HAPPY NEW YEAR, A LITTLE LATE

I write this the day after the eighth anniversary of the death of my beloved dog, Simi, whom some of you may remember from posts of yesteryear. It's never an easy day, as the dog lovers among you will understand, but I am grateful for the time we had and to her for sending me my Bertie.

 

If ever a dog needed a lot of love, it is Bertie and she came to the right place to receive it! Bertie certainly gives a lot of love in return, and here she is after her Christmas haircut:

Santa Paws came, just as he used to for Simi and then Bertie discovered that life is full of choices:

On festive evenings we snuggled under an old favourite Christmas blanket and we enjoyed it:

"I like it under here, I do!"

Pre-Christmas rather passed me by, I'm afraid and the prohibitive cost and even more hassle of sending cards to the UK these days left me resorting to e-cards en masse. I did, however, manage a day in Catania on the Thursday before Christmas. I had felt in need of the atmosphere of a big city and it looked particularly lovely in the sunshine, with its charming festive mercatini:

I loved the reindeer!

It's difficult to take a selfie when you want to get the famous Catania elephant that is above you in the frame but are afraid to put your bags on the ground because of the possibility of pickpockets (as in any big city). 

Back in Modica, this simple but beautiful shop window cheered me as I passed it every day. A photo does not do it justice:

Then all too soon it was twelfth night and taking the decorations down made me sadder than ever this year. Perhaps it is ageing and the effects of the insecurity about the future that we all probably feel post- pandemic. My Christmas tree ornaments consist mostly of mementoes and my Rome and Norwich robin ones have pride of place. They are in their wrapping now, until next year, God willing. 

 HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!

JOLLY GELATO

I was sorry my new-found sister could not be with me in Noto the other week, so I sent her this jolly fabric gelato from the craft market there:

THERE'S SOMETHING MISSING.....

Modica: Duomo di San Pietro

Today is San Pietro or St Peter's Day and, as one of Modica's two Baroque cathedrals is dedicated to the keeper of God's keys, the feast is celebrated in earnest here:  the bells of the Duomo di San Pietro have been ringing loudly and clearly at 30-minute intervals all day, people have been leaving offerings of food for the poor, there have been firecrackers and later the statue of the saint will be carried in procession around the town.

But this year, something is missing: in Italy a festival usually brings bancarelle, or open-air stalls and, whereas in Modica for San Pietro these usually stretch for over a mile, this year there are none.  Why?  Because the town council wanted to move them from their usual pitch in Modica Bassa's Viale Medaglie d'Oro, at the lower end of the Corso or main street, to the far end where the bus station is.  This would have meant a re-routing of both local and inter-city buses and the prospective stallholders complained, with some justification, that the site was too far from the shopping centre.  The council had wanted to move the stalls to avoid traffic congestion and because of hygiene concerns but the bus station end of the Corso would, in my view, have been a ridiculous alternative, as it would have been difficult for people to reach on foot. I have walked from the Viale Medaglie d'Oro, where the buses would have stopped had the proposal gone ahead, to the bus station many times but I would not have attempted it in 40°C!  As so often in Modica, no thought had been given to pedestrians.

The parish priest of San Pietro is, however, happy about the absence of bancarelle as this is more in keeping with a religious festival.

Modica: the bancarelle di San Pietro 
of times gone by

St Peter is the protector of fishermen, fishmongers, cobblers, locksmiths, reapers, watchmakers and doormen. He must be very busy with all that and the gate to watch too, so I hope he enjoys his evening trip around Modica.

I TACKLE THUMBTACKS - A "LET'S BLOG OFF" POST

Every two weeks, the blogosphere comes alive with something called a Blog Off. A Blog Off is an event where bloggers of every stripe weigh in on the same topic on the same day. The topic for this round of the Blog Off is "Thumbtacks".

The subject this week is thumbtacks

which rather stopped me in my tracks

for, being a Brit,

I have to admit

this word my vocabulary lacks.

So to my computer I turned

and soon I surprisingly learned

that over the pond

and even beyond

a drawing pin this name has earned.

Are drawing pins, then, still in use?

[I hope I do not sound obtuse.]

I've some on this board

and have quite a hoard

for Christmas, along with my spruce.

But are they used round and about?

I decided I had to find out.

And down in the squares

whilst selling their wares

the traders could not do without!

To be serious for a moment, it is important to let you know that, for every participating post, Let's Blog Off will make a donation to Jane Devin's kickstarter campaign for her book Elephant Girl: A Human Story.


Below is the full list of participating blogs in this Blog Off:

ANTIQUE ANTICS

All the world and his wife, it seems, flock to Modica Bassa on the last Sunday morning of the month for the open air antiques market and, on a sunny day, strolling from stall to stall is a pleasant way to pass the time.  Here you can find everything from a vintage Vespa to furniture to stamps.  Had I but space enough and dosh, reader, I might have returned with a dresser, a settle and an enormous statue of San Giorgio.

MORE SIGNS OF SPRING

I couldn't resist these cedri, freshly picked in the early hours, at Modica Market this morning.  The best way to eat cedri is as they are, with a little seasalt but I'm going to use these to make a liqueur.

My other market purchases?  These lovely, fat cinnamon sticks, which smell divine and some knickers!

CENTRINO

You cannot pass the Italian homemaker test unless you have a centrino, which is a table runner that you put on your dining table when it is not in use - which is nearly all the time in many households as most Italians eat in the kitchen while the beautifully polished dining table stands in the hardly used, perfect lounge for "show".  On your centrino, you put the heaviest, most expensive and most beautiful piece of porcelain you have.

I have several centrini but no expensive porcelain and I was cheered by the bright, Christmas centrini on sale for three euros or so at Catania market two weeks ago.

Yes, I know mine has a crease in it and no, I don't intend to go in for that other Italian homemaker test by ironing it!

LIQUID GOLD

I chanced upon a farmers' market in Modica Bassa on Saturday:  there were stalls piled high with cheeses, tables teeming with purple broccoli, artichokes so fresh they looked as if they would get up and dance and all sorts of other spring produce.  October's olive oil was being sold  for 5 euros a litre and the texture of this traditional bread was too perfect to resist.   In times gone by shepherds would have carried bread such as this for it did not go off for many days.  They would have softened it with a little olive oil. 

Traditional, handwoven baskets were on sale too:

Further along the Corso I stopped for a gelato:

A perfect Saturday morning!

FOODIE FRIDAY - PESTO AND PEACHES

Don't worry - not together! I was going to call this post "Some Foodie Matters" but as it's just Friday in Sicily [00.04] I'll make it a "Foodie Friday" post.

My commenter Peter of italyMONDO - do click on the link to check out Peter's profile and blog as he has an interesting story - has asked me how last night's pesto turned out so I thought I'd show you.

I'm afraid I don't pestare my pesto. I just chuck everything in the food processor

and it always turns out all right. [The recipe is here.]

Today was market day and there were plenty of street traders selling fruit near the market site. For those of you who like to compare prices, here is what 3.50 euros bought me from one of them:

Not bad, eh?

TO MARKET, TO MARKET - 3

If bargains are to be had in Modica's shops, they are certainly to be had in the market during this period. On Thursday I bought:

This dress. It's in cool cotton and I now have this style in purple and black as well.

These three-quarter-length trousers:



Three bras for 1 euro each and they all fit! [No, I'm not going to take a picture!]

A kitchen curtain for 10 euros [like the one on the right in the video, only green].

An enormous pot of my favourite, locally produced, orange-flower honey.

Here are 13 seconds of the atmosphere:



Finally, I just had to buy this, not in the market but in a shop:



I think I've finally restocked my summer wardrobe!

DAILY DOINGS - 22

"Patriuccia! Patri-uuuuuu-ccia! Sono io! " [It’s me!] sang a woman’s voice over the intercom earlier this evening. [ Sicilians are fond of the – uccio / a suffix as as term of affection. ] It was, of course, Lucia, who had arrived bearing yet another anguria and a squash. Squashes are symbols of good luck in Italy and I think the reason is that in days gone by, no part of the vegetable was wasted, so if you had grown a particularly large pumpkin, for instance, you were deemed lucky. It is no accident that Cinderella’s coach metamorphosed from a pumpkin. “You can either cook this or keep it for a while for good luck”, she informed me. Decisions, decisions!



Rosa had arrived giggling a couple of hours before that and when I asked her why, she told me that when her bus was on its way up the via Sacro Cuore, the driver, having spotted one of the 50% sconti [discount] notices in a shop window, brought the vehicle to a stop with a tremendous screech of brakes, ran into the shop, bought something , then ran out again and continued to transport his applauding public to their destination.

There are, indeed, many sales and, business being as bad here as elsewhere in the world, they were allowed to start a week early. I picked these beauties up last week for a total cost of 15€ :



Italians are, I read, booking more holidays abroad than they did last year and this is being taken by government as an upturn in the economic situation. I don’t think that business owners would agree.

Meanwhile, down at the market, the traders continue to try to persuade everybody to buy Italian. This I did last Thursday and here I am on Rosa’s balcony dressed in my market finery:



I also rummaged through the piles of remnants on the ground and found this – ideal for covering my pots of preserves.



These two traders were particularly keen to be photographed:



Lunch at Rosa's on Saturday consisted of: pasta with a special, sweet tomato sauce, merluzzo [cod] for the others and chicken for me, salad, potatoes and good bread. I took along the tray of ice creams. You can buy these in most of the pasticcerie and they are coated with a layer of icing so that they don't melt on the tray:





It's not easy making tomato sauce in the heat but Rosa and I managed to process another 10 kg of tomatoes yesterday:




As for the condominio, I’m not sure how much water we’ve got but we have light! After three months of pitch darkness in the lift, the ascensorista finally arrived to change a lamp! [I couldn't have reached it but I don't know why no one else did it.] “That was quite quick, then”, said a private student of mine in all seriousness. The water service is still “sospeso” as I write and the office is not answering its phone.

The pazienza of the Modicani is also being sorely tested by my favourite place, the Post Office, which has decided to close in the afternoons from this week until the end of July. We expect this to happen during August but no one was prepared for it in July!

I’ll close with the “ice cream of the week”. The Altro Posto has done it again!

TO MARKET, TO MARKET - 2

Thursday is market day in Modica and this week, as ever, everything you could think of was on sale. The local traders certainly have their work cut out , trying to compete with cheaper Chinese goods, and this was reflected in some of their cries: "Fatti in Italia - non andate dai Cinesi!" ["Made in Italy - don't go to the Chinese stalls!"]

Need some towels?



Or perhaps you'd like to sort through this lot to find some fine material for your sewing?

This stall was selling local honey, dried oregano in large bunches and all the pulses you could imagine. "Non fai di lui o viene brutto" ["Don't take one of him or it will turn out ugly"] said the stall holder of his assistant [pictured] when I asked if I could take a photo. I think he looks rather jolly myself.

Want to buy large quantities of fruit and vegetables at a good price? This is the place to come!




I bought a pair of cotton trousers and some outrageous earrings.