history, legends, anecdotes and characters will be combined with curiosities, aspects and the everyday life in a medieval city such as Ciutat de Mallorques. Moreover, we will admire one of the most important stately homes of the old town hidden among the narrow streets and alleys of the Jewish quarter or Call Jueu of Palma.

More information: The Guardian

The Drac de Na Coca takes part in the town crier procession and participates in the fire festival accompanied by a host of fire beasts from other towns.

The reason behind the construction of this fire beast is to provide Palma with another emblem linked to popular tradition to join the existing imagery of creatures such as the gegants (giants) and capgrossos (big heads).
 
The Drac in Puresa Street and in the Diocesan Museum
This beast has its roots in one of the most epic legends of the city of Palma which tells of a dragon which lived in the city, roaming around its drains. This modern Drac de Na Coca will be carried around the city by the geganters or giants of Palma City Council. It weighs 50 kilos, and is 180 cm tall and 183 cm wide.

The legend of El Drac de Na Coca is one of the most epic legends there is. It begins in around 1776, when rumour began to spread in Palma that a great dragon came out at night in La Portella neighbourhood. Those living near the cathedral claimed to hear strange, disturbing noises in the night.

Later, people began to say that some children had been devoured by a terrible beast. At last, someone saw the diabolical dragon in Can Clapers street. One night, the noble knight Bartomeu Coc was on his way to his fiancée's house on Portella street when he heard a strange noise. By the faint light of a streetlamp he could make out the figure of the dreaded reptile which was preparing to make a charge at him.

The noble Coc unsheathed his sword and killed the beast with one clean blow. The dragon that had been terrorising the neighbourhood turned out to be a crocodile which had inexplicably arrived to the island and grown up in the sewers of Palma. The reptile was stuffed and is still preserved today in the Diocesan Museum.

Mallorcan singer Maria del Mar Bonet sings a popular version of the legend in the song El Drac de Na Coca.

More information: BKPS


 Pel carrer de Sa Portella, quan la nit cau,
diuen que hi surt una bèstia; valga'ns Déu, val!
S'engoleix les criatures, valga'ns Déu, val!
Les mares de Sa Portella ploren d'espant.

On the street of Sa Portella, when the night falls,
They say that there is a beast there; oh my God,
It eats the children, oh my God!
The mothers of Sa Portella cry afraid.

El Drac de Na Coca, Popular Song

Sunday, 20 January 2019

SANT SEBASTIÀ, THE PATRON OF CIUTAT DE PALMA

The Grandma in Plaça Major, Palma
Today, The Grandma and Claire Fontaine have visited some of the most important places of Palma.

Last night, they celebrated Sant Sebastià, the patron of the city, with thousands of Mallorcan people who danced near wonderful bonfires.

After visiting the Cathedral, one of the most incredible monuments of the island, they have returned to their hotel where they have rested a little.


The hotel is located in Almudaina Street and it is an incredible Mallorcan palace.

The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Elementary Language Practice manual (Vocabulary 2).

More information: Vocabulary 2-Family Matters

Palma is the capital and largest city of Balearic Islands. It is situated on the south coast of Mallorca on the Bay of Palma. The Cabrera Archipelago, though widely separated from Palma proper, is administratively considered part of the municipality.

Palma was founded as a Roman camp upon the remains of a Talaiotic settlement. The city was subjected to several Vandal raids during the fall of the Western Roman Empire, then reconquered by the Byzantine Empire, then colonised by the Moors, who called it Medina Mayurqa, and, in the 13th century, by King Jaume I.

After the conquest of Mallorca, the city was loosely incorporated into the province of Tarraconensis by 123 BC; the Romans founded two new cities: Palma on the south of the island, and Pollentia in the northeast -on the site of a Phoenician settlement. Whilst Pollentia acted as a port to Roman cities on the northwestern Mediterranean Sea, Palma was the port used for destinations in Africa, such as Carthage, and Hispania, such as Saguntum, Gades and Carthago Nova. Though present-day Palma has no significant remains from this period, occasional archaeological finds are made in city centre excavations.

With Margalida and Tomeu, Giants of Palma
Though the period between the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the Muslim conquest is not well understood, due to lack of documents, there is clear evidence of a Byzantine presence in the city, as indicated by mosaics found in the oldest parts of the Cathedral, which was in early medieval times part of a paleo-Christian temple.

Between 902 and 1229, the city was under Islamic control. It remained the capital of the island and it was known as Medina Mayurqa, which in Arabic means City of Majorca.

On 31 December 1229, after three months of siege, the city was reconquered by King Jaume I and was renamed Ciutat de Mallorca. In addition to being kept as capital of the Kingdom of Mallorca, it was given a municipality that comprised the whole island. The governing arm was the University of the City and Kingdom of Mallorca.

After the death of King Jaume I, Palma became joint capital of the Kingdom of Mallorca, together with Perpignan. His son, Jaume II of Mallorca, championed the construction of statues and monuments in the city: Bellver Castle, the churches of St. Francesc and St. Domingo, reformed the Palace of Almudaina and began the construction of the Cathedral of Mallorca.

More information: Ajuntament de Palma

In 1391, anti-Jewish riots broke out. The Jewish community of Inca was completely wiped out, as were those of Sóller, Sineu, and Alcudia. In spite of the governor's prohibition on leaving the island, many Jews fled to North Africa. The remaining Jews were forced to convert under threat of death.

Abraham Cresques was a 14th-century Jewish cartographer of the Majorcan cartographic school from Palma; Cresques is credited with the authorship of the famous Catalan Atlas.

The river that cut through the city gave rise to two distinct areas within the city; the Upper town and Lower town, depending upon which side of the river one was situated. Palma's Silk Exchange, a masterpiece of the Gothic architecture in Mallorca. Built between 1420 and 1452.

The Grandma with 'Els Xeremiers', Majorcan Giants
The city's advantageous geographical location allowed it extensive commerce with Catalonia, Valencia, Provence, the Maghreb, the Italian republics and the dominions of the Great Turk, which heralded a golden age for the city.

The 17th century is characterised by the division of the city in two sides or gangs, named Canamunts and Canavalls, with severe social and economical repercussions. During this period the port became a haven for pirates. During the last quarter of the century, the Inquisition continued its persecution of the city's Jews, locally called xuetes.

The fall of Barcelona in 1714 meant the end of the War of the Spanish Succession and the defeat and destruction of the Crown of Aragon, and this was reflected on the Nueva Planta decrees, issued by Philip V of Spain in 1715. These occupation decrees changed the government of the island and separated it from the municipality's government of Palma, which became the official city name. By the end of the 19th century, the name Palma de Mallorca was generalised in written Spanish, although it is still colloquially named Ciutat in Catalan.

At the beginning of the 19th century, Palma became a refuge for many who had exiled themselves from the Napoleonic occupation of Catalonia and Valencia; during this period freedom flourished, until the absolutist restoration.

The patron of Palma is Sant Sebastià (January, 20). The city celebrates this festivity with traditional cultural events. Giants, bonfires, and local dancings (ball de bot) are enjoyed by everybody.

More information: Lonely Planet


Popular culture is most powerful when 
it offers us a vision of how our society 
should look -or at least reproduces our reality.

Janet Mock

Saturday, 19 January 2019

CLIMBING 'EL PUIG DE SANTA MAGDALENA' IN INCA

El Puig de Santa Magdalena
Today is a special day for The Grandma. She is going to climb el Puig de Santa Magdalena in Inca to homage one of her most beloved friends. Claire Fontaine has flown from Barcelona to Mallorca to share with The Grandma this experience.

During the trip by train from Palma to Inca, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her
Elementary Language Practice manual (Vocabulary 1).

El Puig de Santa Magdalena offers incredible views of the island, from the north (Alcúdia) to the south (Santanyí) and the west (Serra de Tramuntana). It's an exciting experience that you must live at least once in your life.

The Grandma is very interested in visit Inca, known for its wine cellars, because she is a great fan of wines and she likes knowing more information about their history, especially the terrible ages of phylloxera.


Inca is a town on the island of Mallorca. The population of the municipality is 25,900 in an area of 58.4 km².

There is a junction station Mallorca rail network with trains to Palma, the island's capital, to Sa Pobla, and to Manacor. Inca is home of the footwear company Camper.

Inca is known for its wine cellars. The town, like its neighboring municipality Binissalem, was a mass producer of wine from the 17th to 19th centuries when phylloxera destroyed the industry and its inhabitants turned to other activities such as tanning and leather craftsmanship. 

More information: ABC Mallorca

Many old wine cellars are being used as restaurants for serving traditional Mallorcan dishes like sopes mallorquines, tombet and gató d'ametlles. 

Alcúdia from El Puig de Santa Magdalena, Inca
Grape phylloxera, commonly just called phylloxera (from Ancient Greek: φύλλον, leaf, and ξηρός, dry) is a pest of commercial grapevines worldwide, originally native to eastern North America.

These almost microscopic, pale yellow sap-sucking insects, related to aphids, feed on the roots and leaves of grapevines, depending on the phylloxera genetic strain. On Vitis vinifera, the resulting deformations on roots and secondary fungal infections can girdle roots, gradually cutting off the flow of nutrients and water to the vine. 

Nymphs also form protective galls on the undersides of grapevine leaves of some Vitis species and overwinter under the bark or on the vine roots; these leaf galls are typically only found on the leaves of American vines.

Currently there is no cure for phylloxera and unlike other grape diseases such as powdery or downy mildew, there is no chemical control or response. The only successful means of controlling phylloxera has been the grafting of phylloxera-resistant American rootstock, usually hybrid varieties created from the Vitis berlandieri, Vitis riparia and Vitis rupestris species, to more susceptible European vinifera vines.

More information: Palate Press


There's something about being afraid, about being small, 
about enforced humility that draws me to climbing.

Jon Krakauer