And that was the story today, more wonderful creations to admire. While visiting the Ggantija Temples, of which I will write at some later stage, we experienced a wonderful outing, very interesting, the ancient works of mankind. And yet the eye did wander off to where the flowers, and the insects were. And here are some to share.
Today we ventured on one of the ‘hop on hop off’ busses which travels virtually the whole of the island. It was the first day we that the sky was overcast and there was a breeze which made it quite chilly travelling on top of the open bus, but the views were spectacular. I wanted in particular to see what sort of crops were produced on the land. I have got a much better idea about that now, I took many photos and will write about this particular subject in the near future, it is a subject close to my heart. We enjoyed the Craft village where we saw all sorts of crafts being worked, most interesting to me was the lace making, but more about that also in a later blog. So much to write about…. Meanwhile I hope you enjoy the photos.
I’ve had my eye on this exhibition for a few days already, I did not know anything about the artist or his work, but I thought that I had to start somewhere if I wanted to discover the art of the Gozotian people, and that I wanted. So today I stepped inside the hall and immersed myself in the works of George Scicluna, an artist born right here in Victoria on Gozo. His work did not immediately appeal to the eye, you had to look at it long to try and get what was going on in the artists mind, I struggled a bit with that, I did notice that all of the large paintings had a religious motive, but not in a devotional way, I thought that the artist was looking for answers in his mind, in a most torturous way, looking for answers about life, about belief, faith, fear, torture, redemption, humankind. I could be totally wrong about all this. But I strongly believe that true ‘Art’ is supposed to allow or encourage the observer to ‘feel’ something, or to ‘experience’ something, and that it did for me, this exhibition of paintings made me feel how mankind does run around with deep anguish about its existence, about the why and how. I can relate to that very well.
That’s all, and that is good enough for me.
Later on I went to check out some more work of the same artist and found that he is also a sculptor, creating fine, sculptors in lime stone. Nice.
Some of the works in the exhibition, with the artist.
This evening we took a walk along the cliffs at Xlendi. It had been a hot day and the evening cool was nice and refreshing. Where the path leaves the road it becomes interesting and I found many wild plants and flowers growing here. The landscape was beautifully lit by the setting sun, which throws a special warm light over the earth. Higher up along the cliffs there is an amazing array of terraced walls in the local stone, the walls are dry, stones just left on top of one another. It looks like they are terraced agriculture land but they are actually a pathway winding its way up to the top of the cliff, towards the tower, we did not get that far this time but are planning another walk and pick-nick soon up there. The moon was rising at the same time, full moon it seems too, it is so very beautiful here, photos just don’t do it justice.
A little journey to visit Marsalforn today, an apparent busy tourist place in the North-East of the island, where the apartment buildings greet you as you get closer to the sea and the promenade. The narrow little streets of the older village are quant and more interesting. The sea itself is so blue and transparent, and to the north of the harbour you can still see some fishing boats and nets. It is only a few minutes bus drive from Victoria, which is the capital of Gozo and lies in the middle of the island. Every place on Gozo is close by each other, a short bus drive and you are there.
I discovered a few colourful and beautiful sights while there today. I saw that the reddish fishing nets they had in Marsaxlokk, Malta were being used here too, and baskets to catch octopus, as far as I know. While walking in among some of the apartment blocks I then came across the little yellow Oxalis Pes-Caprae flowers, and a few of the Sulla flowers which brighten everything with their beautiful shade of red.
On the way to Marsalforn I saw some signs of agricultural practices, this I am very interested in, Gozo has suffered drought for a few months now and everything does look very dry, though the neatly ordered rows of vegetables, I saw lots of onions, looked healthy enough. The hay had been harvested too in lots of fields. I want to explore this further, what is being grown, produced and so on. I did see quite a few vine yards but they were smaller than in Malta. The grapes are delicious here though. I know that a lot of wells are being used to water the land, but also that the mains water comes from desalination of seawater, I want to find out more about all this.
The views out to sea along some of the coast are impressive with the limestone eroded in all sort of shapes. .
One of the stones of which newly built walls were made near the dried out river in the town, in this limestone I could see crystals if that is possible, very beautiful and intriguing. These type of walls you see all over Gozo and in Malta too, they used to be erected to prevent erosion but also of course to divide the land. I think they look so lovely, all the white limestone pilled up on each other. The wall I came across in Marsalforn was a new one, but I believe that the older types are now under the protection of the Heritage rules.
Though I was not that impressed with the touristy area of this town, we are going to go back and explore the older town and beyond, beyond is where the salt pans are and some other villages, I am curious! More to come on that part of Gozo.
I walked up a rocky path along the deep blue water today.
Lizards were scuttling about all over the place. Their green skin beautiful. It was sunny and hot, very hot, water dripped from my cap and down my forehead. I saw so many wild flowers and plants around me and I wanted to record them all, like I usually do. It is then I saw the black bees, lovely, a type I do not know.
People are swimming in the creek this afternoon, and snorkelling and diving. The walk takes me up along the hot rocks, and then down to a small cave and to the water. The views are magnificent. The rocky outcrop consist of limestone in white, grey, black, and brown. I take photos, lots of them. The rocks are quite eroded in some places, making for interesting shapes and hollows.
We visited Victoria today, Gozo’s capital city and a real jewel. We mostly visited the Citadel which totally blew me away, its many medieval arches, its beautiful, clean and golden coloured limestone walls, both old and new, its panoramic view from the ramparts, everything about it enthralled me. I just want to share photos of today’s walk. I visited the Nature Museum which gave me quite a bit of information about the local rocks. We also visited the cathedral. Some information mentions that the Citadel has been Gozo’s focal point since at least 1500BC. Wow! I will go back there to see more, it is a fascinating place. There is an archaeological museum there as well. Victoria is less than 10 minutes bus ride away from where we are staying at the coast. Gozo is a very special place.
This morning we made our first walk in Gozo. We are staying in Xlendi which is a little place on the South-West of the island. It consists of what looks like a ravine, or a mini-fjord, and is flanked on the one side with apartments built in honey coloured limestone, and with rocks and short shrubbery on the other side.
We are staying in one of the apartments, ground floor at the front door, but a very high fourth floor on the opposite side where the balcony is.
The apartment does not get much sun as it is NW facing, only when the sun is about to go down do we see any of it, nice to get the setting sun, however, it does make the place here rather chilly for the time of year, and for the first time since we arrive on the Maltese island have I had to wear thermals inside. Outside, though it is glorious, lovely and warm in the sun, and the sky blue without any cloud. Obviously we are going to be outside most of the time, soaking up the sun as much as all the history and architecture of the island, but this morning I concentrated on the natural heritage which is simply amazing and so interesting.
We walked down a path only a stone’s throw away, and discovered a wealth of wildlife and flora, we also saw the most beautiful blue sea and rocks stretching as far as the eye could see. I got working with taking macro photos of the flowers and insects while Ian strolled on and sat resting on one of the many benches. One of the most pleasing factors was the sea breeze which was both refreshing and warmly scented.
The flower of the Mallow plant, and an ant lost on the large hot rocks. The shrubs and wild plants are low and stay small mainly because there is such a water shortage here, it is April right now and the people have not seen any rain since the New Year. The rocky soil also contributes to the stunted growth of the plants. Everywhere we see lizards, beautiful little creatures, very fast, though they love to just sun bathe, difficult subjects to take photos of. Their colour varies, but like this one green seems to predominate.
There is a steep road down to the little harbour, apparently at some time there are many of the Gozitan fishing boats anchored there, but now, now we only saw clear aqua marine water and fish of which I do not know the name.
This is the path leading down to the sea, there is also another path that leads over the hill towards the tower seen on the left and to some of the salt pans. But that is going to be a walk for another day.
In the photo on the right, Lichen, these lichen are growing colourfully on some of the rocks, the rocks are mainly limestone, with plainly to see fossils.
Here is one of the fossils, they are so interesting and make for an exciting walk, to think that these creatures are the makings of the sedentary rocks surrounding us.
One of my favourite photos and views of the morning was this flower, the name of it escapes me totally, please if someone knows can you tell me. It was delicately scented.
Among other plants and trees I’ve seen are the African Tamarix trees here, they are considered an endangered species, but seem to do well here.
And yet another creature I came across, a type of beetle I guess.
I know that there is a lot more to explore in nature here, this is only the first day and we have a whole month here. I hope to keep writing about what I discover and illustrate with my photos. Thanks for reading, I hope that you enjoyed.
agoyvaerts 