Mali, Siena and London

The year has continued at the same giddy pace it started with... I seem to have spent most of my time since November last year packing and unpacking, while organizing the next journey. I am not complaining, you understand, but a little tired... looking forward to Siena now, and finally beginning my life in my new flat, after a year and a half  in my new city.

After the difficult trip to Sweden to help my mother, I went straight on to Mali more or less. A successful trip that took me and Columba, my friend and boss, all the way to Djenne this time. The security situation was considered to have improved, and after a long and very difficult rainy season with unprecedented flooding, the roads were once again open and we were able to enjoy a couple of days in Djenne, where everything seemed just like it used to. 'My son' Lassie, Keita's second son, here below with his two 'mothers' in Segou, came with us to Djenne. We also met with the cataract team again, who were there for the tenth year running, doing their 150 operations, still sponsored by Pelle and Nanni.

The library work continues, although a question mark now hangs over it- how long can it go on? will Babou and the library team continue finding enough manuscripts|? Was this perhaps my last trip to Djenne ? There were feelings of nostalgia and foreboding on the long journey back down to Bamako again, as I saw the familiar landscape pass by...

Back in Siena they work had progressed, and I insisted on moving in, finally, on my birthday, although it is hardly finished. I have only a mattress on the floor in my room, (behind the blue plastic sheeting on picture below) and my bathroom is finished, but has no hot water. The work continues. 

On my birthday, at the end of my birthday party, this jolly crew of friends helped me carry my suitcases and bags from Hettie's where I have lived for 6 months, to my new home, and I moved in!

The next day was a party occasion for the ONDA Contrada, as it celebrated its patron saint, San Giuseppe, with a street party all down the Via Giovanni Dupre,  This was when I became a officially signed up member of ONDA- an Ondaiola!

 And after all that excitement I took off the following morning to London, where I am setting everything up to make my Ladbroke Grove flat an Airbnb- with a management company which will take care of everything- cleaning, bookings, marketing etc etc...

And then, next week- back to Siena, where I will stay, inchallah for quite some time to come! 

Difficult times..

In Sweden... where I went to install my mother into a care home- a decision  that had been arrived at by my brothers, myself  and my step father Gillis's children. She is 91, he is 96 now, and had been taking care of her, but it had become obvious to all that she was in need of more intensive care and that he was also becoming in need of some attention. But how sad and how humiliating to have to step in and take over, against the wishes of this old couple...

I was of course seen as the evil one, trying to split them up.  It is not a memory I will cherish. My mother does not recognize me. When I left finally, having moved her into her new abode, she was quite happy, having made new friends amongst the other 'inmates' living at the home, and feeling she had met many new and interesting people... Gillis was in a mood of acceptance, and the farewell was peaceful. the idea is that they will move in to an  assisted flat together once one has been found...

I went through the beautiful Swedish winter landscape by train to Stockholm where I met up with my dear friend Eva, who was such a great feature of my life in Mali during my last five years there, as she was the Swedish Ambassador. A great gourmet and a gourmand, she did not disappoint, but provided, as she is wont, a great dinner for me on my arrival. 

And back in Siena things are now finally moving... today my VASCA arrived. Noone in Italy has baths anymore. Everyone has thrown them out in favour of slick and fashionable shower units. But I have to have my bath... where I will lie looking at the Torre del Mangia..

and the rest is finally taking shape.. The ceiling will remain unpainted, just like this:

and this is the space where the dining room table will go, and behind the white wall the kitchen...

A presto! 

Terremoti!

                                                             

I wonder if  the word 'Terrified' somehow comes from this word above? It certainly is terrifying to live through what has been called a 'swarm of earthquakes or tremors. I know it does not compare to anything that happened in Turkey- the biggest one we had was 'only' 3.5, on Wednesday evening, just as I was enjoying a ZOOM call with my London and Berlin short story group. 

Having finished discussing the short story- the Sandman, by Hoffman- we started talking about the earthquake in Turkey, and then went on to reminisce about various earth quake experiences we have had personally, when suddenly it felt like a ten tonne truck had just smashed into my building! 

' i think we are having an earthquake' I said, and they laughed... somewhat uneasily, probably feeling it was a joke in bad taste. 

That was the biggest one, and the beginning of a few nightmarish days here which are not over yet. I might  have to get out quickly, so writing this in haste... 

(there is a good app here , which shows all the earthquakes around the world as they happen: http://terremoti.ingv.it/)

The first one has been followed by many many tremors; at first every half an hour or so, and now less frequently, but it is all totally unpredictable, and that is really the worst thing. Ones home, the place of security and peace, has become the place of danger..! This is highly unusual in Siena, not really normally a high risk area for earth quakes. The last recorded incidents of this importance were in the 1950s. Therefore the Senese are unused to it, and it has caused real fear in the city. 

People at first congregated at the Piazza del Campo at night, wrapped in blankets and some in their slippers. Some people slept in their cars that first night. I am now dog sitting for Hettie again who has gone to Canada for a week, so I couldn't leave even if I wanted to! Many have left to city,  the schools and the university, as well as Museums etc have been closed, but  normal shops, hairdressers, the banks etc have remained open. 

Although there has been no real damage to people or buildings, this is no joke. 

There was another at 2.5 about half an hour ago... I will stop now, going into the Chianti countryside this afternoon with my friend Lisa in her car... speak soon..

London and Siena Ceiling Palio

Spending a couple of weeks in London, enjoying old friends and my London flat.  Meanwhile Siena is

beginning to take shape- the ancient walls have been covered with new plaster, the ceilings are exposed and ready to be painted light grey and it is possible, finally, to have an idea of the finished look of the flat.

Under the ceiling there will be a border of ca 30 cm, in the same colour as the ceiling, running all around the large space of the main room- on this border there will be a horse race! I will once more go back to  Eadweard Muybridge's wonderful early photography and use his horses to make stencils- working on that now in London using my old connection in Hatton Garden to engrave the stencils for me.

                                        

I could of course make the jockeys into Fantini, wearing the Contrada colours... Hmmm, perhaps? 

Below the corner of this large space where the kitchen will go. 

                                   

                                      

A Sunday trek in the Maremma

in the mountains surrounding the glorious little village of Montorsaio, from which it is possible to glimpse the sea by Grossetto. 

And we did, as the mists cleared towards evening, after our 12 k. hike through the misty mountain paths, where the hunt for cinghiale (wild boar) was in full swing:

                                           

                                                    

and where we visited the ruins of an old Benedictine monastery.

before returning to the  village of Montorsaio  and discovering the reason why this village has a special claim to fame: We were lucky enough to catch the last day of the display of the numerous Presepes that are dotted all around the village streets: every house has one displayed, all attempting to outdo each other in beauty and creativity,

with the main attraction being the largest of them all, featuring terracotta figures which are portraits of the village population:

including some of the wild boar hunters. Who knows, the one below we had perhaps met on our misty walk!

 

A Perfect New year

Discovering the loveliness which is Greece, or the Mani, that middle prong that protrude southwards on that lovely peninsula which is the Peloponnese.  Spending time with dear old friends Cressida (from the Royal College of Art times), and her Paul, both delightful originals...in Cressida's new (old) rustic hilltop cottage in the village of Platsa, where I picked my own delicious breakfast  from her orange trees, eaten with local yoghurt and honey. 

New Year's Eve was spent in the neighbouring village with no tourists at all, just the locals- a delightful and very Greek experience which included the local priest (below) cutting the cake for all present at midnight:

and plenty of Greek music and dancing! I thought, in my ignorance,  that that was something old fashioned  that  happened only for tourists or in the  film Zorba the Greek... Clearly not. 

On New Year's day I walked down from the hilltop village to the coast- a one and a half hour's trek through divine Mediterranean scenery on a warm day in total silence, only met one car on the way.

And Cressida awaited me by the beach- we went for a swim, it was actually very pleasant! Can't have been less than 17 degrees, so the same sort of temperature as a Swedish summer swim almost...

 Now back in Siena, where today the streets are full of witches- the last bit of Christmas- with the peculiar celebration of Befana, the broom riding old hag who brings sweets for all the good children, and charcoal for the bad ones... Hettie, Lisa and I are going for Befana Aperitivos in a little while.

                                                                            Buon Anno!

Buses, trains, ferry, buses and automobile..

 

...brought me finally, after 30 hours, from Siena to Cressida’s place in the little village of Platsa in the southern Peloponnese. 

This is just the round the corner from the beach where Anthony Quinn danced, and almost exactly where Nikos Kazantzakis lived.  Rather exciting for me to see the mountainous Greek coast appearing in the morning mists, having sailed from Bari at night. I have never been to Greece- that is, if one doesn’t count one afternoon in Athen’s airport in the 1970’s...I don’t even know how to say hello, please or thank you in this language, at first encounter so incomprehensible that it might as well be Chinese. When going into the details, it is of course a fascinating language, since so many words have their origin here...

This new adventure has come, like a lovely dessert after a splendid Christmas feast where the first course was London, getting my flat ready for Patty and Les and seeing my old London pals- catching some of the highlights of the World Cup even...

 The main course came in the shape of the Christmas days in Siena, spent in Hettie’s lovely flat with old Lyonnaise friends Monique and Pascal and new American friend Lisa. 

Three days of pure Christmas indulgence: a real Turkey was ordered and purchased from the little family butcher around the corner from where I will live- he told me that it was one of the two turkeys he had sold this Christmas, the other one to an English customer who had bought  one every year for the last twenty. I made a chestnut stuffing- it took me about 4 hours to peel the blasted things. But the first course was the Foie Gras and Champagne, courtesy of out French friends.  

Other traditional behaviour included the watching sitting replete with another glass of wine, watching A Christmas Carol (the version with George C. Scott); Love Actually and the  obligatory (for a Swede)   old Walt Disney classics such as Lady and the Tramp at the Neapolitan restaurant – the Italians love this one too!

 And, of course, walking around Siena which showed its  most splendid and sunny side for all those who were strolling around and having drinks on the Campo.

And tonight, according to Cressida and Paul, we are going to have New Year’s dinner at a restaurant at which apparently Nikos Kazanzakis used to eat – and dance!