Vineyards - Malta

Made in Malta - Marnisi is a single estate selection harvested from the Marsovin Vineyards bearing the same name. It is a blend of four grape varieties, Cabarnet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabarnet Franc and Petit Verdot.



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Welcome to Malta

Taken this morning from my balcony, without zooming!!

Beach Cleaning

Happy Halloween!!

I have just posted a photo of my dad on my other blog since yesterday was his 55th Birthday. I decided to keep with the portrait photo theme for today, so here is my friend Laetitia (also assistant photographer for this blog!) goofing around last week whilst we went shopping in Bay Street (photo shown on previous posts).


A Note: I have added a banner on my side bar for CarabottCats, for all of you cat lovers do feel free to visit this website, they have some beautiful cats.(A link is found on my dailylife blog )

St. Julians # 3

Bay Street ........ this is the shopping mall found in St.Julians, close to St.George's Bay. One can find a great variety of shops ,from clothes to toys to food.

St. George's Bay - St. Julians # 2

This is another part of the St.George's Bay. In this photo you can see two very well known Hotels here in this part of the island, the San Gorg Corinthia and the Marina Hotel.

St. George's Bay - St. Julians # 1

St. George's bay is a typical local coastal inlet sporting a sandy beach. The sides of the inlet are characterised by gently sloping rocky shores that extend underwater for a few tens of meters. Various important marine habitats are found in the different sections of the bay, such as sea grasses (a marine flowering plant), Neptune Grass (Maltese : Alka), Alga forests (seaweed) and bare sand.

St.Julians is a town full of hotels, bars, pubs, night clubs, restaurants Cinema etc...

Wied il- Buni - Birzebbuga

This photo was taken from the end part of the Birzebbuga seafront which is called "Wied il-Buni", looking towards pretty bay and some of the seafront buildings.

Something different

 


I will be posting photos of the different stages in building a house here in Malta. These are the first stages of foundations. The house is being built by Laetitia's husband. Photos taken by Laetitia, hope you enjoy them.



I have also been tagged by Lothiane from Oslo daily photo, the tag consists of writing 8 facts about myself, so here it goes.

1. I love learning about other countries and their cultures.
2. I like coffee.
3. I have an addiction : I cannot stop looking for cheap flights on the internet so that I can go abroad :)
4. I like to read and blog.
5. I like to meet new people.
6. I like to help when possible.
7. mmmm I love pizza and a good apple pie, anything good that has to do with pastries really sweet or savoury.
8. Last but not least I love spending time with my family :)

Chapel of the Blessed Virgin 'Tal-Mirakli'

The church, which is within the limits of the parish of Lija, is not far away from the road which from Attard leads to Mosta, and is a very well-known sanctuary. The present church was built in 1664 and dedicated in 1787. Tradition holds that the image of the Virgin venerated in the church shed a tear when a severe earthquake hit the island. Marriages may be celebrated in the church.
Dedication date - 23 December 1787


Photo taken by Laetitia

Views from the Grand Harbour Hotel - Valletta

 

photos taken by Laetitia

Grand Harbour Hotel - Valletta

Grand Harbour Hotel is located in Valletta, it has 25 rooms on seven storeys. I will show you in the following posts some of the views from this Hotel.



Photo taken by Laetitia

Maltese stone work # 2.

.... this is a continuation of yesterday's photo. It's part of the same house.

Maltese stone work

It is very common to find this sort of stone work done to houses here in Malta. This house is found in Birzebbuga and tomorrow I will show you another part of this house's facade.

Bad weather

We are having some bad weather, it's strange weather as it is very windy but not cold!! some of the boats were badly hit by the rough sea, and one was completely capsized.

Waves and sand

Here is Pretty Bay, Birzebbuga on a windy day. Finally the weather here in Malta is switching into autumn. It's still not cold but at least it's much cooler.
Have a good week everyone.

Sunset over Birzebbuga

Here's one of the shots I took last week whilst driving back to Birzebbuga from Marsaxlokk.

On another note, sorry for not posting photos but I have been without Internet service.

I wish you all a good Sunday.

Rainbow

...... God told Noah and his sons, “And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.”

The rainbow is a beautiful token of the Lord that continues to testify of the covenant that He made with the world and all flesh. It is a perfect reminder of our Lord’s protection and the keeping of His promises.

Fishing boats - Marsaxlokk

There's a big yard in Marsaxlokk (the fishing village) where the boat hoists are and at the moment there's a good number of fishing boats on shore, I guess most of the boats are in need of some work.

Boat hoists - Marsaxlokk # 2

In a previous post I have shown a photo of these hoists and gave explanation of their purpose, the photo was of the Hoist itself today I show you the Hoist at work ;)

Maltese bread 'Il-Hobz tal-Malti'

Maltese bread: Undoubtedly the Maltese bread, is indeed very good. Today the Maltese bread is still very cheap. Before the bread was sold to customers by a horse-drawn yellow, generally dirty box (carriage). Today the baker comes with his van and roams round the city. You can even pick on yourself, since there is an average of 2 bakeries per village. The ingredients of this bread, remained the same - flour, yeast, water snd a lot of salt, but of course today there is a lot of electric machines which do the work which used to be done by hand. We use stale bread to make the traditional bread pudding. There are many types of Maltese bread include:- tas-salib (of the cross), tas-sikkina (of the knife), the ftira, and tal-kexxun (of the drawer).

'The boat is too small' ..... St. Paul's Bay # 2

I wish you all a happy and blessed Sunday.


The Golden Boat


Clouds rumbling in the sky; teeming rain.
I sit on the river bank, sad and alone.
The sheaves lie gathered,harvest has ended,
The river is swollen and fierce in its flow.
As we cut the paddy it started to rain.

One small paddy-field, no one but me -
Flood-waters twisting and swirling everywhere.
Trees on the far bank;smear shadows like ink
On a village painted on deep morning grey.
On this side a paddy-field, no one but me.

Who is this, steering close to the shore
Singing? I feel that she is someone I know.
The sails are filled wide,she gazes ahead,
Waves break helplessly against the boat each side.
I watch and feel I have seen her face before.

Oh to what foreign land do you sail?
Come to the bank and moor your boat for a while.
Go where you want to,give where you care to,
But come to the bank a moment, show your smile -
Take away my golden paddy when you sail.

Take it, take as much as you can load.
Is there more? No, none, I have put it aboard.
My intense labour here by the river -
I have parted with it all, layer upon layer;
Now take me as well, be kind, take me aboard.

No room, no room, the boat is too small.
Loaded with my gold paddy, the boat is full.
Across the rain-sky clouds heave to and fro,
On the bare river-bank, I remain alone -
What had has gone: the golden boat took all.

~Rabindranath Tagore






Photo taken by Laetitia

St. Paul's Bay

The history of the northern stretch of Malta is much less in-your-face than other parts of the island, in fact, with the exception of a tiny area of St Paul's Bay and a couple of towers left over from the time of the Knights, there is little of historical value to see. Until the early 1800's, the north of the island was virtually uninhabited, at the beginning of the 20th century there were fewer than 200 people living there as fishermen. A small collection of fishing boats is still in use at St Paul's Bay which gives the place a momentarily quaint, picturesque aspect.

Most people who visit the northern section of Malta do so for the sun, sea and sand. The island's three large resorts Bugibbe, Qawra and St Paul's Bay have blurred the coastline into a mass of apartment blocks. The one thing that separates St Paul's Bay from the British home-from-home created by neighbouring resorts is the local shops and Maltese homes that break up the tourist hotels and restaurants.

The Saint Paul's Bay that exists today is a long way from the events that named the place back in AD 60. According to the Bible, St Paul's ship ran aground on its way from the Holy Land to Rome. St Paul was treated so well by the Maltese that he thanked them by removing the venom from the islands' poisonous snakes forever.



Photo taken by Laetitia

A game of Bocci at the local club

Like all sports, bocci (pentaque) changes immensely from the time when you are a beginner to the time when you achieve a certain level of proficincy.
When you throw your first boule it all seems rather random, and you ask yourself "is this really all? Getting as close to the pig (the small ball) as possible?"

But thats probably what you thought the first time you tried football (kicking the ball into the goal), darts ( hitting the wall), Pool (hitting the holes) Formula One (driving fast) etc.

So when the glorious time comes when you are able to place your boule where you want, and even hit the opponent's boule directly and send it packing, things get a bit different. It's not all about coming as close to the pig as possible, but about counting the number of boules in play, figuring out where you should place your next boule to make it difficult for your opponent and even trying to hit the pig directly to knock it out of play

Overlooking from Popeye's village

Photos by Laetitia

Popeye's village - Mellieha , Malta # 2

Photos by Laetitia

Popeye's village - Mellieha , Malta

'SWEETHAVEN VILLAGE', the Film Set of the 1980 Musical Production “Popeye”, also known as 'POPEYE VILLAGE' was constructed in Anchor Bay during the last 7 months of 1979.

To construct this authentic wooden village, tree trunk logs were trailered overland from Holland, and wood shingles, used in the construction of the roof tops, were imported all the way from Canada. A 165 international construction crew consumed eight tons of nails and two thousand gallons of paint to finish off this massive Set.

No less than 20 wooden structures had to be built. Before construction could begin, an access road leading to the Set had to be constructed. Also, Anchor Bay needed a 200-250 foot Breakwater at its mouth, to protect the Set from high seas during the shooting months of the Film Production.

Filming commenced on the 23rd of January, 1980. The story relates to Popeye coming to Sweethaven Village to look for his father, who deserted him when he was a mere infant and whom he has pledged to find. During this process, Popeye meets Olive Oyl, who was to be officially engaged to Captain Bluto, and together they find an abandoned baby by the name of SWEE'PEA, who becomes a cupid to the unlikely pair. After a final bout between Popeye and Bluto, filmed at Blue Lagoon, Popeye emerges victorious and the story ends with Popeye’s original motto : I YAM WHAT I YAM. Director of photography, Guiseppe Rotunno completed the final shooting on the 19th of June, 1980.

The cartoon character Popeye was introduced by Elzie Segar in 1929 in a comic strip named “Thimble Theatre”. The Film, based on a story written by Jules Fieffer, was directed by Robert Altman and produced by Robert Evans. The Production Film Company was Lions Gate Films and the Distributors were Paramount Pictures and Walt Disney Productions

Photo by Laetitia