Memories

Once again I find myself regressing to my childhood..... Only now do I realize how idyllic my early years were, We lived in an Island in the middle of the Atlantic, our Island was described as pearl of the Atlantic or ambulant garden....Have you guessed where this so famous Island is situated?
Well I tell you....((( My Island is called Madeira)))
As I said before my Dad was a musician and a very funny man he used to have us all in stiches with his antics..... After dinner my Dad used to seat us in a circle and he made us practise sounds with our mouth, and he was the conductor..... you never believe the noise!!!! In the end my poor Mum used to tell my Dad please stop, I can't hear myself think, you are such a big kid....Oh memories is a funny thing.....
We were protected to much I think, not allowed to go anywhere with friends, I remember when in Funchal talking to a boy! By the time I got home mum knew all about it, also some friends were going to a party and I desperately wanted to go, so after begging and begging.....she let me go but I had to be home by seven in the evening....but on the way home the bus breaks down and when eventually I get home had a good telling off until my brother tells Mum that he did see a bus on the side of the road so I was let off.... Then it came a time when my elder sister decided to come to England I remember the worry of my parents, and not long after my second eldest sister also left...

At Christmas my Dad bless him put what we had for our Christmas lunch in a box took it to the canning factory and had it canned, and came home packed a box with the can placed small miniatures
bottles of his home made liquors, and all that was sent to England.
Then comes a time when they come to Madeira for a visit happiness all round parents so excited cakes being baked food cooking, and of they go to the docks.... even us the younger ones were so happy to see our big sister that had gone to live in another country. Straightway neighbours start popping in... I mean to say one neighbour and before you knew it she was engaged....So holiday over and its time to return.... and she starts worrying that she made a terrible mistake she does not want to marry this man, and doesn't know how to end it, she did not want to upset Mum and Dad thinking that they were in  favour of this marriage....So Dad writs and says that he only wanted her to be happy, so she ended the engagement.....  

Memories

My parents were blessed with eight children I remember growing up in a house full of music and  laughter, things that as children we don't think anything of.... its only now when I look back that I see how good my childhood really was.... We all went to a convent school except for the boys they went to this small school only down the road.... To think that we had to walk to school, wish was an hours walk away and on our own too not something that is done this days..... Mum could not take us she had to much to do at home...Poor mum she worked so hard to keep us all fed, she did not have a good life after waving us off she was in the kitchen cooking lunch to be sent to my Dad, there was this women that collected the baskets..... One day she did not turn up so she sent my elder brother,  my sister and I went along with him, when we arrived at my Dads work he gave us a cuddle and gave my brother money for us to take the bus home, but brother had other ideas so he said, with a grin we could have bread and sauce and walk home, being younger than him we agreed and of he went to get this bread and sauce....He comes back with a happy look on his face and hands out this bread, we take a bite and my sister says yuck.... I'd rather have gone home in the bus than eat this.....Bless him he felt so grown up going into the bar to get that bread.... My beautiful Brother my parents nearly lost him when he was a fourteen years old, he was hit by a car and he nearly died my poor parents were out of their minds with worry but thank goodness he did pull through...... 

Memories

The clocks went back an hour, they say that we can sleep one hour extra.... I wish that was true I've been awake since 2.30 so that hour is not doing me any good.... Why is it when one cannot sleep memories come flooding back....Like Mum and Dad, miss them like crazy.
We were a very happy family my Dad was brilliant he made us laugh and he put music in our hearts, and my Mum bless her she had a lot to contend with, raising eight children not only that, she also looked after two elderly parents.... Dad really was a musician but that alone did not put food on the table, so he worked in a wellington boot factory....At weekends he played his music when there was celebrations he played in a brass band...I remember my Dad also tending to our garden planting vegetables, of course during the day my poor Mum had another job to do like doing the irrigation and collecting feed for the goats, at one time we ended up with four goats it became to much work for my Mum, so it was decided that one of the goats was to be slaughtered for meat, but when meal time came we all refused to eat, its not as if we were rich that we could afford to turn our noses at all that meat..... LOL They were like pets.
So Mum asks this women that lived down the road if her family would eat goat, and she replied Senhora Rosaria my family would eat anything even stones if they could chew them and that was the last that we saw of the goat meat....

Its amazing what one can remember growing up in a small island...My dad used to tell us that we were very lucky that we lived in a little corner of paradise, I suppose we did, we lived in a house surrounded by land and that was our playground too, like climbing trees of which we had loads avocados, figs, plums, oranges, guavas, bananas we also had sugar cane, that was sold to the factory.
We also had a very small vineyard but that was just for our own use... I remember when the grapes were picked we were allowed to go in this tank where the grapes were squashed and trample on,

our feet and legs covered in wine, also tasting the first taste of grape juice.... This picture is of the old homestead as it is now....

A walk to the lake

It was an amazing walk that my good friend and I had this morning....The lake's looked so beautiful bathed in a beautiful sunrise, it looked like someone had gone over with a paint brush....I must say that Autumn and sunrises are well matched....I just love living in this little corner of Essex...

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Garden

This year my garden looked amazing, not only flowers but some veggies to, Early in the year there was the broad beans, the crop of borlotti  beans was very good too. courgettes too many just for me,since I am the only one in the family that likes them, so friends and family that popped in, went home with a goodie bag. Now the butternut squash was another story..... out of 5 plants only managed to pick one butternut plenty of fruit appeared but then it all dropped of... I wonder what I was doing wrong!!!

Still in Alberobello.

THE MUSLIMS IN THE SALENTO PENINSULA.

In 1480 a Mohammedan armada coming from the nearValona was going to invade Bindisi, in order to retake Apulia and pave the way to Rome. The Pasha Akmed leading the expedition , headed up ninety galleys, forty privateers carrying ten thousand well-armed men and four hundred horses; caught in a storm, he was forced to land near Otranto. For a twist of fate, the noble town of Otranto had to defend its walls and stop the Turkish advance towards the inland.

If Mohammed II had not been stopped by the inhabitants of Otranto, Christianity would have undergone a serious damage.
The imposing fortified walls of Otranto were not able to fight the powerful Turkish artillery and the town had to surrender; twelve thousand in twenty thousand inhabitants were slaughtered and the others enslaved. The Bishop was killed while administering Communion. The mayor and eight hundred citizens who refused to renounce Jesus Christ, on August 14th 1480 were tortured and massacred on the Martyrs "Hill" (Collina dei Martiri). The King of Naples, caught off guard, charged Count Giuliantonio with intervening immediately: for the first attack he had four thousand infantrymen and four hundred horses at his disposal, gathered in a botched way.



The Village of Castellana had its hero, too, a Franciscan friar who wore helmet and armour and entered the battle; caught prisoner, he was beheaded and his head was thrown  from the stronghold into the chasm beneath. On Febuary 6th 1481 Count Giulioantonio , during a reconnaissance, was reached by Turkish Knights in muro Leccese's forest. His biggest misfortune was that he was not wearing his helmet, since  he had just givenit his page. About ten knights of his retinue were defeated and the Count wounded; he was able to escape, but after being recognized by the Turkish soldiers, he was chased, caught and beheaded with a scimitar's storke. His head was hoisted on a spear and exposed on the merlons of the Castle of Otranto.
Giulio Antonio Acquaviva died for defending Christianity; Otranto's war was a significant moment for the history of the Church and of Italy, although it is never mentioned or is reduced to an irrelevant local fact in the common history books...

ALBEROBELLO AN AMAZING HISTORY...

Giulioantonio I Grand Captain serving King Ferrante of naples, strove against the Turks and gained for the family the diploma relating them to the King of Aragon, besides the right to receive the same honours and the permission to include the Royal Bearing into the Acquaviva's escutcheon. His death on the battle field for defending the Christian Faith persuaded the king to make significant concessions, intended as reparations, and to strengthen the Acquaviva family. The first-borne Andrea Mateo obtained all his father's military prerogatives and the permanent conveyance of a vast territory located between Martina Franca and Noci, where the Selva and Alberobello (founded later) can be visited