Sincerely, Loree

Ten reasons I love autumn

1.  My creativity increases by 500%. Okay, that's slightly over the top but there's no denying that all the words that eluded me during the lethargic summers months now come pouring out of me and I'm loving it.
2. I can spend time gardening again without having to deal with pesky insects and copious amounts of perspiration.
   
   
   
3. It's cool enough to cook soups and pies. Although I used to avoid making soups no matter what the season was, I have now become a convert since they are so easy to make. The same goes for pies. If you use pre-prepared pastry (in my case kindly made by my dear mum) they can be prepared in a jiffy.
4. I can finally wear jeans again (an article of clothing that I completely avoid between June and September) and sweater weather is on the horizon. I love chunky knits. And beanies. How can I forget beanies?
   
   
   
5. That very peculiar smell of damp soil and decaying carob pods is back. It's not the most pleasant of smells but it's a very 'Maltese' autumn scent.
6. It's the perfect time to light our cinnamon, pumpkin or apple-scented candles. I absolutely love these:  Autumn Leaves and Spiced Pumpkin. Do you change your candles according to the season? It's something I started doing last year and I think it really enhances the mood inside our house. 
   
      
7. Life is back to an established routine. Summer is perfect for spontaneity but I prefer the more tempered days of autumn that are made even more special by cosy family evenings - which means I read non-stop curled inside a fluffy blanket.
8. I get to satisfy my craving for  Dead Man's Bones. Although this may sound alarming, Dead Man's Bones are a type of pastry made from a sweet dough with an almond filling that is traditionally eaten on or around the feast of All Souls' Day that is celebrated in different ways in many countries around the world, like La Fiera dei Morti in nearby Siciliy and the more famous La Dia de los Muertos in Mexico. A bit morbid, perhaps, but these sweet concoctions are delicious and a rare treat since they are not available year round.
   
   
   
9. The sea will be moody and temperamental again and I can spend time chasing waves.
10. Christmas, my favourite time of the year, with its plethora of activities and Christmas markets, is just round the corner. 
    

It's been a while. My resolution to share something once a week has been a miserable fail. The thing is, I seem to prefer spending my evenings reading rather than writing because I am usually tired and reading is a more passive activity, but when I'm writing I actually have to think. And then there's the urgent need to get the thoughts about my most recent read on paper, which takes up quite a bit of my time; coupled with the niggling feeling of inadequacy that raises its head every time I read a mind-blowing book. How can I ever compare? I know I don't need to. Because comparisons are odious and all that. But I don't seem to be able to stop myself. So, every so often, I start writing a post with the intention of finishing it and actually pressing the 'Publish' button. But, more often than not, I don't and it languishes in my 'Unpublished Posts' folder for ever.

Spring is here, a season I enjoy. My husband and I have made plans for a trip to celebrate our 20th anniversary that is coming up in June. I hope to share more about our trip later. We're also hoping to go on a family vacation in summer, preferably to a place that won't be too hot, like Ireland or Scotland, but we haven't really decided yet.

Easter Dessert

With Easter round the corner I've been looking for some easy but stunning cake recipes. We recently visited Guido's Spice Corner in Valletta. It is a tiny shop that sells a variety of spices, herbal teas and, more importantly for me, edible rose petals. I was really excited at the prospect of using them to decorate my Easter dessert. Novel items like edible flowers were hard to come by until fairly recently, so this is the first time I am using rose petals. I'm thinking of making one of the two cakes below and I hope they taste as good as they look.

Raspberries and cream cake with rose petals

Persian Love cake

Spring Walks

Spring Cleaning

On birthdays

Three weeks ago, I celebrated my 52nd birthday. I am grateful for all the years given to me but can’t help feeling a bit sad from time to time about the fleeting passage of time. I am even more aware of it when I look at our son. He turned 17 just over a week ago. Next year he will no longer be considered a minor in the eyes of the law. In my eyes though, he is still the mischievous toddler trailing after me and talking incessantly about dinosaurs, volcanos, airplanes and trains. There are moments when I think I am ready to sell everything except my soul just to have one of those days back. But life never goes backwards, so I will look forward to the time ahead with excitement instead of trepidation. 

On reading

As I mentioned in my last post, I plan to read 23 books from 23 different countries this year. I don’t yet have 23 books from 23 different countries but I will get there. My goal for 2023 is a total of 40 books, so there is ample time for me to search for books from around the globe. You may think I’m crazy, but I’ve joined a ‘Read The World’ challenge that includes 196 countries from around the globe. The nice thing about this challenge is that you can start or finish whenever you like. So my start date is 2023 but I could continue this challenge until it is completed several years in the future. There are book suggestions for nearly every country (except for some countries that I have never even heard of). I am very excited about this and keep hunting for the more elusive countries whenever I am buying books. Up to now, I’ve ‘done and dusted’ three countries: Syria (The Stray Cats of Homs by Eva Nour – I will post a review of this remarkable book soon), the UK (The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro) and Greece (Ariadne by Jennifer Saint). For some reason, ticking countries off the list just makes me smile. I could cheat and add books I read in the past to increase my tally quicker, but I’ve never cheated in my life and don’t plan to start now. After all, this challenge gives me the perfect excuse to beg for, borrow or buy more books.

The perfect storm

After a very mild autumn, the first 4 weeks of winter were also quite warm and sunny. Then it turned cold on my birthday weekend (which was the perfect present) and has continued to be so. Last week though, storm Helios battered our shores. We had constant rain for 24 hours and gale-force winds. Friday was a public holiday and the sun came out for a while. My husband and I went for a walk along Dingli Cliffs, where I was scared the wind would blow us into the sea, and then spent some time reading in the car. The sunlight warmed it up and it was perfect for a while (although the wind kept buffeting and shaking our car). After some time, dark clouds started to form on the horizon and by the time we drove home, the rain started coming down again. People in Malta have got so unused to storms (we haven’t had a major one since 2019) that anytime one hits our shores, it becomes the main topic of conversation for at least 10 days. I wonder how we would all survive if the weather was bad a bit more frequently. Of course, I relished it and now I wonder whether we will get a few more storms before winter is over.

There are already quite a few signs of spring here in Malta. The daylight hours are, like everywhere else in the northern hemisphere, noticeably longer. Some wildflowers, like the crown daisy, yellow wall rocket and asphodel, are already blooming, while buds are starting to form on the giant fennel. Soon the garigue and the countryside will be humming with bees and that somnolent feeling which I always associate with spring will be in the air.

I want to try and keep my posts as short as possible because I know how busy life gets and I don’t want to take up more of your time than necessary (and I have to get back to my books :)). So that's all for this week except for one small question: I would like to write some posts about sustainable living and making simple environmentally-friendly choices but I wanted to know whether anyone would be interested. Thanks in advance for any feedback. 

Have a wonderful week.

I suppose that I will always remember 2022 as the year we returned to normality - even though the first half of the year was characterized by social distancing and masking-up. In reality. this is a distortion of the facts because while the world was slowly recovering from Covid 19, a gaping wound was opened in Europe's side when Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine. Eleven months have  passed since the start of the conflict and we are collectively guilty of forgetting that  normality has not returned everywhere. For the Ukrainians, it has been a year of horror and hardship. Some have escaped, with just the clothes on their back and with their children in their arms, and found refuge elsewhere. Others, who are stoically defiant, or too old and infirm, have remained. There are stories of heartbreak all over social media; displaced families that have found refuge wherever they could. And yet, a new year awaits, with its blank chapters and empty pages, eagerly preparing for the next big distraction, so that we flit and flop, from one thing to the next, like bumblebees in Spring, never alighting long enough to really live in the moment and recognise it for what it is. 

My year in pictures: the highlights of 2022

After testing positive for Covid and starting the year off in quarantine. I was ecstatic to be out of the house on January 19th (I even remember the exact date) and celebrated with a solo walk around Chadwick Lakes. Since it was a month after the Winter solstice, the light lingered for a while and, at s unset, the pastel hues in the sky were reflected in the water, painting the surroundings in a rosy hue. It was a memorable return to the outside world.

Later in the month my husband and I took a walk at the Majjistral Nature and History Park. Majjistral is the Maltese word for the north-west and it is also the name of the wind that blows from that direction. The park includes a stretch of protected coast and there is some nice scenery, including some spectacular cliffs and caves.

In February our son turned 16  but due to imminent school examinations and the thousands of new Covid cases that were being registered daily, his birthday was a low-key affair, but we promised to make up for it later.

During this month we explored the Xemxija Heritage Trail. This trail passes through several areas of archaeological importance which include Punic tombs, ancient granaries and neolithic burial site, but I think that the most well-preserved remains are the Roman apiaries which are extremely fascinating.

I will remember the Spring equinox of 2022 as one of the coldest in the past 10 years. I even made a note about it in my journal. Towards the end of the months though, it had already warmed up quite a bit and we spent a public holiday exploring the Lunzjata area, with its medieval chapel dedicated to the feast of the Annunciation. Other than that, March was a mostly uneventful month.

April brought Easter, sunny days and Saharan dust with it - all perfectly normal for the time of year.

In May we were allowed to unmask, even in stores and places of mass gatherings. This also warranted a journal entry in which I commented that after more than two years of constantly wearing a mask I felt 'strangely naked'. This was also the month when Maltese towns and villages were once again able to celebrate their beloved feasts. I am not a feast-goer but even I had to admit that it was good to see all the associated paraphernalia decorating the streets once more.

Our son graduated from secondary school in June with excellent marks. It was a proud moment for us and we were also happy that his hard work paid off. I'm sharing a rare photo of him here as he is quite bashful about appearing on social media. This also happens to be one of my favourite photos of the year.

For three weeks in July my husband and our son visited family in the US. I had to stay behind this year due to work commitments. It wasn't easy being alone at first and I missed them terribly but I soon fell into a routine that worked well for me. I had some free time on my hands,  mostly because I rarely cooked, eating mostly salads, fruit and the occasional plate of pasta. I also got to spend a lot of time with my parents, especially my mum, and we went to the beach together a few times (my mum and I, that is, my dad hates the beach). When the boys returned from the US I took some time off and on one of the days we paid a visit to the Red Tower (St Agatha's Tower) in the northern part of Malta. The deep red colour of this building makes it one of Malta's most  prominent and famous coastal fortifications. If you have a minute (literally) you can read a bit more about it in this post I had written some time ago:  Malta In A Minute: St Agatha's tower.

August is the month when we practically hibernate but this year we braved the heat and went to Valletta's Saluting Battery to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the arrival of the convoy that saved Malta from starvation during WW2. A 21-gun salute was fired from the battery at the Upper Barrakka gardens and it felt like being present there for this commemoration was the right thing to do.

Later in the month my husband celebrated his birthday and we had a date night (I can't even remember the last time we had had one) with dinner at Chukkas.

In September we visited the small but informative Meet The Phoenicians of Malta exhibition at the National Museum of Archaeology which I had written about here. It was also the last month that we visited the beach because, although the weather was still very warm, there were a number of jobs we needed to do around the house that, unfortunately, couldn't wait any longer.

In October we hiked to Il-Karraba, an area of blue clay hills that are slowly but surely being eroded and I am always under the impression that their height decreases every year. It was a pleasant walk and we ventured further around the cliff-top than we usually do.

November is always a strange month. Here in Malta it is traditionally the month dedicated to the remembrance of departed souls but it is also when we celebrate Thanksgiving and it's also full of the anticipation that I always feel in the last few weeks before Christmas. Right at the end of the month we were hit by a massive storm which brought gale force winds and quite a bit of rain. I thought that winter was finally here.

Compared to the previous two years, our social calendar was pretty busy during December with work parties and social gatherings taking place once more. On most evenings, the streets were chaotic with all the traffic until it got to a point where I was very happy to stay home and enjoy the solitude of our quiet little town. The Christmas celebrations were lovely and we all had a good time. 

For my son and I the highlight of the season was afternoon tea at The Corinthia Hotel. Tea (or coffee) is served with a selection of small sandwiches, cakes and scones. It was something I had been promising to take him to and Christmas felt like the perfect time. He really liked the rather posh surroundings and the very English tradition of afternoon tea. 

I'm now sad that the celebrations are over and we are back at work (and school) but I need to remember that time moves on and so must we.

Needless to say, I also read a lot in 2022 (41 books - but more about that next week) and continued to find joy in gardening. I'm still trying to decide where this blog is going so you will all need to have patience with me until I figure it out - if I ever do. It was a rather quiet year on a personal level but a year during which the turmoil in the world continued to increase. I worry about what the future holds sometimes, but then I try to let go of all the fears and trust that a Higher Power is watching over us. There can be no other way.

In this post I will be talking about ways to savour and make the most of November.

Last year at this time I wrote about Giving Thanks. It was a candid, heartfelt post in which I mentioned the people and things I was grateful for. If I had to rewrite it today, it wouldn't change much.  But I would add 'the possibility to celebrate Christmas with family' to the list. After the restrictions of the past two years it feels good to know we can be ourselves again and celebrate with our loved ones. 

What doesn't feel so good is the constant reminders, starting from September, by influencers, ads,some bloggers and so on, that 'it's never too early to start thinking about Christmas'. This is absolute rubbish and just another marketing ploy to have us running around with a 'To Do' list a mile long before we've barely bid adieu to summer. I refuse to do it and, as much as I love the Christmas season, I don't need to start thinking about it while I'm still wearing shorts and flip flops. Slow and steady will still achieve the desired results and aiming for perfection by starting 3 months early to try and have a head start is just a losing battle.

Candles & Poetry

November is regarded by many as a dreary month. The association it has, especially in southern Europe, with remembering those that have passed, makes it even more so for countless others. When I was younger I was always in a hurry for November to move on and for glitzy December, with its sparkling lights and hints of magic, to take its place. But I am older now and somewhat wiser. Now I believe that November is a gift; an interlude of sorts, a brief respite before the whirlwind that is December takes its place. We can choose to rush through this month or use these few quiet weeks to turn our thoughts inwards and practice mindfulness. It's the perfect time. The weather may be grey outside and cold, wild winds may blow, but what better time to light a candle and read some poetry? It's been so  long since I picked up a poetry book and I long to start reading it again. I find certain poems so perfect for contemplative moments. Do you have any favourite poems or poets? Please share them in the comments. I would love to know. I hear that Mary Oliver is a good place to start. I've just added her collection Dream Work to my 'to be read' (or tbr) list.

As for candles, I have just added  a Salted Caramel Scented candle from Zara Home to my collection. I love to change candles according to the season. They really enhance the ambiance and the golden glow of candles makes everything look so pretty and cozy. It's a perfect way to end any evening but especially when the daylight fades fast as it does during this time of the year.

Lists & Notebooks

I know we all get caught in the business of the upcoming season and I firmly believe that keeping a notebook close at hand and scribbling down some lists or simply recording some of our thoughts is a sanity-saver. Notebooks are a sore subject in our household. I can rarely resist a pretty one and generally have several on the go. There are always a couple lounging around in my handbags as I can never be sure when my inspiration is fired or I need to jot something down to make sure I don't forget it. Etsy has so many pretty ones but even our local stationeries usually have plenty to choose from.

Gardening & Flowers

I know I sound like a broken record but I do find gardening immensely therapeutic. Autumn is like a second Spring in the Mediterranean. Our roses are blooming again after the summer drought and yesterday I finally took my camera out of its bag and took some shots. Once January comes around we will cut them back and try to propagate new plants from cuttings. It's not an easy endeavour but the satisfaction of growing a plant from a cutting is hard to describe. If you're not into gardening just spend some time in nature: go for a walk on the beach or in a forest or park. Just take yourself off to a place where you can leave your worries and your phone behind. Somewhere away from crowds and noise and too many things going on at once. Disconnecting from everything for a few minutes each day or a couple of hours whenever you get the time is great for your well-being. We need to remember to take care of ourselves. Many of the chores we feel we have to do can wait until we're able to silence those voices in our head and just breathe in and out slowly and calmly, until a feeling of calmness and peace pervades our whole being. Everything else can wait.

I hope you enjoyed these few tips on how to make the most of November without feeling the need to be thinking about anything else except the present. Fear of missing out (FOMO) has become an unfortunate part of our existence and I, for one, have been guilty of giving in to the pressure to flit from one thing to the next. But I have learnt that being content in the here and now is the most rewarding way to live.

I wish I could say that these images bursting with the rich colours of autumn were taken in Malta but we don't get anything like that here. Instead I am sharing some photos taken during our trip to Tuscany last year.

Location of images

Val d'Orcia,  Tuscany, Italy

October 2021

October brought with it another change this year. Our son, the one I used to call the Mischief maker so long ago, started Junior College (that would be senior high school in the US and sixth form in the UK) last week. He is in a very big new school with new teachers and hundreds of new faces. There's so much for him to learn, such a flurry of new activities to get used to, such an important step towards the career of his dreams. I admit to being anxious at the thought of so much newness to get used to - for him and for us. All will be well but my thoughts are in a hundreds different places and  I'm more scatter-brained than usual. This is a new phase in my life too. One during which I have to gently let go and guide from a distance. It will be a learning curve. I hope I do well.

We couldn't say good bye to summer without attending a few events that were on our radar. After a delay of  9 months (because we all came down with Covid last Christmas) the boys (my husband and son) went to the Underground Valletta guided tour. These tours, organized by Heritage Malta, provide visitors with a unique opportunity to access the tunnels running underneath our capital city. The underground tunnels were created during the construction of Valletta. Some acted as drains for water or sewage and others allowed the movement of troops. Centuries later the tunnels would serve as shelters during the second World War.  I was told that the tour ends spectacularly in an underground cistern whose massive size resembles the interior of a cathedral. More information can be found in this articles: The Secrets of Underground Valletta. I opted out of this tour as I was afraid there would be cockroaches (I hate them) in those dark, dank tunnels. However, I was told that there weren't any, so maybe I'll pluck up the courage and go some other time.

In September we also had the opportunity to visit the small but highly informative Meet The Phoenicians of Malta exhibition at the National Museum of Archaeology. The Phoenicians were ancient traders from Tyre and Sidon (modern day Lebanon) who sailed to various ports in the Mediterranean and beyond. Apart from an innate fascination with the Phoenicians that I've had since childhood, this exhibition was even more interesting for us because the artifacts were excavated inside a tomb which was discovered just a mile away from the town where we live. The bones and other objects are still being analyzed and studied but I was completely bowled over by the enormous stone sarcophagus that was excavated from the site. How was it transported? Was it built in place?  And, because I'm prone to flights of fancy, could these be the bones of my ancestors? So many questions came to my mind as I traced by fingers lightly across the massive stone structure, wondering at the incredible achievements of this ancient race.

More than any other season, autumn is all about endings and beginnings. As I say goodbye to lazy Saturday mornings at the beach and empty our beach bags of sand and sundry small pebbles that hide in there all summer, I will welcome our treks to what is left of Malta's decimated countryside, looking forward to visit such sties as the arch at tal-Hamrija and Lippija Tower.

In Nature too the cycle of endings and beginnings continues. The swifts that throughout September filled our skies with their joyous chirping and twittering have moved on. It is strangely silent now. But, last week, at dawn, I heard a robin's call and, later, I saw that the pomegranate fruits are ripe on the trees and bursting their skins. Both are sure signs that autumn is here at last.

The title of this  post came to me one lazy Saturday afternoon in late July, between one nap and another, after a morning spent at the beach. It made me smile as I jotted it down, thinking it would make a perfect title for my memoir - that is, if I ever decided to write one.  Needless to say, we have had an endless supply of sunshine since May, although it did rain quite heavily last week. The cicadas, on the other hand, didn't make themselves heard until around mid-July. I read somewhere that the temperature has to rise to at least 35C before they start screeching. Now it seems like they will never stop. My grandparents' generation, who never used a thermometer or any other scientific means of measuring temperature, used to say that the heat peaks around the 10th of August, on the feast of Saint Laurence - and, most years, they have been  proved right.

This year though, it seems that the temperature peaked and plateaued, and it takes all my energy to drag myself upright to do the simplest of chores. Reading and wasting time on Instagram seem to be all I'm capable of at the moment but I'll believe in the old tradition that says that cooler days are ahead.n I just hope we don't have to wait too much longer.

It has been a strange sort of summer. Even though the days of the pandemic seem to be well and truly over, I still seem to prefer staying indoors. It has become a habit. Not a bad one but I need to get out and about more. Because if I don't I won't have anything interesting to write about will I? And I am sure you are all getting tired of my book reviews by now.

Operation Pedestal 80th Anniversary

Yesterday was the 80th anniversary of Operation Pedestal. On August 15th 1942, a badly damaged ship named the SS Ohio limped into Grand Harbour supported by two destroyers, Ledbury and Penn, and delivered a precious cargo of fuel, ammunition and grain to the Maltese population and the British forces. The island was on the brink of surrendering but the supplies delivered by the Ohio, and the rest of the flotilla that made up Operation Pedestal, ensured that it would continue to fight on. Embarrassingly, no official commeration was organized locally and, were it not for Heritage Malta and a local re-enactment group, this important event in our history would have been completely forgotten. 

TV Shows

We've been enjoying the latest adaption of veterinarian James Herriot's memories in All Creatures Great And Small. It is a throwback to a different era. I always look back at the 1930s and envy the slow, sheltered life that most people lived during that time. Of course, the second World War ended all that but, in my imagination, the 30s were like a golden era of innocence, wholesomeness and good manners. Yes, I admit to being guilty of looking at the past with rose-tinted glasses. I am sure there were plenty of things which were completely awful. I should have listened more closely to what my grandmother's used to complain about instead of basing my opinion on a couple of TV series like this one and The Durrells.

I'll leave it at that for today. I must plan my posts better because this one seems to be a bit all-over-the-place. As usual, I am going to blame it on the heat.