A GOZITAN MID WINTER

December 21, 2016 | gaiainaction

Under a bright sun on this midwinter day we took a walk among the limestone rocks and wild plants in Xlendi, a seaside fishing village on Gozo.
It feels so good to be among these beautiful honey coloured rocks, and to see the fresh young green after the days of rain we have experienced.
How beautiful this earth really is and how everything regenerates even when the drought of last year threatened to destroy so many trees and plants. It is a joy to behold all this freshness.
My partner said earlier “today is the shortest day, from now on the days are lengthening again”. Yes ‘light’ is coming, that is what we celebrate on Christmas day after all isn’t it, the ‘light’ coming into the darkness.
There is hope yet for mankind and for the earth, I will never give up hope. Every new little plant that comes up out of the earth even through the rock gives me that hope. People are much more beautiful than we think they are. Love to all my friends at this Christmas time.

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GGANTIJA TEMPLES

November 25, 2016November 25, 2016 | gaiainaction

It has been quite a few days since I wrote in my blog, so now I am back and with pleasure. My sister was with us and we had so much to see and talk about that nothing came from writing. It was, of course, a very valuable time.

Gozo is still a place where, now after nearly two months I’m totally happy, relaxed, and feeling joy in everyday walking around the beautiful limestone houses, churches, other buildings and landscapes. The flowers, plants and insects are very attractive to me and to learn about them is a delight. The people are friendly and very nice. I have now attended two of my pillow lace making classes and have become friendly with the women there, delightful, and I just totally adore making the lace – well that is to say – learning the first stitches. It is a very relaxing activity and the work is beautiful to look at.

With December coming up there is a lot of activity planned by the local people to celebrate Christmas, religion is still very much part of it, which is only normal in my view and it is refreshing not to be in a total commercial way of celebrating Christmas. It is warm, feels like it is around 20C and sometimes over 20C. We have had thunder storms and one week of much needed rain, you could see the fields becoming greener as the days went by. Now I see farmers tending to their vegetable plots.

I cannot help taking photos, some of which I hope to use in starting to draw in pencil, and I like to share them too. This place is a photographer’s paradise if you are interested in architecture – which I am too. But also if you just like to document the local flora and fauna. I know that in the coming month I will have the opportunity to photograph people at their festivals and that too will be interesting.

And so I will share our last day together. My sister and I delighted as we visited the ancient temples in Xaghra and walked for two hours around that really charming town. We had a lovely lunch in the square as well. And we descended 10 meters down into the earth to look at caves, it was a strange feeling being in the bowels of the earth, very strange and my first time being in such a low cave, our heads nearly touching the ceilings.

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Man selling little jars of Carob syrup or honey on the way to the temples.

Views of the Ggantija temples which date back to between 3600 and 3200 B.C. The outer shell of the temples has been well preserved because it has been made from Coralline limestone which is hardwearing, while the inner structures like doors or altars had been made in the softer Globigerina limestone.

Lunch at a nice little eating place near the church and in the square was delicious. We walked for hours along the narrow roads of this town, we saw beautiful lacy curtains on the double doors which is traditional here. I love the arches, the different features in the architecture of the houses, and the use of a little colour is striking as seen in the blue paint on the gold stone. Often people may be sitting on a bench or chairs and enjoying the peace of the place here in Gozo. My sister Josefine posing near a beautiful historical door.

Inside the caves. Though fascinating it is not totally my cup of tea, I was too aware of being so deep underground.

We came across this man making his lace. My teacher later told me that he is the only ‘man’ in Gozo that makes lace. His work was so very neat!

Carrob tree bark

Carrob tree

Carrob tree flower

And this are the leaves, bark, fruit, and flower of the Carob tree (Ceratonia silique), and evergreen tree the pods of which are used here to make a syrup used for cough and sore throats. Originally also used as animal fodder, the tree belongs to the pea family.

I hope to be back now to writing as I have so much to share of this amazing place. All my senses are at top performance to take it all in and reflecting on it is what my blog at the moment is all about. I hope my friends and followers will enjoy some of it too.

THE LAND – AFTER RAIN

November 1, 2016 | gaiainaction

It is nice to see that after the recent heavy rains on the Maltese islands, the land is showing signs of breathing easier, of coming to life again after the long drought which in some cases made the trees start to show signs of stress and the land of totally drying out. As can be seen on the photos, and these I took around Victoria, there is still a lot of small area farming going on, vegetables and grains are grown small scale by part-time farmers.

According to Philip von Brockdorff, (Department of Economics at the University of Malta), there are several challenges of agriculture on Gozo. Full-time farmers are becoming fewer and fewer, it is the way like it seems to be in other countries too, farmers are becoming older and their children are less and less interested in farming as a means of living. On the other hand part-time farmers have been very much on the increase. To help with the future of agriculture on Gozo, reliance on EU subsidies is unavoidable and useful and should help a lot with rural development.

Dairy and vegetable growing, especially tomatoes which are used for processing, of ketchup and sauces which are exported to many European countries, UK and Ireland being the largest importers.
There is some local wine produced too, and of course lovely local honey. It is lovely to see cottage industries on the rise where foods are produced locally.
One of the problems with food production on Gozo is the lack of regular precipitation. When we arrived here in beginning of October it had not rained for many months and you could see it on the land, the farmers sure were praying for rain! And now they got some of it and the growing can continue. There is a lovely acre of potatoes growing vigorously close by here. The photos I took on one of our walks around the outskirts of Victoria, show lots of small but fertile plots of land being worked on and producing some sort of crop. It is good to see, and to see similar all over Gozo.

I’ve only loosely written down some of my own observations and thoughts about agriculture on Gozo and I read the article which Philip von Brockdorff wrote back in 2013 in the Times of Malta. I’ve a lot more to read and understand about agriculture on the Maltese islands and in particular on Gozo. One of the observations which I made very soon after we arrived is that you see none or very little cattle on the land here, coming from Ireland that is really a big difference. It means that the animals both for consumption and for dairy are never on lovely green grass and I think that would make a large difference in the quality of the end product, this also goes for the eggs and poultry production. I guess we are very spoiled in this regard, but then every country needs to have its own ways of dealing with particular problems, in this case it is the lack of lots of lush grass to feed the cattle, the lack of precipitation and the thin layer of topsoil which plays a role I think.

One development I would like to see on Gozo is more organic farms, but then I don’t know if a lot of pesticide and fertilizer are being used here, I asked a vegetable seller at a stall in Victoria about this and he said that some of the vegetables he sells are produced by what they call the ‘old way’ he indicated that this meant that no or very little chemicals were used in the growing of them. Well, who knows.

You see all the lovely terraced fields around Gozo and you think that in times past the place must have been totally self sufficient when it came to food production. Something for me to read up on I guess.
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GETTING TO KNOW IR-RABAT

October 24, 2016 | gaiainaction

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St.Francis square and church, this is where the library is found also, beside the old hospital on the right. It is a busy square and the café at the corner is where one can find the locals drink and chat. In the old hospital, besides a beautiful courtyard is a place where regular exhibitions are held of work by Maltese or Gozitan artists.

Road where national reference library is

Close to where the National Research Library is situated, I found this little bookshop, it was closed as it was around one o’clock, but in the window were displayed the sweetest and most beautifully sculpted little portrayals of life on Gozo, people in all sort of work and play, I will visit there again and hopefully the shop will be open. The old door is one of much found style here, the arches are plentiful in local architecture, I think that it looks real nice. It is in the little streets like the one above on the left that one finds all these treasures, and there are plenty of these streets.

In another one of those narrow streets I came upon a lady, her name is Victoria, she was making her lace in the doorway and we got chatting, seems I can take classes after all, she is going to talk to her teacher around the corner, that would be lovely and I will take the opportunity if it presents itself. The interesting thing was that the lady hardly spoke any English, wish I could speak Malti but so far only a few words like bonju, and triq….

Shop where religious statues are painted or restored

Another interesting shop I came across was this one where the man was restoring religious statues, he did a marvellous job by the look of it. The place smelled of paint. It is interesting about the culture here in Gozo that religious objects are still part and parcel of everyday life. I entered another little shop just beside the St.George church where a nice man called Martin informed me about the sisters (a religious order instigated by Don Bosco in Italy called the Salesians) that are still working with orphans and young people right here in Victoria, he told me to go and see them and they would tell me all about the more social aspects of the place, as in what sort of social work is being done and what problems, if any, are most prominent here on Gozo. I will take him up on it and go see the sisters. If you live in a place you have got to know a bit more about the people, the culture, and the community. It is what interest me most beside the architecture, the plants and insects, and the limestone.

What a pleasant and most interesting morning I experienced, now more than ever I believe that if I want to get to know a place and its people, all I have to do is talk to whoever is open to chat. It is amazing the knowledge you gather that way. And what a lovely and interesting place this island really is.

AN UPDATE ON MY TERRACE GARDEN

October 14, 2016 | gaiainaction

The tomato plants are doing very well, and so are the lettuce though I think that it is a bit too hot for them, we shall see what comes.
The seedlings are starting to really come up, at the moment they are only as far as the cotyledons but they look healthy and it is exciting to see them grow.
The temperature is still reaching near the 30C but it feels much hotter, it is nice though that now and then there is a little breeze which brings relieve.
I have taken to picking up bits of succulent plants on the roads, this is good because I can propagate them and it is a joy to see them do well. It is fun too to discover yet another orphan lying in the dusty street of Victoria, bringing it home and giving it a new lease of life. I am really enjoying all this.

My little corner in the conservatory, it will expand as plants will grow.

Every conceivable container is used as we cannot spend to much money on buying plant pots, and anyway its good to re-cycle isn’t it.

These are all succulents that I found on the street and brought home.

Some of my seedlings coming up, some more containers that are going to be put to use.

Here are two more succulents and their flowers, pretty and interesting.

A SMALL CONTAINER GARDEN ON GOZO

October 8, 2016 | gaiainaction

About a week ago we arrived on the island of Gozo, we are staying in the wonderful town of Victoria and have a flat there that has a terrace and a small conservatory too. As I miss my garden in West Cork I decided to try my hand here at growing plants, herbs, small vegetables and also flowers in containers and yesterday I started. I will use anything I can get my hands on as containers, milk cartons, bottle bottoms, buckets etc. but I also bought some long containers in a garden centre, soil also and it was a job getting that up the stairs but I managed. I had brought some sealed seeds from home and sowed some of the herbs including a really good small leafed basil, and lemon balm. Here in Victoria I bought four tomato plants and some lettuce plants to start myself off. To prepare the soil I used coffee grinds, banana peels and eggshells and I added a bit of this underneath each plant. The temperature here is still around 30C and humidity is high, though the last few days it has become less so. Sunshine a plenty here!
I had sown some chives earlier in the week and goodness me one little seedling has popped up today! I am waiting and hoping for more.
My aim is to grow everything organic but for a start my soil is not, one must do what one can of course and it is not possible to get organic soil around here, at least I will not be using pesticides or fertilizer and that has got to be good. The magic of seeing things grow is already good enough for me and the enjoyment that gives is very good for one’s health anyway – so!
I found some bamboo sticks on the side of the road and took them home to use as supports when the tomato plants get bigger. I also found a lovely piece of succulent plant on the footpath the other day which I have now rooted and it produced a beautiful little orange flower. There were the cacti to look after that belong to the flat, and I am rooting another few succulent leaves that I found on the road.

I am so very happy here on Gozo, I just love everything about the place, the people, the architecture, the limestone, the culture, the exotic plants, the weather, the sun, and the Mediterranean foods, it is all wonderful!

Making my fertilizer from banana skins, coffee grinds, and eggshells.

Containers ready to use, some of them anyway. Seeds picked to sow.

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bought lettuce plant

Tomato and lettuce plants

bamboo sticks found on roadside

start of container garden

The bamboo sticks to support the tomato plants when the time comes

microgreens broccoli sprouting

testing seeds: wintercrop lettuce 6/10

Some micro plants, and trying out lettuce seeds from back home

The cacti belonging to the flat after I gave them some TLC, and the succulent i found on the footpath the other day, all are doing fine.

SHADES OF AUTUMN

September 21, 2016 | gaiainaction

The colours of the autumn season, in all their different browns have all got beautiful and inspiring names I think, as inspiring as their shades differ in hues and in the energy they emanate. I guess we associate browns very much with the mellow and misty autumn season, the shades of amber, ochre, sepia, chestnut, burnt sienna, russet, bronze, copper, and tawny to name only a few can usually be found in a variety of autumn leaves, a beautiful pallet. Many painters have used browns to good advantage, among them Caravaggio of whom I recently admired two original works in the cathedral in Valetta. He very effectively used browns to create his wonderful shadows. Anton Van Dyke used browns also, he used a brown called Cassel Earth, it was made up mainly of decayed vegetable matter. Iron oxide though is the most common ingredient in brown pigments, but also manganese oxide.

I read a fascinating book last year about colours, about the origins, their historical uses and much more. The book is called “Colours: Travels through the paintbox” and is written by Finli Viktoriya. It sure takes one travelling, and also back into history, a great read.
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DANCE OF THE SPIDERS

August 30, 2016 | gaiainaction

Yesterday I took a look at some of the spiders which were hanging around the garden, seeing that the turn of the season is almost upon us and with the morning mists and the evening becoming cooler, the spiders seem to become much more noticeable. They immediately reminded me of ballerinas, especially the three first ones that I came across, they are garden spiders, Araneus diadematus, also called the Crowned Orb Weaver. You see those a lot around here, they are quite beautiful and have sometimes huge webs. They rarely enter the house. In autumn the gardens are full of them. I took the first three photos, of two different spiders just outside along the wall beside the rainwater barrel.

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The fine slender spider is quite unfamiliar to me and I cannot locate it, I did not see it before in the garden either.

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Here in between two leaves (the leaves looked as if they had been pulled together into some sort of hammock), there are two garden spiders, sleeping perhaps, not sure but they looked quite cosy in there. I’ll be keeping an eye out for other species with the autumn starting. We are still getting nice weather, perhaps we might even get an Indian summer. Schools have started and everyone is getting back into routine, we saw a great number of swallows gathering on a neighbour’s roof, another sign of the season’s changing and their farewell to our shores, and we ourselves are preparing for our journey to warmer climate too.

DELIGHTS OF ART AND YOUNG MINDS

August 2, 2016 | gaiainaction

Last week there was the yearly Art Festival in our town of Skibbereen. It is getting better every year, and what nicer way to explore it than with my two growing grandchildren, who are little artists in their own way, and they take an intelligent interest in art.

So we set off on our exploration of some of the exhibitions, and there were many, they were held all over the town. We did not strictly stick to the Art Trail, we started off at the Uillinn Art Centre where we wanted to see the work of John Kelly. There were his beautiful landscapes, which were scrutinised by our young artists, including technique and paint finishes. Our main interest though was Kelly’s group of paintings which he produced during his stay in Antarctica, and on his way there in 2013. The wall was covered with these works, large and small, the whole collection told us his story of that journey, and the girls were quite impressed. I wanted them to take away this idea of telling a story in a collection of small paintings. Later in the day we were going to get paints and boards to try our hands on this idea.
Some of Kelly’s other works did get some comments, even some raised eyebrows.
The paintings in Catherine Hammond’s Gallery got much approval, and favourites were picked, this exhibition was called ‘Contemporary Realism’. A little Gallery further along in Bridge Street was really interesting, at least for me it was, and the girls took it in their stride too. Vauney Strahan’s works were an education for me and I had to look her up on Google, I do like her art very much, here is a link to her profile; http://www.saatchiart.com/vauneystrahan
Least interesting to the young minds was the Old Bottling Plant where we saw works by Angela Flowers, though some of Angela’s works were fabulous. And the exhibition by Paul Cialis, ‘Saints and Sinners’ did not even get a look into, which was just as well, because it was a little beyond their age group.

We were all three getting tired, taking in a lot of visual stimulation can use up energy fast! So we just popped into one last exhibit, a re-creation of a shop of the early twentieth century, the girls loved it, they were looking all over it. It showed them a example of shopping before the supermarkets started.

We went home after buying the art materials, and we started to paint, after a pizza meal, and lots of banter with Ian. Both grandchildren gave a very individual interpretation to what they saw during the day; my 9 year old painted a beautiful image of a horse, incorporating colours and combinations she noticed today, and my 8 year old painted an ice scene with penguins after John Kelly’s paintings. It is very nice to be able to share the love of art with my grandchildren, and lovely to see young minds at work, and hearing their opinions on what they observe.

Karen Billing’s paintings at the Uillinn, Skibbereen

Paintings also exhibited were by Karen Billings, and earlier on in the week I attended an excellent event called ‘Dark Matter’, Greg Sholette in conversation with Katherine Waugh. The topic was ‘What’s missing in art and politics in an enterprise culture’. Enjoyed a lot.