Bare Spars

The campsites are deserted after the season, the visitors gone, the car parks empty.

Without the flags, normally those of France, UK and Germany alongside Catalonia and sometimes the Netherlands, the flagpoles remind me of the bare spars of yachts in harbours, unmoving for the winter season with the sound of shrouds tinkling against bare masts.

The sky is strange today, we are getting storms and thunder, rain and wind.

Autumn to me always seems the abandoned season in Spain. Deserted cafes, empty beaches and that air of slight decay and abandonment that British seaside resorts have in winter. But underneath the outer shell of gloom there is a vibrant growth looking forward to Nadal and the Kings, New Year and spring over the horizon.

Tonight is the Festa Major in Banyoles , Funfair Rides, Stalls, Music concerts and increasingly the spreading menace of drunken teenagers and fights and problems with neighbours. Some habits should stay in their countries of origin. It is interesting that the African immigrants stand aside from the whole thing and shake their heads in wonder. However I wonder if in ten years time they too will be looking for their teenage kids and wondering why they haven't come home.