Sincerely, Loree

Even as a child, I always looked forward to September. It was the beginning of the end of summer when the days were still hot, but the nights were pleasantly cool. School, which started in October, still seemed ages away. I had my little band of friends. Our friendship was enough.

Some days, we played hopscotch or hide and seek. On other days, we would go to the seaside, armed with buckets and spades, flip-flops and straw hats. The beaches were almost deserted after Victory Day (September 08), so we had whole stretches of sand to ourselves. It was a glorious time. The sea was always restless, as errant breezes quietly ruffled its surface. There was a peace and a calmness that was only disturbed by the excited giggles of children drunk on the freedom of the last days of summer. We ate our ftira, filled with tomatoes and tuna, basil and mint, and almost made ourselves sick on bunches of sweet Maltese grapes (truly the best in the world).

I remember our beach umbrella, an exuberant 70s concoction of orange, red and white flowers on a bright blue background; the exciting combination of salty skin and sandy toes; the sun, huge and as orange as a pumpkin, lingering on the horizon - just seemingly long enough to dip its toes into the cerulean water that marked the boundaries of our existence.

Only the present was real. The future seemed very far away. It was the best of times - an idyll that would soon be shattered by the relentless march of time - a commodity that we had a surplus of back then.

Those days are long gone. The children have grown, and only the memories remain, memories of golden September days by the sea.

Thanks to Jeanne (again) for the inspiration. And thanks to my parents, for those wonderful days by the sea (and so much else).

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.

I was doing the rounds on Instagram on Tuesday of last week when I came across a  photo of Queen Elizabeth during her first official meeting with Liz Truss, appointing her Britain's new Prime Minister. The photo moved me in a strange. 'The Queen looks so frail', I commented under the photo. I had this foreboding that the queen was fading fast but I brushed it away because it seemed like she always rallied. And yet her passing, just 48 hours later, still came as a surprise. She had been Queen throughout my life and I half expected her to live forever, like an eternal symbol of a different era.

Unapologetic Royalist

It was my parents, but mostly my dad, who instilled in me a love of all things British from a very young age. As I grew older, I developed an almost fanatical  interest in the current Royal Family and in the kings and queens from whom they are descended. The history of the British monarchy is turbulent, convoluted and utterly fascinating and it's  a subject I love to read about. I truly do believe that, although many more kings than queens have ruled Britain, it is during the long reign of Elizabeth I, Victoria and Elizabeth II that the most tumultuous changes and advances in the society of the time took place. Elizabeth II came to the throne a mere 7 years after the end of WW2. Rationing was still in force and Europe was not yet healed of its scars. In the intervening 70 years so much changed and yet her steadfastness, dignity and commitment to her country and to the Commonwealth were a constant reminder that the she would never break the oath she had taken at her coronation, no matter how difficult things may have been for her personally.

The Queen and I

I was never lucky enough to meet the Queen in person but i did catch a glimpse of her and Prince Philip during a visit they had made to Malta in  1992. However, I never stopped hoping that I would - which is why I would always check whether the Royal Standard was flying whenever visiting one of her official residences. Sadly, although I have visited Buckingham Palace (3 times), Windsor Castle and the Palace of Holyrood House, I never saw as much as one of her beloved corgis.

The Royal Standard flies above the Keep of Windsor Castle on our visit in 2014. The Queen was in residence.

Queen Elizabeth II and Malta

It is said that he Queen had an affectionate place in her heart for Malta although, unfortunately, there aren't many people left who still care. The Queen visited Malta 6 times after she was crowned: in 1954 (as part of a grand tour of the Commonwealth), 1967, 1992, 2005, 2007 and 2015 (which was her last overseas trip). But what perhaps is not widely known is that she actually lived here in Malta for several months between 1949 and 1951 as a naval wife when Prince Philip served in the Royal Navy Mediterranean  Fleet. 

Elizabeth II was queen of Malta from 1952 until the amendment of the Constitution of Malta on 13 December 1974, which abolished the monarchy and established the Republic of Malta and the office of President of Malta.

I'm adding some links about Malta and the Queen that I thought you'd find interesting:

This video is from the Queen and Prince Philip's visit in 1954. Also present were a very young Prince Charles and Princess Anne. It was during this visit that my dad met the Queen when he was part of the Boy Scout troop present at the inauguration of the Mater Admirabilis Training College for teachers in Tal-Virtu`.

An article in House & Garden about Villa Guardamangia.

The Queen in Malta - in pictures

The End Of An Era

As I write this, the Queen is making her way to Buckingham Palace for the last time. The rain is falling but the crowds are thick on the streets. They do not mind the rain as they stand in silence or clap as the hearse goes by. For this is a historical moment. The end of an era. The passing of a woman who symbolised so much to so many. I do not mean to sound like a sycophant. The Queen was not perfect and I am sure she made mistakes. The media pointed them out often enough. But my feeling is that she always had her fingers on the pulse of her nation. She knew when to be present and when to withdraw. In a world where the only constants are turmoil and change, she has been there, a serene and calming presence for seventy years. Now she is at rest and it is time for the tributes to pour in from all over the world. This is just my own humble one to the woman who was once, for a very few years, my Queen too.

By now we've all said our goodbyes to 2021 and, for better or worse, have started a new year. Looking back at 2021 I would say it was another wild ride. Perhaps not quite as bad as its predecessor but it still blew us and buffeted us every which way. Like every other year, it had its highs and its lows but the pandemic was still very much with us and our lives had to revolve around its whims. So here's my roundup of the year we've just left.

2021: my year in pictures

In January we were forced into another mini-lockdown here in Malta as the numbers started to rise after the Christmas festivities. It was also the month that I turned fifty and I had taken you on a small tour of my life in Fifty years of me. Since all the restaurants were closed we celebrated my half-century very quietly and the dream I had made long ago to spend my fiftieth in Venice had to be given up.

February and March were equally slow and quiet months. We spent most of our weekends out in the open, hiking and discovering new-to-us places like Blata tal-Melh and Irdum tal-Vigarju. These off-the-beaten track locations helped us appreciate nature and gave us a sense of freedom. In February I attended the last day of the Darkness At Noon Exhibition at The Splendid. 

Our lockdown was lifted in April as the number of vaccinated individuals started to rise and the amount of positive cases started to dwindle. The first tourists made their way back to our shores and we were able to go out to restaurants again. The weather really started to warm up and we took our last hike as, from here on, it would get too hot to be enjoyable.

In late April and May I discovered a love of gardening that rather surprised me as I never had felt a keen interest in plants. But just being outside in our little garden, digging up the soil, removing weeds and planting seeds made me very happy. I didn't really know what I was doing, so some things thrived while others didn't. I've a lot to learn.

In June my husband and I celebrated out 18th anniversary and we took the day off and went out for lunch in the quaint fishing village of Marsaxlokk. We found it much changed from the last time we were there a few years ago, Like many other places, modern apartment blocks have risen in place of the small houses that characterised this village which has spoiled the aesthetic somewhat. But lunch at La Capanna restaurant was very good and it felt good to be out in the sunshine. On the summer solstice we were hit by a heatwave that would last for 6 weeks. It was certainly one long, hot summer.

Due to the intense heat, we didn't do much of anything in July and August. Beach days were definitely the best days. Strangely, the weather started to turn by mid-August and, although it was still hot, the temperatures were normal for this time of year (in the low 30s rather than the high 30s to low 40s we had been experiencing).

In October, with the number of infections still very low, my husband and I decided to plan a quick trip to Tuscany. We were there during the last week of October and had a really wonderful time. Tuscany is just beautiful in autumn. I've already written about our week in Tuscany and about visits to Pienza and Monteriggioni. I have more posts planned and will share them soon if you're still interested in reading more about this region of Italy.

November went the way most Novembers do and was pretty unmemorable. We were planning on having Thanksgiving dinner, as we do every year, but developed a leak in our water system and had to shelve our plans. But I still managed to find a number of things to be grateful for. After the plumber fixed our leak I decided it was time decorate the house for Christmas.

December is my favourite month but, last year, something just didn't seem to be right. After getting all our decorations up by the first few days of December I fell into a slump. Work was super busy and I just didn't seem to have the energy to shop or  bake, two tasks that I usually enjoy very much. Instead I kept postponing from one day to the next. The number of infections kept rising and I couldn't shake off the feeling that things were going to precipitate. 

To cut a long story short, our teenager had an aching back and runny nose on Christmas eve. I didn't think too much of it but took him to do a rapid test (to be on the safe side) and it came out positive. So we had to spend the holidays locked inside and  in isolation. It wasn't fun but we were together and still tried to make the most of the festive season (and Santa was very kind and left 22 books under the Christmas tree). The year seemed to end with a whimper and we were not able to drive to a beach to say goodbye to the last sunset of 2021, as has become our tradition.

And, as of today, we are 11 days into 2022 and I tested positive last week so we had to stay in quarantine and will be 'locked up' until next week. It's hard not to feel a bit down sometimes but I know that so many people have had it so much worse. So I am doing my best not to complain. But I will admit that I really need to get out of the house now and hope we can make that happen in one more week. I hope you are all doing well and have slipped into some sort of routine now that a new year has started.

Lingering. It's a word that has such a sweet ring to it, don't you think? It is derived from lenger which means to reside or dwell. It's a word that really  resonated with me one day last week. I had the afternoon off, I didn't need to cook for several hours and I had some 'me' time. Which meant that I could take my time not just enjoying the photos on Instagram but actually reading all the captions. Even the long ones. Yes, I was lingering and it felt good.

You see, my character is very much a mixture of the polar opposites that are my mum and dad in this regard. HE takes things easy, does everything at this own pace and won't be hurried to save his life. SHE will finish a task as soon as she is aware of it, even if she has another 10 to do, as  long as it's done and out of the way. And I am a curious mixture of procrastination and hyperactivity that drives me partially insane because it's so difficult for these two extremes to live in one body. During weekdays I take the hyperactive approach and, by Friday evening, I'm ready to pass out from exhaustion - some of which is brought on by this constant battling for precedence between my yin and yang. So it felt very good to linger unexpectedly, on a Thursday afternoon, and not think about anything. I felt quite like some society lady from ages past, not only sitting and doing nothing but actually not thinking about what I needed to do. And what a lovely feeling it was.

Which is why I sometimes I get these strange yearnings for things to be the way they used to be. When I was a child I spent many summer days with my Nanna Rose or by great aunt Winnie (or Rosina and Wistina, in Maltese). One-stop shops didn't exist in those days, at least not in our town, so we would make the daily rounds: the grocery store, the vegetable seller, the bakery and, if something needed fixing or an new outfit was being made, a stop at the haberdashery for a spool of thread or maybe a zipper and buttons. And at each stop, we would stop to say a few words to the other women from the neighbourhood doings their own rounds. It was an unhurried process, the latest family news would be exchanged, maybe a little bit of gossip too. They lingered, these ladies of my childhood. There was no rush. I hadn't realized just how much things have changed. Now trips to the grocery store are a mad rush to get in and out as fast as possible; and I never meet anyone who I can linger with. Even if I did, we probably wouldn't have the time for more than a 'hello', 'how are you?' and 'goodbye'. How sad it has all become. I vote we all do our bit to bring lingering back in style.

In the spirit of taking some time for ourselves and actually enjoy doing it without thinking of the one hundred other things that still need to be done, today I am sharing a few links that I hope you will have time to linger over.

• Do read Kim Wheelers interview with our favourite Contessa: Style Maven Elizabeth Kirkpatrick  for her Californians At Home Series. Elizabeth's home and her beautiful garden feel like a throwback to another era. It's definitely a home where one can easily linger and relax.
• Another beautiful abode is Prince Charles's sixteenth century house in Cornwall. It is the epitome of British country living and I absolutely loved it. Designer Annabel Elliott managed to create an eclectic mix of British brands, market finds, country antiques and the odd armchair upholstered in vintage Moroccan fabric. Next time we visit Cornwall I hope I'll be invited to tea.
• I really enjoyed reading Vicki Archer's tips for sleeping well in her article Sleeping Beauty: The Best Night's Sleep. We can all do with a better night of sleep.
• I've already reviewed The Enchanted April but I have to mention it again because it's perfect for doing a spot of lingering (indeed, it's all the four protagonists of this book seem to do).
• I am truly entranced by the series The Time in Between. It is in Spanish with English subtitles. The story takes place in the years before WW2 and starts in Spain but moves to Morocco at a time when it was a melting pot of cultures. For some reason, I've always thought of Morocco during that era as an exotic and fascinating place and this series is just further enhancing this image. To be honest, Morocco is still a place whose charms I wish to experience one day. In the meantime, another way I get my Moroccan fix is by lingering over Maryam Montague's beautiful book Marrakesh By Design. The book was first published in 2012 and I am sure that most of you have seen it but I love to look at the vibrant colours of Moroccan houses and gardens. There is something about the combination of colours used in Moroccan textiles and design that makes my heart beat ever so slightly faster because I'm definitely not someone who can live with neutrals only.
• 
  Image via Amazon

This coming Thursday is my 50th birthday. There, I've said it. Somehow that makes it seem more real. Because I cannot quite believe that I am going to be half a century old. Of course, age is just a number, and all that. But still, I can't help feeling a little bit...well...old. I still remember my 25th birthday quite clearly. I was waiting for my friends outside a club called Coconut Grove, looking forward to an evening of fun, when I suddenly wondered what it would be like to be fifty years old.  But I quickly brushed the thought away. There were another 25 years left  until that day came around and it felt like a long, long way away. And as my friends turned up, with their bright, hopeful faces and without a wrinkle or a grey hair between the lot of us, it sure felt great to be young. We felt on top of the world and relegated any thoughts of middle-age to the backs of our minds. But here we are.

Canton (MO) 2011. This is probably one of my favourite photos ever.

So much has happened in the intervening years. At twenty-five our lives and careers were in front of us and everything seemed to be just ripe for the taking. Until, like Icarus, we flew too close to the sun and had to settle for lower ground. I suppose it's the story of all our lives. The bright mornings of youth are followed by the more mellow light of late afternoon and early evening. And so it goes. For everyone that lives.

But I don't want to get too melodramatic and carried away with my silly thoughts on youth and middle-age. Instead I thought it would be fun to share some highlights of each decade of my life and I hope it will be a way for you, my dear readers, to get to know me better. So here goes.

The seventies

                         

The eighties

The nineties

The noughties

The in-betweenies and the teenies