This lion wont sleep tonight!

Having his nails and his hair done... This lion is getting ready for a night out!

 

Pink and blue, with a bit of yellow

Some UV filtered shots of the sky over Barcelona, 2 days ago.

Right. We got from our dear friend Blossomflowergirl, from the beautiful city of Melbourne, Australia (presently probably sitting on an elephant somewhere in South-East Asia), the following award:

 Well, thank you very very much!
The rules of the award are to forward it to 12 people. So, here we go!

In no particular order...

For service rendered to San Francisco, France, the coffee lovers all around the world, and mankind generally, Monsieur Louis La Vache himself! Son blog, c'est vachement bon!

Because it is finally spring in Europe, to Cieldequimper, now and then in beautiful Versailles, a right  royal place!

For making us discover Malaysia, the one and only Autumn Belle, in Klang!

To Misalyn, for being herself!

To Amatamari, aspettiamo le tue nuove photo, quando il computer sera reparato.

To Paty and her marvelous Floripa blog!

To Lizziviggi in Bellingham, may your whole life become a haiku!

To Steffe, by far the best artist and portraitist in Tungelsta!

4 to go!

To Jientje, because your blog and your photos are just plain marvelous! And don't you forget: Heaven... is in Belgium!

To Don and Krise  and their ever growing family in Olympia! Your blogs: a truly olympian feat!

To a very special and very favourite cat, Luna, a big purr back! Hope you like the flower, will get you some fish next time!

Last but not least:  Saretta, in Molfetta!

Barcelona...

...as seen from the top of Montjuic Castle, yesterday afternoon.

Houston, we have a problem! Blogger has some problems, can't see any of your posts.

Ireland in Barcelona

Even though I am French, having lived in Dublin and Cork, Ireland for quite a while, somewhere inside I feel very Irish. I read somewhere that there are over 13000 Irishmen and women living in Barcelona. I can understand this, as the weather here is so much nicer! Everybody has a sunseeking side, somewhere inside.

So anyway, there are many many Irish pubs around. This is one of them, Molly's Fair City. The fair city in question is Dublin! Incidentally, the name Dublin is viking, Dubh Lynn meaning black pond. Is this the reason why Guinness is dark? Is there a pond full of Guinness somewhere?
Hail to all Vikings!

The green stuff in the windows is the decoration for St Paddy's day.

Ladies and gents: El Salvador!

El salvador de la platja, the saviour of the beach! He will get us smoke free beaches.
During the warm season you can see people from the municipality giving out free ashtrays on the beaches,  in the shape of an icecream cone, green plastic thingies with a lid. Quite convenient, as nobody really likes cigarette ends in the sand.
And the posters for this campaign are really well done! The guy on the picture says, in Catalan something like: they are a plague, but I will eliminate them! More ore less, as my catalan is not very good.

Blue in the night

The AgBar Tower was lit last night. Here is as close I could get to it, with a 450 lens, 0.400 seconds, aperture 5.6, no flash or tripod used.

Sangria for everybody! It's on us!

What could be more Spanish than this; Sangria!

Sangria ingredients:

For approximately 1½ litres of Sangria

1 bottle of red wine
Lemonade
Brandy or Bacardi or Vodka
Grand Marnier or Cointreau
Lemon, orange and apple
Sugar
Ice

Preparation:

Into a punch bowl or a large jug pour 1 bottle of red wine and more or less the same amount of lemonade (in Spain they use gaseosa).  The quantity of lemonade depends on your taste. Add a good amount of ice.

Wash the fruit well as you are going to being using the peel as well.  Then slice up the citrus fruits, chop the apples and add to the mix.

You can stop at that if you want a light drink but if you want a zing add a shot of Brandy, Bacardi or Vodka and a shot of Grand Marnier or Cointreau.  This is up to you and you may want to experiment with it to find what you like.

Spanish people often add a little sugar but again this depends on your taste, personally I think a little sugar enhances the flavour.

Planting time, girls!

Still no internet, thanks God, there are internet places everywhere!

Spring! Planting time! Did you already plant something this year? What will it be? Carrots or roses, daffodils or spinach?

We have a small strawberry plantation. Yummy!

Update, 20.22: we have a new router! Here it is!

The Triumph Arch

The Arc de Triomf at night.
No internet at home, as our router went out in a puff of smoke. So, I´m posting from an internet cafe around the corner. Wont be able to browse any of your lovely blogs today, sorry!!!

Artists!

I admire these artists on the Rambla, not just for their skill, but also, and maybe mostly, for their patience. Sitting there for hours, waiting for clients, in the cold, in the heat, in the often very crowded Rambla. A job for saints...
And hasn't she got a big nose... Oops, sorry: it's a caricature!

Barcelona at night

Barcelona at night.... A few restaurants in the Born area of the old town.

Colon at night

The Christopher Columbus tower at the bottom of the Ramblas last night, in a tropical environment suited for him. His Spanish name is Cristobal Colon.

Zoological museum

Let's stay in the Ciutadella area a little longer.
Among other nice buildings in the Park, there is the zoological museum. And you can have an idea of the content of the museum even before entering it!

Oh yes, I just added the possibility to either send a free ecard of our pictures, or even to buy some prints! Don't hesitate!

Boys, let's have fun!

During our stroll through Ciutadella Park the other evening, we came accross this lovely little fountain, boys having fun.

A question for today

Question: what do you get if you combine yesterday's and today's picture?
Yes! It is

Duck a l'Orange

INGREDIENTS

2 Duck Legs or Breasts (with Skin left on)
Feshly ground Salt & Pepper
1 oz (25g) Butter

For the Orange Sauce...
1 Large Orange
4 fluid oz (100ml) French Red Wine
4 fluid oz (100ml) Fresh Orange Juice
2 fluid oz (50ml) Duck or Chicken Stock
1 Tablespoon of Honey or Brown Sugar

METHOD

Zest* the Orange Skin and set aside the thin strips of Peel. Remove as much of the Pith as possible from the Orange. Break into Orange Segments and set aside.

Clean the Duck Legs or Breasts under cold water and pat dry with Kitchen Towels. Score the Duck Legs or Breasts skin with a sharp knife and then season well with Salt & Pepper.

Heat the Butter in a large Frying Pan until frothing, but do not allow to burn.

Place the Duck Legs or Breasts in the pan and brown nicely on both sidess (2 or 3 minutes).

Once browned place aside on a plate and cover with Tin Foil to keep warm.

Spoon out most of the Duck / Butter fat from the Frying Pan. Add the Red Wine, Orange Juice, Honey, Duck or Chicken Stock, the Orange segments & and some of the Orange Peel. Reduce the sauce for a couple of minutes, stiring often.

To serve place a Duck Leg or Breast on each plate, pour over the Orange Sauce and sprinkle with the remaing Orange Peel.

Serves 2 as a Main Meal.

And a happy St Patrick's day to all Irish and assimilated!!!

Un oranger sur le sol espagnol...

Oranges. Picture taken an hour ago in Ciutadella Park, to which I will come back in the next few posts. Oranges in winter...
The post title refers to an old french song, about the impossibility of having orange trees in Ireland. Was sung by Bourvil. Eons ago.

Barrilonia, house of the rebels

Barrilonia, the house of rebelling people, is a very colourful house on the Rambla del Raval, near Botero's Cat.
The name Barrilonia is a contraption of barrio, neighborhood area, and, of course, Babilonia, Babylon.
The house itself is a kind of political art and workshop center (here is their website, for those interested, in Catalan). It seems to be very cosmopolitan.
Several interesting graffitis on the house front, particularly this one.

Rambla del Raval

La Rambla del Raval, yesterday afternoon. The Raval is a part of the old town also know as Ravalistan, due to the high number of Pakistanis living in the area. In the 1920es, it was known as Chinatown...
Anyway, 2 policemen on duty are watching, so that nobody graffities Botero's Cat, further down on the square. Spanish police uniforms are quite fierce, they look more like paratroopers than like your friendly neighborhood cop.

Here is the same picture after playing a bit with it.

Faster, food!

Quite a common sight in Barcelona, tshirts, jackets, bags with a supposedly funny picture or slogan.
I actually rather like this one, on someone's jacket.
Run, pussycat, run!!!
My apologies to Luna (click HERE!) if this picture is traumatising. I've read somewhere that you can now get  shrinks for pets, should you need it.

Skywatch Friday

The Sagrada Familia cathedral seems to harbor a photo shoot for every opportunity, be it Eric Tenin, a normal post, Skywatch Friday... Let's see what I can think of tomorrow.
Anyway, this is what you get when you bend backwards.

This is part of Skywatch Friday, as mentioned before. Please visit the other participants here

Heureux anniversaire, Paris Daily Photo!

5 years ago today, Eric started the whole thing called City Daily Photo Blogs. We, for our part, are happy to have joined much later, 307 days ago. Here is to you, Eric, even the Sagrada Familia Cathedral seems to be celebrating this special day!
Bon anniversaire!

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Sagrada Familia

Some of the incredible and so organic stonework on the flanks of the Sagrada Familia Cathedral. I am almost enclined calling it needlework. Please click on the picture to see the finer details, it's worth it!
Latest updates on Sagrada Familia and Barcelona. Although the cathedral wont be finished this century, the nave is almost finished and will be inaugurated in October this year by the Pope.
More info about it here, as usual.
Weather: it is absolutely freezing, day temperatures barely above freezing. The snow has gone, almost overnight. A lot of fuss for 2/3 inches of snow. But maybe not for the 70.000 people or so still without electricity, heat and hot water.

Valencia

Valencia, the slightly mad  fountain in front of the cathedral

More photos about yesterday's snowstorm here.

A very special day! Nevada historica en Barcelona

 Yes, today is a very special day indeed! Let us dwell in the urban history and myths... According to someone (in her thirties) I talked to today, this is the first day of it's kind in 10 years.
Our neighbor,  the owner of the local garage, a man in his sixties, hasn't seen anything like this since 1963.

Anyway, barceloneses will talk about this day for a long long time...

Que pasa, what is happening??? Let the pictures talk to us, shall we?

I shall post more than one picture today, today being a special day after all.

Here they come...

SNOW IN DOWNTOWN BARCELONA, AT SEA LEVEL! WEHEY!!!!!!!

It started snowing around 11.30 AM. By mid-afternoon, public transports had collapsed. 2 inches, 5 centimeters... 

09/03/2010 It's official, we had yesterday the heaviest snowfall since 1962, according to the papers and MeteoCat.

Wonderland

One of our main treats this month will be to watch the new Tim Burton movie, Alice in Wonderland.
This is what Barcelona had to say about it last summer during the Festa Major de Gracia, the cartoon way.

An award

 

Well, we got an award yesterday, from the Caffeinated Globe. Thank you very much, you have no idea how happy it makes us!

Now, the rules say:
List 10 things that make you happy, try to do at least one of them today and Tag 10 bloggers that brighten your day.

In no particular order, except for number 1:


1/ My wife Mandy.
2/ Cooking. I love cooking, makes me feel good.
2/ Warm weather. Fed up with the wet winter we had here lately.
3/ Making a difference.
4/ Taking pictures!
5/Meeting all of you nice people since I started this blog 301 days ago!!!!!!
6/ This is this blog's first award, and it makes us really happy!
7/ Watching a good movie.
8/ Chocolate!
9/ Living in Barcelona.
10/ A good book.


10 bloggers that brighten my day... How to choose only ten. Well, once again in no particular order:

Leif, from Eagan, in cold Minnesota
Leia, Cezar and their cat Luna, in Luxembourg
Dina, in my good old and dear Yerushalayim
Marie in Montpellier . She's got a very nice new header.
The best photo-poet this side of the galaxy, VP in Livorno
Arabesque, in Manilla
Hilda, also in Manilla
Priyanka, in our old home Delhi
Gunn, in icy Stavanger
And finally, last but absolutely not least, Juan Carlos, in beautiful Barcelona. One fantastic photographer!!!!!

Well, this is done. And I suddenly feel quite empty. What about him, what about her, what about them??? So many more people I could add on this list. Guys, you know who you are, thank you from the bottom of my heart!