Casa Camilleri in Puglia - 7
Hello everyone
Welcome to this new update. Since I last wrote, I received many emails and messages with your updates, so thank you for taking the time. I love how you interpret what I write in a way that further colours the events at Casa Camilleri and through you I see it in a variety of different perspectives and imagination. I am currently working on creating a blog platform which is taking time as I navigate through! I’ve never done this before, so I hope when I am ready to launch, my writing will be more accessible as will photos to accompany and describe visually what I am writing about. We often have to remind each other to take photos, the before and afters. Today’s update may be shorter and maybe less colourful, but I am determined to get it out in time to wish you and your loved ones a peaceful time over Christmas whichever your circumstances.
I have continued to work on exposing rubble walls and creating a rock garden under the oak trees. I love how the evening light breaks through the foliage and lights up the browns, reds, yellows, orange of autumn as the sun sets.
What was a messy stack of fire-wood and rubbish, now looks more like this.
I continue to extract the peat and compost from the ground, piling it elsewhere, ready for use on the veggie beds. In the meantime, the broad beans are growing, the spinach too, and it looks like we will have a modest crop of onions and garlic.
The renovations proceed. The gang of men turn up nearly every morning at 7.30 am and with them the chainsaw, chaser, drills, and hammers, as of course, the dust! John and I have been squeezed into one part of the house where we try our best to defend ourselves from the dust and the noise while the rest of our stuff is covered in plastic. Despite that, our already busy days are never quite complete without the cleaning, washing, and dusting. But we are not complaining; the work is proceeding and that is gold!
Then different men arrived and made huge holes and wide trenches in the newly-erected walls by the other men. They pulled and thugged so the tubes and conduits could be accommodated, and the wiring started this coming week, Christmas permitting and as long as I keep watering and feeding them with coffee and cake and of course $$$$$$$ (but in euros!)
Today the house smells like Christmas. I have just prepared the ‘qastanija’ which is the filling for the traditional maltese Christmas rings. Some of you will have tasted them when we were in New Zealand. The filling consists of black treacle, citrus peel, spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves then thickened with semolina, which then goes into a pastry casing and baked. They are yum. There is even a Maltese Christmas carol dedicated to these delicacies! Which by the way, I have discovered are a moorish sweet
(literally speaking) and versions can be found in Sardinia and Sicily
.
We have visited a couple of towns and villages to see the Christmas lights and decorations; not as much as our intentions dictate because by the end of each day, we are somewhat exhausted! But we will have a few days off which we hope we will fill with less dust and a few more cultural excursions. However, the carols are not lacking, they keep us going through the days as the bellow from the speakers and echo within the trulli!
Short and sweet……
I wish you all well.
Abbracci e Buon Natale
Moira