Victoria

FIRST DAY OF SPRING

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This morning we awoke to another beautiful day, it was warm and sunny, with a fresh breeze. After a long breakfast with Ian my legs could not wait to get going again, a nice walk around the areas of Victoria which I did not get to see yet was in order. I had actually not planned anything in particular, but had to do some shopping on the way home, so I decided to go direction Xaghra, this walk would take you up a steep hill, but it looks interesting. However when I reached the bridge just before the hill I noticed some water fowl, some ducks among which I thought were a few Muscovy ducks, red head, interesting looking.  So I decided to follow the ducks, under the bridge they went away from the reservoir and into a river or is it a watery storm drain, I am not sure.  The one side is very smooth and is dug out in the limestone, with what seems blue clay toward the bottom, the other side is a path, and that is the path I decided to follow, along with the water fowl.  A class of school children were walking ahead of me but otherwise it was a very quiet place with lots of fresh greenery along the path’s borders.  I found, a little yellow flower, which at the moment is flowering all over Gozo, it is the creeping wood sorrel.  On the water side there were castor oil plants with their beautiful red leaves and dark red seeds.  Some borage gave splashed of bright blue, and the prickly pear cacti, tall and impressive made good fencing.  The path was smooth to walk on, and flat which I took note of because it would be an ideal walk for Ian too.  Toward the end of the path there are two very large eucalyptus trees, the ground at this moment is covered with the halve circle leaves, and some seed capsules that came down with the last high winds were lying around too.  I smelled them to see if I should take some home as they are good against colds (not for internal consumption though).  And then all of a sudden I was on the main road to Xaghra and turned again toward the centre of town.  Here along the road I found goosegrass growing, it is a plant that I have used before, stewed in soups.  It is great to see so much greenery around the place, when we first arrived in autumn everything was brown and dried out.

Signs of spring are everywhere, it promises to be a beautiful summer!

Borage – Borago officinalis
Creeping Wood Sorrel – Oxalis Corniculata

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Castor oil plant
Eucaliptus tree
Seed capsules of the Eucaliptus tree
Goosegrass
Limestone, and bottom layer is blue clay

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COLOURFUL PERIPHERY OF VICTORIA

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A walk to the outskirts of this historical town treats me to wonderful views of the surrounding villages and countryside, places like Sannat, Xewkija and Xaghra can be seen easily, and in between the villages there is a wealth of greenery and meadows full of yellow flowers. It was a cold day, a slight breeze made me put on my hat, but for walking it was excellent weather. I had been to the library, where the librarians were freezing, obviously because their job demands deskwork, it is a fairly small library here but the librarians are very helpful and friendly. The book stock, although some of it is old enough, is very interesting to me for my chosen subject while we are here. So after that visit I decided to head off on the nearest street and see where it would bring me. Interestingly it turned out to be a different area from most of what I have seen of Victoria because up to now I have just hung out in the oldest part of town, here it is very residential. The whole town of Victoria is very residential, a pleasant town to live in I can say from experience, very friendly, always something happening and buzzing with people, yet quiet and peaceful, you feel safe here. It is historic, and beautiful in its limestone buildings.  Here a few photos of today’s walk.
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Looking towards Xewkija, I could easily have walked there if I wanted to, so close to here.

 

2017-01-17-13-21-12                             A beautiful little flower on a patch along the road.

2017-01-17-13-15-52-copy                                  Cats meet you all over Gozo

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GETTING TO KNOW IR-RABAT

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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.

 

 

OUR IMMEDIATE NEIGHBOURHOOD IN VICTORIA

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It is now two weeks ago that we arrived in Victoria – Ir Rabat, and we are living in a spaceous flat in the shadow of the Citadella – we are not quite in the oldest part of the town with its little, narrow and beautiful streets, but we are close enough to hear, loud and clear, the bells of Santa Marija, the Citadella’s cathedral, this is something I value very much. Both my father and grandfather were bell ringers back in Belgium. The houses in the street here are architecturally interesting, typically built in the Maltese style with its closed balconies, some made of wood like you see in Malta, some made out of stone which you see more on Gozo. I have read that these balconies provided women, who may not have been walking out so often in the past, with the possibility of watching the world go by providing food for talk later on in the day! Personally I find these balconies a very attractive feature. Where we live it is not so quiet, but that does not matter, I want to see life here and experience it. I want to draw it and photograph it, and I want to interact with people, with the Gozitans. A class that I was hoping to attend, in lace making, fell through yesterday, I was disappointed – I even brought my bobbins with which I used to practice making Flemish lace with me. So now I need to try and find other ways to interact and meet the local people. I talk with shopkeepers, librarians, and anybody I meet and seems open to talk – I think that is a start anyway. As with my container garden I need to be patient with this too.
Everyday I take a long walk, not only to buy fresh produce from a vegetable stalls, or to get fish, but also to visit the library, a local museum, or just to get the feel of the town, there is so much to see and take in, I keep discovering new things; buildings, streets, interesting architecture, churches and other aspects of life in Victoria. It sure is interesting. And there is so much to read up on the history of the place, luckily the local library has a good variety of books on the subject.

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AN UPDATE ON MY TERRACE GARDEN

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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.

 

IR-RABAT (Victoria)

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I would just like to share some of the beauty of this lovely town where I am living at this moment. There is so much to explore, everyday brings something else interesting. Like in the old part, the picturesque narrow streets leading to St George’s Square and cathedral. There is a museum there that is very worthwhile of a visit. I will be spending more time there. So much to learn about the history of this place, the people and their traditions. Luckily we will be here long enough to explore.

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Gozo Gossiping, a sculpture by Joe Xuereb in Globigerina Limestone

MY DISCOVERY OF GOZITAN ART

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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.

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Some of the works in the exhibition, with the artist.

 

 

 

I LOST MY HEART IN GOZO

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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.

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