When life gets ahead

Pardon the silence....am franticly catching up and finally finding my breath again. Very busy last two weeks, funny how sometimes things all happen at once! Did not manage to make this week's Cornerview, shame (bliss- what a good idea click here for what some others came up with).  I have been wanting to draw your attention to this

Click here for more details. Still putting together my collection for the market. 

Will post about it as soon as I finish.  Drop a line and join if you like! 

Happy Friday!

Wednesday's Cornerview: From where I am sitting

Or rather as I have not been sitting much, its where I am going. Notice for once I am in the photo!
This scenic picture was taken by my friend Amber, over from Italy with her family.
Heading down to the water. 

Stairs, children and waves was the view.

Off to play a little

Pardon the silence, we have friends visiting this week. 

Will be back soon!

Wednesday's Cornerview: Your street

Our street when she was getting all dressed up for the feast. 

Our nice little run down ally

Our stoop plus the gang (who without fail try to run to the end in time to scare us) 

Monday morning traffic

 Along with the blue sea,  blossoming peach trees and sun blanched quaint stone streets there is also this side of Malta (I am admittedly overdue in making this post). 

This is the view out the car window last week while we were stuck in endless traffic (a bit of rain means flooding in many parts of the island and more than the usual numbers of traffic jams). Lovely industrial Marsa, with its many derelict cranes (gone is the hay day of the Maltese ship building industry). Many pot holed back streets criss-crossing between factory buildings and closed up abandoned old storage houses. I was beginning to fear I may be painting too sunny and perfect of a picture and so was moved to include a few photos that normally I may edit out.

I for the most part in the last year have focused my attentions on the bits of beauty and culture here.  This also helped in my transitioning to the island, trying to find the hidden treasures that make living here really worth while. But this (above photos) is also Malta, lots of construction, lots of traffic... it is the most densely populated country in Europe and because most of the country was built long before cars were invented, there simply is not space for them all. I could go on in this direction, with the many faults one can find here but at the moment I won't spend too much time on that, for I am enjoying this time of allowing myself to be charmed by Malta's rustic worn down beauty and quirkiness.

*I must admit I do rather like some of the old abandoned houses,
 such textures and small remains of past glory!  

Wednesday's Cornerview: Collections

Due to the fact that we have been a rather mobile family  (our oldest has moved six times in his six short years of life), we have not had the chance to really collect much (sadly) but our migratory days should be behind us and it is nice to start collecting bits and bobs.  

This little trio was a gift from grandma and are used by the children for personal maple syrup pouring convenience. Handy too because we can be sure they each only consume about a tablespoon or two  at a go... (its the real deal here and I view it like gold)

As my sister over at Ten Finger workshop knows.. takes a whole lot a trees to make just a pint of the magic stuff!
Thank you Joyce for hosting Cornerview while Jane has been away.  For more cornerviews check here. 

"What doin?"

Green Garlic

Funny how you can go about your day attempting to be oh so serious and adult, like say trying to take a nice close up shot of a fresh bunch of local garlic (because you recently learned garlic originated from Afghanistan and got a little inspired to buy and make something with green garlic),
when you spot at the last second
 a little face, fingertips and curious eyes.
"What do-in mama?!"

Little D is as mischievous as ever,  now days on tip toe she can peer over the table, reach the computer mouse from standing by my side at the desk, and is very agile at dragging chairs round the kicthen to have a closer look at any kind of cooking or sewing I am up to. Today she was pretending to 'go fishing' through the bars of the staircase with a wooden yoyo, swinging it with such force that she nearly knocked out her big sister. 

May your week be starting off with pleasant surprises. 

(Mine is starting of with lots of sneezes and a bit of a cold, there has been a mighty wind blowing round the island lately perhaps there is some connection). 

Friday, glad to see you again

Passing view as we drove home Thursday evening, 

 Valletta in her dusty beauty, bathed in the golden light of sunset.
 Do I really live here in this 'other' land...is this brown eyed man at my side really my husband?

 and these three round faced sleepy children are mine?

.. how ever did I get here.....

 lost in the now, the moment, the reality of it. Feels like just yesterday I was a student rushing to class. 

Of note this week:

Chick pea season is back again, and we nibble them fresh off the stalks...
here is a close up of what they look like. 

and playing round and round in our car these days is this song, (thanks honey) am now officially hooked... this is also a favourite.  

Happy Friday, hope you enjoy the weekend.
(Its the start of watermelon season here)

Corner view: Statues

These two statues were spotted near a small boarded up chapel on a walk past artichoke fields (posted about some weeks ago).  They were so unassuming,  seemingly forgotten about, amid overgrown fields and flower patches. Far from any paved road.  

For more Corner views look here. 

Look

what arrived in the post! 

Thank you Melissa from over at Tigerlily Tinkering for the lovely bag, I love it!!! and I so dig that inside pocket! Pop round to her blog and see her brilliant  barter market idea. 

Am planning on joining once I have enough stock (nearly there). 

Happy Monday to you all 

Lessons learned

It occurred to me this week, (perhaps it was related to the rainbow paintings the kids have been drawing) to show the children the film The Wizard of Oz, remembering the songs and some of the classic characters, got me quite excited (I need to buy the old books, the original pictures are wonderful, so too the other books in the series). 

Suffice to say the kids loved the songs, the Munchkins, the Tin Woodsman, the Lion and the Scarecrow but I had slightly forgotten the potency of that Wicked Witch of the West! Even with forwarding through the scary parts, the memory of the green faced witch had a very lasting impression!!  

My middle child, the chocolate loving curly topped girl, could not fall asleep, then woke throughout the entire night with nightmares. Oh the lacking skills! I tried everything, talking about happy thoughts, books, movies characters... but how to remove that witch image from her mind!!?? We are on day three and still she is waking in the night with nightmares. What have I done?! So lesson learned, wait till your children are perhaps over the age of six to show them this film. Although little D at age two seems to be fine, (could be a factor of a more sensitive nature and intense imagination of which the 'sweets' child is). 

Other books in the original series

* as I was writing this, little D came up and pointed at the picture of the witch saying OHHH that the scary one!!

Wednesday's Cornerview: Gardens

San Anton Garden, a garden which dates back to the time of the knights, it was built in the early 1600's. 

For us it always provides a calm little quiet shaded oasis. The main sounds are that of the birds, another highlight is watching the ducks (not a common sight here in Malta),  sometimes a swan or two, occasionally a peacock out strutting it's stuff and quite a few little turtles sunning themselves near one of the four ponds.  Oh, yes and it is home to more than a few very relaxed cats(clearly they feel they own the place). The San Anton Gardens are free and open to the public, behind them is the president's palace. 

*I don't know the name of the tree which dropped the sea of little orange petals but it certainly gave the place a particularly golden glow on this visit!

I was in two minds about which photo to use today and because I am a little sad not to be returning for a visit to the states this summer I decided to also include this picture, taken of little D last summer, enjoying the swing in my parents back garden.   

Of Dogs and Donkeys

What did this weekend's Saturday picnic bring us but a chance encounter with some Maltese donkeys, and what sweet curious ones they were! 

(You can see already that little D is making a worried run for mama), this came with a screetching DON'T EAT ME! plea to the donkeys. Funny because we calmed D down and explained donkeys don't eat people (which then embolded the older two kids to go nearer) just in time for the curious darker donkey too take a good nibble/lick of my husband's toes.  This did not help Stella's fear.  

Shortly before this meeting with the asses, three very fox like dogs came upon us, all very friendly and  curious, smiling in the noon day sun with slit eyes. They then followed us to where we met the grazing donkeys.

In the end we had three dogs and two donkeys following us, which was slightly terrfying to little D and kind of thrilling to the older two children, who soon adopted a we-want-a-pet-dog (or pony ) chant for the rest of the trip home. 

 The moment post bite and one of the said Dogs

Happy May Day!!!

Ahh flowers, don't they always brighten the spirit!
Here are some for you.

Back to England

Last weekend the little guy and  I went away, just for a few nights, just the two of us to England. We enjoyed cream tea with dear old friends, sightings of Dartmore's wild ponies slowly grazing in the misty dusk in Devon, picnics in Bath and last but certainly not least a sliver of time in the place I still refer to as 'home', Brighton.

For the most part I was busy catching up with old friends and enjoying the sight of little T getting on so well with his little buddies to take many photos. I only managed a handful. In no way does this do justice to the place or the the friends there (was not so sure you wanted your faces here). Was a very nice trip and yes, I think it reaffirmed my hope to one day return. 

Perhaps some of you have had this experience, of feeling settled in a place (may not even be your real country of origin) so much so that it feels very much like home. Finding a home away from home, am still trying to find that here but it takes time I suppose. Perhaps as well meeting my husband and starting a family in Brighton makes it all the more meaningful and familiar, 

so many fond memories. 

Wednesday's Cornerview: Animals

Back from a small but delicious little trip to England, just in time for the cornerview! 

Meet this handsome fella, he lives at a relative's  farm (the exact details of which Maltese relative would take some time to explain). Bit of a runner so the only snap I managed to get was him on the move...bit blurry, apologies.  

This is where he lives.

Not exactly an animal.. a stretch admittedly but how cool of a catfish statue is this?! Spotted a top a tall pole in Plymouth, England just outside the national Aquarium. Is it just me or are catfish particularly striking looking, with their long whiskers and spiky fins?
For more cornerviews look here (right hand side).

Errands

Yesterday little D and I went exploring in search of some fabric, I decided to take a back route to the main street in Fgura which led us past some nice little fields, we spotted some wild poppies, a horse, a mulberry tree, some dogs and lots of dog droppings among other things. Turned out to be a pleasant little jaunt, there is something so nice about that golden time of day, something particular about the light.

Later in the evening just after dinner I slipped out for a walk, down small streets and fortressed harbors, (sights which have become every day but I thought I would take the time to stop and appreciate it a bit), here are a few views from along my walk (am usually accompanied by the lovely A. or S.). We tend to talk so much we rather flow through these spaces amid laughs and political ponderings.  Nothing as restorative as an evening walk and a nice chat.

Happy Friday

Wednesday's Cornerview: Earth Day

Simple golden grain

It's seeds now sent off into the wind

For more cornerviews go here.

little additions

Deedee and Roo

Roo is the elder sister, and is always looking out for the ever curious Deedee.
They are 18 inches head to tip of ear, both dresses can be removed with little snaps on the back.
I am thinking of selling a few similar bunny dolls in my etsy shop (which is still to come) 

so any feedback very welcome!   These two were requested by my daughters and are the 'testers', am not so sure about Deedee's head shape. 

Birthdays, bottoms, flags and fenek

Birthdays
Our little Mr. T (the airplane enthusiast) turned a whopping six this weekend, to celebrate we spent the day at the  beach with family and friends. First swim of the year!


Bottoms
Where to begin.... on Friday we went out to our favourite little Sicilian restaurant, a nice family treat at the end of the week. I think as the world cup nears though even the small family run restaurants are getting decked out in flat screen tvs (I so hate the presence of televisions in restaurants). Especially when they are placed in such a way so that you can not avoid catching glimpses. On this occasion, as we waited for the pizza to come,we noticed all the children where paused (from their drawing on small pads of paper) in mid action .....eyes glued to the tv).

Ok aside from one or two Maltese channels and one or two British channels there are a plethora of Italian tv channels that you get here  and their idea of prime time family entertainment is well.... shocking... I am not sure how to explain it.. to give you a tiny glimpse, I looked up to see a wall of ten ladies asses (in tiny thongs) poking out of a pretend brick wall..as two (older and fully clad) men walked along laughing and talking, the camera gave you close up shots of each and every one of those bums..the men walked along.. apparently it was some sort of quiz show section, guess which ass belongs to which supermodel. This was followed by two dancing barely clad women in black, then a lady topless covered in coloured paint on a table to which the camera zoomed in for what felt like a very long time on this woman's breasts, .. as they touched her to see her jiggle... my jaw was hanging open at this point..then the lady in flowers (shown below).

 I tried my hardest to distract the kids with questions about their day etc. and I spy to get them looking at the paintings of Mt. Etna hanging all over the restraunt...but it didn't really work.
Oh my the show just got worse and worse... if you watched this on a regular basis you would think every woman in Italy is around 19 and like barbie. No one else in the restaurant seemed that bothered but I just started laughing it was absolutely outrageous!! Soft porn is what it was.

I tried to put a spin on it and say the ladies were getting ready to go swimming and then my 4 year old daughter said no mama I think those ladies want to be famous and rich....this is after less then 10 minutes of exposure... I can't imagine what seeing this kind of thing day in day out does to young girls and boys??!!  I really found it disturbing. The show was called Ciao Darwin.

Flags
The Pope was here in Malta this weekend and the country was at a standstill with excitement and anticipation. I noticed as we drove to the beach that there was a sea of big yellow and white flags above the housetops, ..what flag is that?
"Thats the Pope's flag" my husband said casually.
"What, like he has his own flag? "
"Yep"
"And people just have it at their homes normally just in case he comes to visit?"
"yep"
Two notes here, these are not small flags but in many cases maybe a good 15 feet by 8 feet and there were hundreds all over the island.
Secondly the same thing happened on Easter but the flags were red and white... apparently in Malta most people have between 4 and 6 large flags (and obviously flag poles on their roofs). The Maltese Flag, The Virgin Mary flag, the local village flag, the village saint flag and now I have learned that they have the Pope's flag too.

Fenek

Last but not least- Fenek which means Rabbit in Maltese

I must admit that of late life here does feel for the most part 'normal', I have adjusted to the daily routines and the sounds of church bells, and the fresh bread and fish trucks honking as they pass through  but then there come little things that strike me and I realise that yes I am living in a very different world to the one I grew up in. This happened on Saturday.
A lady came to the door, I was hanging laundry on the roof,  and the next thing my husband is coming up to me tell me he has bought a rabbit and he was jumping in the shower so when she comes to give her the money  ".. excuse me?"  I asked... (thinking oooh perfect a nice little pet rabbit for the children), he said "yeah and she asked if I wanted it with the skin on or not... "
eeeek went the ex-vegetarian in me... ok ok.. yes a poorer nearby farmer woman offering rabbits.. of course we should buy one... a few minutes later she rang the bell and handed me a bag, she said it was still warm so not to put in the fridge just yet.. she had some blood splattered on her shirt.. I smiled but my stomach completely turned.... in that 10 min she had gone and killed this little rabbit... for us...
and knowing my husband was looking forward to cooking it in a new way, with fresh fennel, white wine and garlic .....made getting away from the reality hard to avoid... gulp...   yes.. a different world.


I suppose it is better this way... you are not protected from the reality of what you are doing but still ... I had trouble eating the meat ...I felt so guilty. It did turn out well... and with some roasted baby potatoes, carrots and shallots it was  true Sunday roast sort of meal.. I should have taken a picture.... but I still felt sad about it.
It didn't help that I had just finished making the girls two little toy rabbit dolls.
Sorry this post really did get long!!!!