Children at Play

Soundscapes I love while lying in bed on a hot summer evening with the window open

after 16 hours of flying:

• Children happily at play.

• Birds singing.

• Occasional dog barks and hardly a car motor in earshot.

• Children happily at play.

Managed an early evening nap after a long flight to Frankfort and another shorter one to Barcelona (where I miraculously met an Orff colleague also on her way to Barcelona!). Two good airplane movies and one more that deserved the theater—Promised Land, with Matt Damon. Just the kind of movie I love about bad guys hurting innocent people for profit— in this case, “fracking” for natural gas— and then some transformation occurs. As well as a surprising plot twist that I won’t reveal.

Awoke to the lovely sounds above, strolled up the cobblestoned street in Manresa, northwest of Barcelona, to a bar and a simple dinner of patatas bravas, chicken wings, a refreshing salad with Roqueforte cheese and walnuts (by why, oh why, does iceberg lettuce still exist?) and a clara beer (beer with Sprite). Just what the Spanish—well, Catalan—doctor ordered.  Short stroll to the church atop the hill, looking up at the stars and out to the Roman-arched bridge and happily so.

The children have gone to sleep, the birds are silent, small groups of men roam the small town’s plaza, we’ll see what jet lag has in store for this sleepy traveler.