A thousand words could not paint what I have before my eyes: day breaking over the Mediterranean and Barcelona below. Streaks of lilac, pink, orange on ultramarine clouds, framed by the lighter blues of the sky. And below, the sea, still unlit by the sun, is a grey-blue, hazy with mist. High above the city below and the sea, roosters are crowing.
Our last day in Barcelona, in Catalunya, on this house-hunting trip. Each day we have fallen in love with one house, superseded by the next day’s favourite. We have a checklist of must-haves, but in the end, it is the feel of a house — the spirit of a place and the feelings that have filled a house — that give a house and its environs its own particular character. A home’s spirits of place, if you will.
How do you choose a house? For me, aside from the usual requirements of sufficient space and number of rooms, I love having distant views. The last one we viewed, just three-quarters of an hour by car from Barcelona, seemed to radiate the peace and serenity of its owner, a yoga and Bach Flower Remedies practitioner. And it had views of mountains and the sea. There is a botanical garden, a famous one, and three more renowned municipal gardens nearby.
We have tough decisions to make ahead.
Views from Nightingale Cottage 