Wednesday 5 November 2008

SURROUNDED


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In 2003 I holidayed in a Sicily for 2 months from the end of May. I used up about 5 small Notebooks with scribbles in the usual way. At the end of Notebook One on Tuesday 17 June I noted
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“had decided to walk from Geraci Siculo to Gangi at a little after 3pm and plotted an itiniery for next week – it was a really really lovely sunny afternoon – with breezes following or either to my left side. Portella dei Bifolchi as ever lovely to take a drink at, and then the lovely lovely grasses and wayside plants from there down to Bivio Geraci – really lovely - as ever. Then the walk from there to Gangi was lovely too – found many items of wayside ephemera I’ll try to utilise for Cards – including my 2nd “Route 66” packet. Time for a Notebook No. 2. What a lovely lovely walk in the sun and not the first one”.

I’d woken up on that Tuesday morning having slept on the old abandoned pizzeria patio below Geraci Siculo’s Castello, had made the above walk to Gangi and slept beyond the town’s eastern side (but well before Bivio Comunello) next to a big haystack in a field – very comfortable. I’d already slept at this spot for 3 nights between the 5th and 7th June. On the first night of this 3 day period, very nearby in the hedgerow of that haystack field a Nightingale sang and sang for hours and hours – it was incredible, the first Nightingale I had ever heard. Fantastic – hence the reference to a Gangi Nightingale in my 7th June 2003 poem “SO NICE TO BE BACK IN SICILY” (>see). -
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In that June I also made and posted several ephemeral home made "on the road" postcards to London friends. They’d included “SURROUNDED” and "ROUTE 66". For a fuller appreciation of the inspiration that helped to create this item of ON THE ROAD ephemera click on the following ROLLING STONES link >> “ROUTE 66”.
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For Madonie Region map locations information click >here<.
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For the FULL chronological list of all SICILY ABLAZE pages click >> here <<.
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Tomorrow - “YOU CANT DO MUCH BIZ WITH THE LIZ”.