Friday Fun Fact #5: Golf

I suppose most of us have heard of the sport of golfing. While the modern game of golf originated in 15th century Scotland, it seems the Romans and the Chinese were playing very similar games between the eighth and twelfth centuries. The idea of the game is to hit a small ball into a series of holes, using the least moves possible.

(Photo from Google images)

But where did the word GOLF come from? It is an acronym and stands for Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden!

Birthday outing

Last Saturday, 24th August, was our youngest son's 12th birthday. Traditionally, on his  birthday, we do some kind of activity or outing, basically because the day falls in the middle of the holidays and we can!

This year, the evening before, we visited the Tarragona Port Museum for a guided historical, theatrical tour and then we went on a trip around the port in a tourist boat. Around here nocturnal activities are the most normal thing during the summer and this particular one started at 10.00 pm. The port, by night, was fascinating. Here are a couple of photos which I have taken from Google images. (My camera is a simple one and I don't have much experience with flash pictures. This is not our group, but we did the same activity.)

Tarragona lighthouse

Fun short video with music

Hope you enjoy this fun little video. We certainly did!

Munchy Monday #13: Summer rolls

You can make as many rolls as needed with this recipe as I haven't indicated any particular measures. Allow 2-3 rolls for each person. Advanced preparation  is necessary.

You will need:

A pile of cooked mashed potato (I use potato flakes - just add to hot milk or water, salt and a knob or two of margarine)
Sandwich ham
Tuna, drained
Cooked spinach (optional, but recommended)
Olives, corn or finely chopped lettuce to decorate
Any kind of tomato sauce (not ketchup)

Method:

Prepare the potato and leave to cool.  Mix in the spinach and tuna. Roll a small amount of potato mix up in a piece of ham and lay on a serving tray or dish. Keep repeating the process until you have used up all all the potato mix. Decorate and leave in the fridge till needed.

 

Note: This recipe is gluten free, and can be egg and dairy free, too. I don't use milk and the potato is fine. Just be careful with the ingredients of the sandwich ham and the margarine.

From Vilanova i la G. to Sitges, along the coast path

On Wednesday, the 21st of August, we took our lunch to Vilanova and walked the coast path to Sitges. The path runs alongside the railway, and up over the tunnels. Below are some photos I took along the way. 

 

Calafell castle

Last Tuesday, the 20th of August, we went to Calafell again, this time to visit the castle.

This castle was originally constructed by peasants who had fled from hard times and taxes in the Barcelona region. They built some homes on the rocks, within walls and the original chapel.

 

Then, some time later, it was purchased and enlarged. The chapel was extended and eventually the castle became a fortress to be used in defence against the Arabs.

M. using a little canon - a culverin

A fresco from the enlarged chapel

This castle, like the castle in L'Albiol, dates back to the twelfth century.

La Talaia del Montmell

This is where we went on Saturday afternoon. We must be crazy! La Talaia is just behind where we live and another one of those places we have always wanted to visit but somehow have never found the right moment.

The furthest (highest) point is where we were aiming to reach

One boy...

Another boy!

 

 

A precarious descent, lots of fun

For much of the climb up there was a thunderstorm brewing in the distance. More than once I thought we would have to turn back!

El castell de L'Albiol, les Virtuts i la Serra del Pou

This is what we did last Thursday, 15th of August. First we walked till we reached Les Virtuts, a church in ruins on the top of a cliff.

It was beautiful up there, with little birds twittering in the trees and two eagles flying overhead. We stopped there to eat our lunch. Then we walked back a little way and took another route which would take us up the mountainside to the top, along a little way and then back down, almost to the point of departure. We found many interesting flowers and these two little treasures which were worth taking photos of:

The views were breathtaking from so high up...

L'Albiol castle from La Serra del Pou

La Serra del Pou from L'Abiol castle

Our path through the woods

For the most part the forest is red pine, and there were little, tiny pine cones everywhere (more about that in another post!) In all, a round trip of about 10 kms and at the highest point we were about 900 metres above sea level.

 

The castle might have originally been built as a Roman watchtower, but later became a border castle during the Arab domination of the peninsula. It was reconstructed and ruled by different lords and then in the 17th century the Castillian troops knocked it down after the rebellion of "the Segadors" which the Catalonians lost.

Munchy Monday #12: Apple and melon smoothie

This is my own concoction derived from the need to finish up small portions of fruit. Makes 6 reasonable smoothies.

You will need:
1/3 of a melon, skinned and roughly chopped
6 golden delicious apples, peeled and quartered
2 medium bananas, peeled and cut into three pieces each
A good handful of white seedless grapes
A small squirt of lemon juice (only necessary if not to be consumed immediately)

Method:

Put all ingredients into a juice maker or whizz them all together with a blender. Keep cool (the smoothie, I mean!).

Breakfast: smoothie and banana bread

La Ciutadella, Calafell

This is what we did last Tuesday, 13th August. Funnily enough, we've been stumbling over this place, metaphorically speaking, to reach our own front door for the last 20 odd years. We felt that it was about time we payed a visit, seeing as we have a budding historian in the family!

La Ciutadella is a very well preserved Iberian settlement. Some years ago permission was given to reconstruct the original ruins which, if you look very carefully, can be seen, marked by a red line running around the outside wall.

The settlement from the outside

The other end of the same wall

Iberian phonetics

Metal casting moulds

The Iberians worked with bronze, iron and lead.

A doorway

They were not very tall. In this photo you can compare the height of the door with that of my son, who is eleven going on twelve. He is tall for his age, too.

A view from the tower

Here I am, walking down the main street

These particular Iberians, and possibly others in the area, were here during the 600 years before the coming of our Lord.

My birthday outing, July 6th

I love birds of prey and this year for my birthday present everybody put money into a hat to pay for a visit to a bird of prey training centre. At the moment they have only four birds but they do want to expand.

We had an exclusive session where we were introduced to the birds. We were  then told about their habits, food, flight patterns, etc. and after that we flew the birds ourselves.

Take a look at these photos:

Oishibi is an eagle owl

Quito is a peregrine falcon

Pepe is a buzzard

Azahara is a larger kind of eagle owl

We flew two of the birds only because of difficulties with Azahara and Quito. Azahara was moulting which meant her hormones made her much wilder, with a large possibility that she would escape. The experts flew her, but tied on with a long cable! Quito was also moulting, didn't want to fly and wasn't hungry!  

More photos:

My son with Pepe

A. chatting with Pepe

Me with an eagle owl on my arm! WOW!

That was the first part of the day. For lunch we went up the mountains to a park we had been told about. It was a pretty park and we were the only people there for a good while. We ate in the shade of a strange building, looking over the valley where we had spent the morning.

View of the valley

While some dozed...

...others prepared for a water fight!

And welcome it was, too. With the temps. 35ºC +, this is something that nobody complains about!

Sadly, at the end of the day, we had to take our friend D. back to the airport to catch his flight home.

L'Estany d'Ivars, Vilasana

Last Thursday (8th August) we went to this beautiful lake. It was another hot day but we enjoyed it immensely. The path around the lake is about two and a half kilometres and every so often there are watchtowers so that one can see the fauna and the view without being a bother. There was also a prepared picnic place where we ate our sandwiches, with views across the lake.

The lake

These are just some of the birds we saw:

Bee eater

Red heron

Little grebe

Storks

Crested grebe

White heron

Black-winged stilt

Western marsh harrier

All of the bird photographs are taken from Google images. The photos are as we saw the birds. I took my camera with me but we focused on watching them with binoculars. It was so beautiful.