Discovery

Hop Skip

Just when I thought Ide melt into the sandstone here we discovered a small bay within 5 min drive from our house (as opposed to all the other sandy beaches which are in the North of the island and a good 40 min drive away in a small our old un-air-conditioned car). It's called St. Thomas's Bay and is perfect- bit of sandy beach, bit of clear blue water and no hassle with parking (unlike most other parts of Malta).

It's a local, low key place.. not too trendy.. just our style. Kids were in heaven. Think afternoons at the sea side will be the key to our surviving the long hot summers here. Oh yes and the incredible fruit- local plums, grapes and the best peaches I have ever had are in season now (and SO cheap).

First it was CARS

then it was TRUCKS and DIGGERS then was the all consuming TRAINS phase followed briefly by RACE CARS and ROBOTS and now our oldest (five years) has come fully into the latest phase- AIRPLANES!!!!!! It is seriously all he wants to talk about, read, draw or build at the moment. To give you a small sample was this mornings 20 minute drawing session- which resulted in this series. I won’t over do it with a photo of the airport he constructed covering his entire bedroom (using all toys available including, blocks, robots, dolls, cards and books as landing strips). Wonder how long this will last and what will come next?

Returning

Sometimes things do somehow fall into place and you are reminded subtly that you are creating memories that not only your kids will (with luck) recall but yourselves as parents as well. Moments you want to savour, the cheery meandering of conversations, the light, smells and sounds. There were many of these in the last five weeks. On back porches, picnics on rolling midwstern country sides, and near campfires in the northern woods looking out at Lake Superior ….the squeals of kids in the background and the sweet company of old friends. Yes, feeling very revived and refreshed. The course now finished. It’s time for sewing, reading, painting, cooking and running.

The sounds of our neighbours trumpet echoing through the courtyard and fire works from Birgu's Festa pounding in the distance.... sweltering heat.. and the season of feasts. A fine welcome back to Malta. Best of all still fig season! This time a small kind (two inches rather than the earlier dark purple four inch size).... made some ice cream yesterday which came out quiet well. Roughly it was 250 ml fresh cream, 400 grams fresh peeled soft figs and 1/3 cup good quality honey. 

Photo fun

Had to share- watch this! Take a few minutes to see it. I love it.

LURA

Immersed in Madison life, from camping to french music festivals and art fairs on the square we are having full days in Wisconsin and loving it.

I can't help but share a recently recieved gift - a cook book... one I never heard of called Spice, Flavors of the Eastern Mediterranean. My sister made a tasty meal for us entirely from this cook book the other night. Some unique combination that I am keen to recreate soon. The author of the cook book owns a restaurant called Oleana in Boston which I have been hearing grand reviews of for years. On our next visit to the states perhaps.

On the theme of cook books and good food I feel compelled to share my delight in the lovely ambiance of a restraunt near by (Madison East side) called Sardines (featured in the pictures above) we had brunch this morning there out on the back patio overlooking the water. A nice Scandinavian feel to the place. How I miss brunches! They are non existent in Malta!

Lastly we had the double pleasure of A. a night out kid-less and B. getting to see a group from Cape Verde at the local French music festival (free) ...the main singer Lura was really good! Really an excellent performance. Do check her out here if you have a few minutes Lura.

On the Road

Happy to say that school has finished for us all, so very very relieved to have handed in the last of my assignments. By in large I am happy to be returning to my other role as mum of three crazy youngins and a 13 going on 31 year old husband. If anyone is interested here is a link to the website we (my coauthor Brian Gauci) and I created as part of our final project (The Colours of Malta). It's mainly an educational website relating to cultural diversity- a pdf version of the research paper is in the authors page should anyone out there be interested in multiculturalism in Malta.

We have left our wee rock in the Mediterranean on holiday and are now enjoying some Midwestern goodness....local specialities like bratwurst, seasonal beers such as my old favourite spotted Cow or the Solstice wheat beer variety brewed in New Glarus and of course some pride of Wisconsin - ice cream.

Have come across some music to share (after some time) if you like Norah Jones you may like this...Melody Gardot .

Not to be forgotten was a lovely all too short visit to one of my favourite cities- Brighton, (while on route to the states a little over a week ago). It was such a treat, seeing old friends, picnics in the park, almond croissants and Milano cappuccinos at Carluccios and a lunch at Bills (featured above).

Ode to the small details

An ongoing project I had intended to embark on a long time ago was to highlight favourite bits of friend's houses.... at long last here is the first instalment - from a friend in Shoreham (England)

Last hurdle

Certainly has felt like one fast hurdle race these last two weeks but I think I can see the finish line now and am feeling just a bit more optimistic about it all.... can even think about cooking.. inspired again at last-(fresh swordfish in a Maltese green pepper, caper and tomato sauce tonight) and the first type of local figs are in season.... so delicate and delicious! 

Must admit to having indulged in a wee bit of retail therapy lately..(thanks Zara) (the second photo is a dress I would love to buy but can't quite afford just yet). 

What can I say it's summer and for the first time in nearly four years I am not pregnant or breast feeding- bring on summer dresses!    

Also have at last been able to give my kids some attention- went to St. Antons gardens yesterday- they were thrilled to see the peacock strutting his tail, the turtles sunning themselves in the pools and the wallabies (small kangaroos) at the Melita cafe (the small baby one is well worth a seeing).  

Busy working

But I came across some photos today that I can't help but share- here are two. I love the expressions on these kids faces. 

This one too, I find to be incredible. 

Also this cool project that I had never heard of- SOTM (Someone Once Told Me)

check it out here. 

Lost

at sea- the sea of school stress at the moment.... the shore seems far away. The weather here has fully changed now- can't even look at a long sleeve shirt- it's hot, the sun is bright and it's hard to focus.  

A simple ode to Valletta photo to share (one day I think I would like to trade our house in Zabbar for a flat in Valletta)  what a wonderful city, it's charmed me completely. 

Now this may seem a bit funny to many of you- but how can I not make note of last night's Eurovision Song contest (for you Americans who don't have the pleasure... it is an annual contest between 42 countries for the best  song of Europe but seems to be largely dominated by block voting within regions). Seeing as I am now living in Europe (and Malta takes it's song very seriously) I did watch the entire thing for once and must say I really loved Portugal's song (pictured above).

The grand winner however (a country close to my heart) was Norway  (bit of a surprise if you ask me with Fairy tale) but was not so bad either (have a listen). You have to watch some of the more showy entries to get at the full extent of what the competition was like- case in point was Azerbaijan). Must also say that I did quiet like Bosnia-Herzogovina and even the Israeli Duet (husband liked the Turkish entry ... hmmm wonder why). It is a particular  kind of genre... of the romantic, showy... dare I say sappy sort of music.  Not usually my taste but it is what it is and I have to admit that this year the competition was pretty tough. 

OK- it has been rightly noticed... I left out Malta... the song for Malta was (having heard the song some 101 times as it was being played non stop around here) sung very well - a ballad, (sadly in English and not Maltese) Chiara has a beautiful voice and for once there was not half clad men and women prancing around  so that was a relief. A good song but I think after three times Malta should maybe consider putting forth another of it's  talented musicians. 

Chickpea season in Malta!

A. came back from the local market with an arm full of fresh chickpeas (seen in picture standing in a bucket of water) have never seen them fresh (or tasted them fresh for that matter) they are quite nice.. but contrary to what my other half thinks 'very sweet'  would not be my first response. But perhaps in contrast to the broad bean season which just passed (meant include some broad bean, bacon and mint salad recipes but didn't get round to it- sorry). Aside from this, eggplants are are very in season at the moment so today I have enjoyed making some baba ghanoush and  fresh tabbouleh salad (our little herb garden is bursting with mint and parsley now so it's perfect). 

Trying to decide what sort of ice cream next to try making... Naslply (sp?) would be interesting but certainly a challenge (a small very delicate tasting local fruit here).

Victoria and Albert

Went to a film last night (the Young Victoria) with no expectations and what a delight.. (for the costumes if nothing else)! Course the love story is quite nice too. Worth seeing on the big screen particularly if you appreciate clothing! Am such a fan of the V&A museum in London that seeing this film only makes me more keen to visit again!

Olives and Octopus

They do go very well together but the reason for this post is mothers day this year included both elements- my husband went with the children to the fish market on the south of the island and brought back an octopus (apparently it's so fresh that they pluck it out live and lay it wriggling on the scale as you decide if thats the one you want) the kids loved this.  They came back with lots of tales- sightings of long nosed swordfishes and flying fish. Pasta a la octopus and what a sweet surprise-the children gave me an olive tree for mothers day.. very sweet and our first little tree for the garden.  

Destructo is still up to her many tricks. I was giving out snacks in the kitchen and suddenly noticed it was very quiet and someone was missing we found her in the other room with one hand on the mouse clicking away on the computer and the other holding my mobile phone to her ear and actively pushing buttons. 

Martin Ramirez

Today, a wonderfully slow mothers day morning (happy mothers day to all you mums out there)  I actually took time to sit on the sofa, cuddle with the kids, leisurely sip coffee and opened the economist for a read....  and something about the description of this artist (only recognised as an artist after his death) struck me, perhaps it is the fact that he is a migrant, maybe it's that trains often appear in his work or perhaps it was the fact that he made art in whatever way he could (for the last 32 years of his life he lived in a mental hospital) . Originally from Mexico he travelled to the states in the 1920's to work on the railroads to support his family. He was a self  taught isolated man.... I found some pictures of his work in a show called Outsider Art. Recently his artwork was gathered and featured in the American Folk Museum - here are a few of his pieces. 

It's strawberry season here

so it's all sorts of crepes, ice creams and what not with strawberries at the center in our house.

Why the photo of MIA..... let me explain  

as we were eating dinner my middle one started humming and next thing we knew... all I wanna do is  Bang Bang Bang and clinck - take your money...   merrily sang both Tano and LIliana..... (they only heard it once in the car!!!) 

this is from a song called Paper Planes by MIA and we did play it in the car today....  

apparently that was enough... now how do I undo that?? Can just imagine them singing this at school tomorrow- good god!  I must admit that since seeing slum dog millionaire I have grown to like her music and so too this song.... admittedly it does get stuck in the brain.  Here are the two clips MIA singing - and the video from slum dog 

Now the odd situation.. how to explain ( to a two year old and three year old) why they should NOT be singing this song round town.

Back to those strawberries - our recent favourite desert - strawberries with balsamic vinegar with marscapone on top 

(you soak about 200 grams chopped strawberries with around a tablespoon of sugar and two table spoons of balsamic vinegar for 30 min) then add the marscapone on top.

 This is actually a really a nice combination... strawberries with a a tiny zing... 

small island life

Only in Malta

This thought crosses my mind pretty often here.....at times like when A. was translating a piece of mail that came the other day (asking us when we wanted to book a blessing of the house by the local church) or  moments when I stroll past our tiny local dvd rental shop and notice that they have decided to expand business to include shoes (so amid the isles of horror films you have a few nicely displayed high heel shoes) ...random. A few others are that people are really into thinking up their own 'cool slogan' usually roughly translated on the back of their car or bus (classy, I know) -  things like this one we saw last week, 'don't look at the car, look at the driver' or 'what a life, without a wife' or 'put your lipstick, on my dipstick'!!! .  Many of the buses also have slogans across their front- one I saw recently was 'words don't come easy'... as you may have guessed all the buses in Malta are privately owned and run, so it's hard to find two exactly the same (apart from the colour code).

cinema

Have been meaning to see the film Slum Dog Millionaire for months now and at long last we did this weekend. Somehow knowing that he probably wins the show and having heard bits of interviews with  Danny Boyle made me hesitate to actually see the film, but am so glad we did. Really a good film, was particularly blown away with the cinematography- genius. 

We watched it on Dvd but I really wish I had seen this film on the big screen. 

When looking up Anthony Dod Mantle (the cinematographer) was really surprised he also did the filming of another  film I absolutely loved - Festen (The celebration in English) and a few other Lars Von Trier films (am a big fan of the Dogma films and The Danish Kingdom series) pretty dark but so good. I so love the way that a good film can bring you somewhere else in such  complete way.... think I may have to see the Antichrist (newest Lars Von Trier film... although it does look Very Dark). Starring one of my fav's William Defoe and hey- Charlotte Gainsbourg ( daughter of Serge Gainsbourg) am a fan of both. Guess it will be out in August(in France). 

My Family and Other Animals

Summer reading as suggested by my friend S. in Winchester. Family life on another island from what I hear. Am really hoping to get back into reading once this course is finished, have a growing list for this summer (if I am able to sit down for more than two minutes). 

Funny thing... my middle child.. has taken to declaring her love for me...(constantly)... 'mama I love you'.... then five minutes later in the midst of when I am sweeping cheerios  off the floor (ahh the endless stuck cereal Destructo leaves behind) as I am ushering the kids to go brush their teeth...she starts again but I love you today mama....  maybe she is just warming up for the daily battle (who will 'mama'  buckle in today). Unfortunately there are four sets of this competition every day.    

 Recent music choices-- Shampoo by Elvis Perkins and ohh something Pandora like I think.... a radio station designed to your tastes... am just exploring it now- last.fm.