| Some thunder this morning with intermittent showers. We walked up towards the Citadel to go to Marla Attard's office at the Cultural Heritage Directorate and walked right by it. While set along a well-traveled street rather than on the backside of a parking lot like Francesco Grech's shared office as cultural manager for the Gozo Region in Malta, it too was rather inconspicuously labeled in a very pedestrian looking building. We walked into the building and immediately a male colleague of hers followed us, asking what we wanted in a way to make is seem that our presence in the building was not really allowed. Our perception is that these government agencies really don't want direct public interaction, at least without setting up a pre-arranged meeting, and perhaps, being so near to the Citadel, they get tourists wandering in with some frequency. Marla came out of her meeting to give us another bag of supplies (clothes hangers and trash/recycling bags) to supplement the apartment. As always she made us feel quite welcome even though she had work to do. Finally, six days after moving in, the apartment feels like it may properly accommodate our basic needs. Rain was predicted but it was clear for the moment so we took the relatively short walk to the neighboring town of Fontana to re-visit Lunzjata Valley and hopefully get to meet with the Education, Science and Culture Centre sited there with the hope that we could make arrangements for deeper investigations for our "Sense of Place" project in the Valley and other areas of natural beauty the Centre deals with. Unfortunately the Centre was closed so we settled on a slow "art-walk" in the agriculturally rich area made fecund by plentiful water. Paul began making sound recordings, Jo collecting samples of flora to press, and both of us snapping photos. A farmer drove by in a truck (it is refreshing to see trucks that are clearly designed for utility rather than the bloated, luxury pick ups in the U.S.), across the bridge to a large, old stone villa. As we trudged on it became apparent that the valley is farmed by this one operation/family. Awhile later we saw the man walking along a path with two large boxes filled with some greenery he harvested to load into the truck and then he walked to another small field up the valley. Access to the various planting areas is limited, there would be no large tractors working the small fields here. Beginning our walk back we couldn't determine whether the cat we saw in the grass was dead or just sleeping. Jo called out "puss, puss" to see if she could rouse it and almost immediately three |
additional cats came out (and the sleeping cat groggily lifted its head). One was particularly persistent, following us, mewing, and engaging in the "dive" in an attempt to receive some petting. Cats are clearly welcomed here.
We decided to check out a nearby bakery but it closes at 12:30. At an adjacent produce shop we picked up some lovely veggies and fruit as well as some delicious Ġbejniet, peppered sheep cheese.
From the apartment we walked to the Maypole to pick up some ftira bread for dinner. Their street is muddy from the multitude of construction vehicles that were making walking past seem a bit precarious. It seems that no matter where we walk there is an active construction project in process.
With some juggling to deal with insufficient sized cooking vessels we made our version of Aljotta with the fish broth that we had simmered for the past days following the recipe kindly offered when we purchased the hake. We sauted onion, leek (our variation), garlic, potato, celeriac (another variation), and tomato in a deep skillet. Added a handful of chopped basil and mint, salt and pepper. Then steeped it in broth in both our mini-stock pot and skillet. Delicious. The combination of mint and basil is one we would never have considered but it worked very well.
As we slept it rained hard with occasional lightning.
We decided to check out a nearby bakery but it closes at 12:30. At an adjacent produce shop we picked up some lovely veggies and fruit as well as some delicious Ġbejniet, peppered sheep cheese.
From the apartment we walked to the Maypole to pick up some ftira bread for dinner. Their street is muddy from the multitude of construction vehicles that were making walking past seem a bit precarious. It seems that no matter where we walk there is an active construction project in process.
With some juggling to deal with insufficient sized cooking vessels we made our version of Aljotta with the fish broth that we had simmered for the past days following the recipe kindly offered when we purchased the hake. We sauted onion, leek (our variation), garlic, potato, celeriac (another variation), and tomato in a deep skillet. Added a handful of chopped basil and mint, salt and pepper. Then steeped it in broth in both our mini-stock pot and skillet. Delicious. The combination of mint and basil is one we would never have considered but it worked very well.
As we slept it rained hard with occasional lightning.