Travel

A WILD FLOWER WALK

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Yesterday I decided it was time to explore one of the cliff villages of Gozo. Ta-Sannat, and Il-Munxar were on the program, then to walk back from there to Ir-Rabat. It was a beautiful sunny and warm morning. Not sure what to expect as I had not read up on these villages, I was pleasantly surprised by the diversity of wild flowers that were in bloom, it really did fill out my inventory and photos of wild spring flowering plants that I have encountered so far here on Gozo. I was rather overwhelmed at the diversity, never having seen such a variety yet around the other villages, but that could be because the further in spring we get, the more flowers will be opened. The bees were buzzing, probably because the sun was rather hot, birds were singing, including the canary birds that many people here own and give fresh air whenever they can. Ta-Sannat also proved to be the first village where I heard a cock crow and saw horses and cattle outside. I got a lovely feel of the place, it is situated high enough for one to see the surrounding villages, like Ix-Xewkija, and Il-Munxar, I could also see the sea at L-Imġarr (Mgarr) from where I stood, and part of Victoria. A wide horizon is visible, and virtually the whole island of Gozo can be seen. The village itself was quiet, I was chatting with a lady in a small shop, apart from that and from the usual vegetable van which I had encountered on most of my village trips, all was still.
I know that there are quite a few things that I missed seeing around Ta-Sannat; the cliffs, the dolmen, the temple, and the ancient car ruts, but these were all outside the village and I did not like to go and see them on my own. I have a plan though, next time we spend the winter in Gozo I will link up with some friends to do things I do not like to do on my own, these activities will be on that list, I will organise that.
After taking many photos of the wild plants and flowers I started to walk toward the village of Il-Munxar. This is a very pleasant walk, it takes one along a whole stretch of farm land, land at this moment full of vegetables and here and there a farmer tending to his plants, heaps of manure were also to be seen lying ready to be spread out on places that were bare. I had a chat with one farmer who was obviously enjoying being on the land on such a sunny morning. Il-Munxar is another small village lying between Ta-Sannat and Ix-Xlendi, there is a walk that takes one from the Ferry Port of L-Imġarr (Mgarr) along these coastal villages toward Ix-Xlendi, the walk must be so beautiful as all along there are to be seen the highest cliff of Gozo. In Il-Munxar where I walked some bit out of the village, I saw meadows so full of flowers, like a painting with full blocks of bright yellow, so cheerful I just sat and watched it all and tried to take it in so I could take it away in my heart and mind, such a beauty!
Eventually I kept walking toward Ir-Rabat (Victoria) and reached there well in time to share lunch with Ian who had been at home meanwhile and working on writing his children’s book. We both excitedly shared our mornings adventures and decided once again how much of soulmates we really are and how thankful we can be for all that we are given day by day.

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Almond blossom

A SPRING IN MY STEP

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Some days ago I decided on a trip to Santa Lucija, a village which is said to be probably the first human settlement in the Maltese islands. It’s not far from Ir-Rabat, but I took the bus and my plan was to walk back. The day was lovely, excellent weather for a long walk, the form was good, an inward smile that I sometimes find difficult to suppress, and which happens quite often when I’m walking on this great island, was making me light-hearted, and I had a spring in my step.

It is said that caves in the area (Il Mixta) of Santa Lucija were peopled by early settlers, this would have been around 5000-4500BC, or during the Neolithic period. At this stage people are said to have come to Gozo from Southern Sicily, according to similar pottery style found in both places. It is only after this period and around 700BC that the Phoenicians are said to have colonised Malta and Gozo. Remains of a settlement during the Punic period have also been found around this hamlet. The Punic period was followed by the Roman and Medieval times. The Romans took over from the Phoenicians in 218BC. Some sources think that Santa Lucia had a Roman settlement as shown by lots of Roman artefacts found at and around the village. After this time the Maltese islands were conquered by a whole variety of colonizers, at some stage nearly the whole population of Gozo was led into slavery or killed. Santa Lucija, like most other villages grew out of a hamlet, the hamlet was called St.Katerina at the time. It grew into a decent village with a good variety of different trades being practised, and many farms were to be found around the area too, to this day there are still many farms around this village, the land is very fertile due to natural springs. Like many of the other villages I visited on Gozo, there is a stillness about the streets, a tranquillity, only the birds I heard singing and the odd car would pass me. The little church was closed, the façade simple and small, but with a stylish bell tower.  The motto of Santa Lucija is “I pour light upon my fellow citizens” and this has everything to do with St.Lucija being the saint of the visually impaired, obviously people in the past would have travelled here for help with their eyesight.

I did not walk to the caves all though I did want to go and see them, but not on my own. I saw the old mill, and the remains of It-Torri tal-Warda. Because Santa Lucija is actually a hamlet belonging to the village of Kercem, I only had to keep walking direction Victoria to arrive in Kercem and later on to find myself back in Victoria, it was a lovely walk, a couple of kilometers. From various places I could see the dome of the St.George Basilica which showed me that I was still going in the right direction, and as it was, it was there that I was heading – to sit down in the square and relax with a well deserved cup of coffee.
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The It-Torri tal-Warda, this was a sort of watch tower, standing in the middle of the fields at the time it was apparently used by the landlord to oversee his field labourers and prevent thieves from stealing the produce of the land. The tower was damaged during a storm.

WIND MILL

Top left is the remains of Il-mithna, the windmill which used to have sails to catch the wind and make it function.

AND FURTHER DOWN TO IR-RABAT
CHURCH OF KERCEM

 

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The whole village is surrounded by farmed land.

THE AZURE WINDOW

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On a most beautiful late January day, today, with the sun pouring over the island, and not a breeze to be felt, there was nothing better to do than to take the bus to the Azure Window at Dwejra on the West coast of Gozo. Quite a few tourist were there with us, many Chinese in fact and I also heard some Northern Irish accents. Everyone was soaking up the sun, and unlike us, who are still wearing socks and woollies, I saw women in sandals, in bare arms and very light clothing, some were working on their tan in fact, others were taking selfies or photos like myself. The ambience was pleasant and the views breath-taking. We had been there before, I was very impressed with the amount of fossils under our feet in the rocks. Rocks are very much eroded here making for all sorts of strange and interesting shapes. The rock pools too had mirror-clear water standing in them. The sea and sky were both so very blue!
The Azure Window is special, very nice to see time and time again.  The inland sea too is a place where it is so nice to sit and see the little boats come and go

One sweet girl asked us if we would like our photo taken together, we said yes as this does not happen very often, the result was good. We took coffee in the only café that was open, and just soaked up the sun.
What a most beautiful day it was, and for a while we could forget about all the world events that has kept our minds so busy this past week.
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TWO EGGS AND A LEMON

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Today started just like any other day, with the sun shining into the bedroom window showing us that it was going to be another blue sky, and sunny day. Though the temperature has gone right down in the Maltese islands, there is always the sun to warm you up. Something else has been very warming today, it has warmed my soul rather than my body. The story goes as follows:

After my morning walk and as I approached the entrance to our flat, our neighbour woman came walking across the street with a tin in her hands, in it she had some eggs laid by her own hens whom she keeps behind a wall in our street. We got talking and we must have stood there in the sun for half an hour. Then, with a smile she handed me over two of her precious free-range eggs, here she said for you and your husband, one each. I thanked her and was touched by her kind gesture.

Later on today I again nipped out to go to the shop, and this time from across the street, out of the house where Rita lives (another friendly neighbour who has connected with us)came Tessie. Now I’ve never in my life met someone as generous in her approach to a stranger as Tessie, she chatted and told me all about her life, and brought me into her home, as she lives only around the corner, to show me the huge nativity scene that her son had made. We immediately hit it off with each other and talked ten to the dozen about life here on the island, how very interesting! When I left it was with an invitation to come and visit, and then she ran out into her garden and handed me a home grown, beautifully scented lemon.

It is not about the lemon or about the eggs, but it is about the friendship that these local women are generously offering us. It is exactly what I wanted here, to meet the people of this land, and to hear all their stories, stories about their lives on Gozo.

For me this is a perfect ending to 2016! and a great beginning to 2017 – the year in which I would like to give the gift of my time and attention to new friends, and to friends from the past.

A hearth warming way to end the year!

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My feeling about seeing the world is that it’s going to change you necessarily, just the very fact of being out there and meeting people from different cultures and different ways of life. Ewan McGregor

GGANTIJA TEMPLES

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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
Carrob tree flower
Carrob tree bark

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.

 

APPRECIATION

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I would just like to thank all my followers, many of whom have become much more than just people who follow my blog, they have become friends, and I am touched by your words, and what goes on in your lives, and for that I am thankful and happy.

It is good to connect with others.
I will probably be absent from blogging as I will go travelling tomorrow for the week. Gathering more photos, experiences and ideas to share. Looking forward to reconnect and read much of what I have missed.

Blessings