enchanted garden

It's summer! In Barcelona it's the coolest July for 22 years, which means the weather is actually pretty perfect. For Sant Joan, a night that usually involves fireworks, all night parties, and beach madness, I went to the country to a friend's parents' house, and engaged with fresh air, the earth below my feet, and watering their garden which contained everything from your usual vegetables to garlic and quince! Quince is one of those fruits that is quite well known here but I feel like a lot of English speakers like me only know it from "The Owl and the Pussycat."

On that note:
They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.

Summer!







Dress from Family Affairs, photos by Victor

a deleriously pretty summer wedding

Montreal stuff is coming, but in the meantime I forgot to post these pictures, which are a chance to show off my favourite dress of the year. I've been wearing this to all kinds of summer parties in Barcelona, and it's one of pieces that makes you feel instantly special. Not the kind of thing I'd wear to the office, but a good antidote to the blah-ness of everyday life.

This was the wedding of a very old friend of mine, who I hadn't seen in 15 years. We grew up across the street from each other in Thunder Bay, Ontario, but when I was 10 my family moved out west. We didn't really keep in touch, but when he heard I was in the country I got a last minute invite to his wedding. It was gorgeous, it was amazing to see him and his brother again all grown up, and the food was really. damn. good. I always find weddings a bit weird, and I'm not sure I could have one that was so formal and ritualistic myself, but I won't deny it was a good time, and I must have had three helpings of pie and ice cream....


me and my dad! :)


There was a trio of cute Norwegian girls there, and one had a manicure of different animals with googly eyes and everything.




My main memories of these guys are in pyjamas...


Summer in Ontario, how I love you and your fresh berries for pies!

(dress is by Family Affairs; I like to support the independent brands by labelling them, although I don't with many of my clothes).

secluded coves and rocky beaches

Oh summer! Oh, the beach! Even though for someone as white as me the beach almost inevitably means sunburn (even though I use factor 50, there's always somewhere you forget to put it; I've burnt everything from the tips of my ears to the soles of my feet...) summer is also incomplete without a trip to a rocky cove, to eat a picnic of salads and fruit, to read in the sun, to get progressively wimpier with each passing year about water temperature. Seriously, I was looking at old photos last night. When I was 21 I would swim in glacier-fed Canadian lakes, now I moan about the fact that the Mediterranean is "cold." I've been spoilt by life in hot countries.

Anyway, this charming cove is near Ametlla de Mar, near Tarragona. Five of us borrowed a car, packed our salads, forgot our bottle of wine (probably for the best) met up with friends who were camping in the area, and spent the afternoon getting gloriously sunburnt, buffeted by waves, raked across the rocks, and reading in the surf.






I love my new one piece but I love it more for Canada... one of the great joys of the Mediterranean is going topless and feeling like a little kid, and I missed that...





P.S. I had some fun looking at past idyllic beach posts...
In Menorca: here and here
In Cornwall: here and here
In Mataró: here
And ages ago in Mexico here

no roses grow on a sailor's grave

Typically, I've never been a fan of the themed party. You know, where everyone has to come as a super-hero, or their favourite My Little Pony, or whatever. Partly because it tends to be so competitive, and partly because I move a lot so I never have any stuff so I must either buy things or not participate. This summer I've had two themed parties however, and I may be a convert. The first was a midsummer's eve with wigs (my friend Amandine and I organized it, and we wanted an excuse to use our wigs from Carnaval again). And then there was the nautical-theme we chose for going to a music festival right next to the beach in Vilanova i la Geltru. Easy! Everyone already has striped clothes! (Which didn't stop my friend and I from going out and buying more for the occasion, but anyway).

Then we made tattoos.




I honestly hardly remember the music portion. It was quite a random mix I think. I just danced because I was there and happy and because it was hilarious being in a group of ten equally stripey people (the official photographers didn't know what to make of us).







We eventually left the enclosed area to dance on the beach, and swim in the sea at 4 am, and then I characteristically curled up in a ball on a towel and closed my eyes and when I woke up it was dawn.





And we finally got a picture of those who were still standing. (Rosa was originally in stripes too, someone had taken a tumble into the water and needed a wardrobe contribution).


And then I slept on the beach some more, until it was too hot to be believed, and then it was time for paella.