Feb

Wordplay and Watercolor: Edward Lear in Gozo

by Joyce McGreevy on February 8, 2016

Edward Lear's watercolor painting of Gozo, Malta, a place he visited with a traveler's wanderlust and one that inspired his wordplay. (Image by Edward Lear, public domain via Wikimedia Commons)

A tireless traveler, Edward Lear expressed the magnificence of Gozo, Malta,
through delicate watercolor paintings and colorful wordplay.
Edward Lear [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Wanderlust on My Lear-ical Visit to Malta

It’s winter in Malta, 1862. Edward Lear, lover of wordplay and watercolor, is writing a letter. His phrasing echoes the rhythm of Mediterranean tides against this tiny archipelago:

“I draw constantly on the Barracca point; meaning to paint a picture thereof one day; and I wander up and down the beautiful streets of Valletta and Senglea; and rejoice in the delightful heat and the blue sky; and watch the thousand little boats skimming across the harbor at sunset.”

Boats line Senglea marina in Malta, a place that inspired Edward Lear's wanderlust, wordplay, and watercolor paintings. (Image by Joyce McGreevy)

A winter sunset transforms Senglea, Malta into a living watercolor.
© Joyce McGreevy

As you read those words 154 years after Lear penned them, it’s a winter morning in Malta and I am here, too. Come along with me to this tiny republic just south of Sicily and east of Tunisia. See for yourself the thousand little boats, the luzzus.

The brightly painted wooden boats, or luzzus, in Gozo, Malta inspired the wanderlust of wordplay poet and watercolor painter Edward Lear. (Image by Joyce McGreevy)

The tradition of Malta’s brightly painted wooden boats began with the ancient Phoenicians.
© Joyce McGreevy

Linger at a café table alongside the water. Leave your cellphone at the bottom of the suitcase.

Should you order a pastizzi, Malta’s savory version of stuffed pastry? You should.

If you look across Grand Harbor, up to the raised walled city of Valletta, you’ll find “the Barracca point,” better known as Upper Barrakka Gardens.

From this lofty fortress, Lear would revel in his wanderlust, gazing back at Senglea as he sketched and painted in watercolor.

Wintering and Wandering in Malta

Best known for his wordplay, the author of The Book of Nonsense was a compulsive traveler, writer, and artist. Edward Lear logged 30 volumes of travel diaries, wrote countless letters, and created thousands of watercolors.

In Malta alone, he produced 300 watercolors. He painted over many of them, possibly out of frustration. The British colonials who had enjoyed his 1866 exhibit in Malta paid him handsomely—but only in compliments. Few paintings sold.

Edward Lear's watercolor painting of St. Julian's Bay, Malta, a place that inspired the wanderlust of this British master of wordplay. (Image by Edward Lear, public domain via Wikimedia Commons)

Edward Lear’s watercolors captured specific moments. After painting this view of St. Julian’s Bay,
the poet quickly scribbled the note “5:16pm, 29 Dec. 1865.”
Edward Lear [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Lear first arrived in Malta on a ticket that he bought for 10 pounds. You’re traveling on a shoestring, too, but Malta in winter is affordable. Just rent a small flat on Triq San Frangisk (Saint Francis Street) and cook from the local markets.

“Pretty cheap fruit abounds,” Lear wrote to his sister in 1848. The Maltese are fastidious about fresh produce. This morning the greengrocer steers you away from produce that is “too old”—a mere two days. Come back this afternoon, he says, when the boats will come in and everything will be perfection.

You do and it is. “Grazzi ħafna!” Thank you so much!

Lear’s Wordplay Leads to World Play

But now it’s time to resume your quest. The call to adventure came as you researched Malta and stumbled upon two mysterious adjectives: pomskizillious and gromphiberous.

What does this wordplay describe? According to Lear, it’s the coast of Gozo. This is the northernmost island of Malta.

The name Gozo comes from the Castilian word for “joy,” a mood that combines with quiet calm in Edward Lear’s watercolors. Notice the details he added about colors and time of day.
Edward Lear [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Consider this: Malta’s mainland shows up as a tiny dot on a map of the Mediterranean. So the 26-square-mile Gozo practically qualifies as imaginary. Which makes it the ideal place to follow in the footsteps of a nonsense poet. Let wordplay lead to world play.

The easiest way to get to Gozo is to not be in a hurry. Enjoy the scenic bus ride to Cirkewwa and board the ferry that will take you to Mgarr Harbour.

Then leg it—the island’s less than nine miles long—until you reach the village of Xaghra (SHAH-rah). This is home to The Pomskizillious Museum of Toys, dedicated to the legacy of Edward Lear.

Oh, but it’s closed today. And tomorrow. Come back Saturday.

A shop sign outside The Pomskizillious Museum of Toys in Gozo, Malta pays tribute to Edward Lear, whose wanderlust inspired him to coin wordplay and create watercolor paintings about Gozo. (Image by Joyce McGreevy)

Technically, these opening hours are set in stone.
But when it’s winter in Gozo, it’s best to be chill.
© Joyce McGreevy

Into the Dice-Box of Small Events

No worries. Take a lesson from Lear, who obsessively planned his travels, but knew when to toss the itinerary:

“Put yourself as a predestinarian might say, calmly into the dice-box of small events, and be shaken out whenever circumstances ordain,” he once advised.

Your jaw drops as you view the landscape. Flinty, terraced hills soar into peaks and plateaus, some topped by ornate churches. Velvety, green valleys sweep down to startling azure seas.

The garrigue, or Mediterranean scrubland, shows off prickly pear cactus and yellow vetch, but also hides sea daffodils, spider orchids, crimson dragon’s teeth, and other floral secrets.

Prickly pear cactus grows wild in Gozo, Malta, a place Edward Lear visited with a traveler's wanderlust and one that inspired his wordplay and watercolor paintings. (Image by Joyce McGreevy)

Edward Lear noted the “strange and wild appearance” of prickly pear cactus, which grows
“in immense luxuriance over every crag and mountainside” in Gozo.
© Joyce McGreevy

You picture Lear in the midst of it, how “he would lift his spectacles and gaze for several minutes at the scene through a monocular glass he always carried.” Then he would capture it in watercolor with astounding speed.

Even in winter, the fragrance of pines, rosemary, thyme, and citrus pervades the air. You struggle to come up with words to describe this environment.

Suddenly, you laugh out loud. You have just have had an “Oh, I see” moment: Sometimes you need the wordplay of new language to describe a new place. Like pomskizillious. And gromphiberous.

The Pomskizillious Museum of Toys never does open. But by then, you’ve learned to appreciate what locals call GMT: Gozo Maybe Time. Meanwhile, you have:

wandered the island like Lear, a tireless walker and meticulous collector of moments.
seen Calypso’s Cave, mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey, where a sea nymph offered Ulysses immortality if he would remain her captive.
climbed into a “beautiful pea-green boat” at Dwerja, where you glided through sea caves and gazed up at the precipitous coastline that inspired Lear.

A hiker stares down from atop the Azure Window in Gozo, Malta, place Edward Lear visited with a traveler's wanderlust and one that inspired his wordplay and watercolor paintings. (Image by Joyce McGreevy)

Poetic but precipitous: Does the cliff climber in Gozo, Malta know Edward Lear’s
cautionary limerick about the person from Cromer?
© Joyce McGreevy

This is Gozo, a place so stunning it seems imaginary. A place that inspires wanderlust, wordplay, and watercolor. It lures you with improbable beauty, inspires you to follow a nonsense poet’s trail, and hints that maybe, just maybe, you’ll attain immortality if you stay.

And really, is there anything more pomskizillious and gromphiberous than that?

The Azure Window graces the rugged coast of Gozo, Malta, a place that Edward visited with a traveler's wanderlust and one that inspired his wordplay and watercolor paintings. (Image by Joyce McGreevy)

The Azure Window may look familiar to “Game of Throne” fans. Several scenes were filmed on Gozo.
© Joyce McGreevy

Read Edward Lear’s travel writing and letters here. This is the source of all Lear quotations cited in this post.

The largest collection of Edward Lear’s watercolors is archived at Harvard University.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Joyce McGreevy 8 Comments

Literary World/Malta/The World's Art & Design/Wordplay

Apr

What’s Underfoot on the Camino de Santiago?

by Eva Boynton on April 28, 2015

Feet in sandals standing over a sign of the Camino de Santiago, showing the different routes that cause travel inspiration. (image

Carried by their feet, pilgrims from around the world follow the signs of the Way of St. James.
© StockPhotoAstur / iStock

Every Kind of Travel Inspiration

Not because I’m religious,

Not because I believe in spirits,

Not because I love Spanish cuisine,

And not because I needed to be punished.

I just wanted a long walk.

—B.C. Tørrissen

This is one pilgrim’s reason to walk the Camino de Santiago. More than 100,000 people every year walk the International Heritage Trails. They come from all over the world, taking different routes to reach the same destination: the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain.

Why do so many people take a 500-mile trek across highways, mountains, valleys, cities, towns, and fields? Each pilgrim has a personal reason: to get away, to be a part of an ancient tradition, to make a change, weight loss, to renew faith, to connect to people.

Here, three pilgrims share their travel inspiration, their reasons for walking the Camino de Santiago.

Father Kenneth Allen: Inspired by Simplicity

Celebrating his 10-year anniversary of priesthood and the recovery of an injured knee, Father Kenneth Allen decided to embark on his Camino journey.

Since childhood, Father Allen, hoped to walk the Camino de Santiago to visit the shrine of the apostle St. James in the Cathedral.

Three pilgrims walking down a road along the Camino de Santiago, each showing a personal travel inspiration for making the journey. (Image © Eva Boynton)

A normal Camino day is 15–20 miles of walking from one town to another.
After losing his way Father Allen walked 30 on his first day.
© Eva Boynton

Among the pristine landscapes are challenges that tax the body and strain the mind. Father Allen’s first day consisted of getting lost, losing his walking partner, backtracking, and finally reaching his lodging in the dark.

It was cause enough for him to question the reason of his pilgrimage:

My feet were killing me. I had responsibilities at home, obligations to meet, people to support. . . . A good prayer room. A comfortable chair behind my desk. . . . A laptop and internet access. Why was I walking through Spain? And not only walking, but walking. And walking and walking.

Out of focus landscape seen through a fence post with clear spider web along the Camino de Santiago, a route undertaken by many with different kinds of travel inspiration. (Image © Eva Boynton)

When walking the Camino, life’s complications become blurry,
while simple details of the trail come into focus.
© Eva Boynton

As he neared his destination, charging past his initial struggles, Father Allen discovered his true inspiration for the journey. The absence of a convenient lifestyle caused him to find value in the simplicity of the path. He explains:

The Camino demands a sense of simplicity from you. You have to lighten your burden as you walk (literally by tossing things out, or mailing them ahead if you’re carrying too much) . . . There’s only one goal, which is to walk to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. Whatever distracts from that just falls by the wayside.

Yellow arrow made out of scallop shells mortared into the rock wall of a house along the Camino de Santiago, a route walked by many pilgrims with different travel inspiration. (Image © Jenna Tummonds)

There is one simple instruction for walking the Camino: follow the yellow arrows.
© Jenna Tummonds

The travel inspiration that Father Allen discovered while walking followed him home. The value of simplicity continues to affect how he approaches relationships and day-to-day life; slowing down to find the extraordinary within the ordinary.

Jenna Tummonds’ Inspiration? Time to Think

Although pilgrims often cross paths, Jenna Tummonds dedicated her time on the Camino to walking alone.

Pilgrim walking down a road through a town, showing travel inspiration of walking the Camino de Santiago. (image © Jenna Tummonds

A pilgrim can choose to meet people or take advantage of the quiet space of the long road.
© Jenna Tummonds

Prompted by the idea of ley lines in Shirley MacLaine’s El Camino, Jenna prepared for the long walk. Ley lines are lines of energy that allegedly connect geographic locations and structures across the earth, something like the straight lines drawn between constellations.

Some believe that several ley lines intersect along the Camino de Santiago and that their energy brings about clarity of thought. With that in mind, Jenna asked her question:

Why, as she was growing older, did she trust people less and less?

She feared that the inevitable consequence was a life of old age and bitterness. The Camino de Santiago gave her time to remove herself from a familiar world and and concentrate on personal growth.

A pilgrim following her travel inspiration on the Camino de Santiago stands alone in a field of sunflowers. (Image © Jenna Tummonds)

By making the effort to walk alone for parts of the journey, Jenna gained self-trust and self-reliance, resulting in her revelation:

I don’t need to trust anybody. I just have to trust myself.

Her reason for traveling the Camino was to spend time alone, and that travel inspiration led to a rejuvenated sense of self that prepared Jenna for her journey beyond the Camino.

My Inspiration: The Love of Spontaneity

I first learned of the pilgrimage while working in Switzerland. I loved the idea that what would happen on my days along the Camino were left up to chance. Two days later, I was on a train heading to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to start walking the Camino Francés.

Three female pilgrims with backpacks and walking sticks following their person al travel i inspiration to walk the Camino de Santiago. (Image © Jenna Tummonds)

Every day was filled with chance encounters. When fellow pilgrims and I passed each other, we sometimes stopped to chat, and sometimes we walked together.

Pilgrims, staying in the same refugios (refuges designated for pilgrims), often met up for dinner and spontaneous conversation around a communal table that might connect ten pilgrims from six or more countries.

No phones. No exchange of contact information. But often bittersweet goodbyes—when we parted, everyone said, ¡Buen camino!, and we meant it.

Sometimes we saw each other again along the way, and sometimes not. The fun of it was the idea of leaving it all up to chance.

My love of the unexpected, my appreciation for spontaneity had been reason enough to walk the Camino, and my travel inspiration was fulfilled along the Camino from beginning to end.

A group of pilgrims, whose travel inspiration took them down the Camino de Santiago for very different reasons, in front of the Cathedral at the end of the route. (Image © Jenna Tummonds)

Oh, I See

Despite the many kinds of travel inspiration, our destination—the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela—was the same. It was a celebration of our pilgrimage, whatever the route taken.

As Father Allen explains:

For all of us as pilgrims, we were formed by the journey as we sought the destination.

You can always tell Camino pilgrims by the scallop shell hanging from their backpacks. Like the shell, the Camino de Santiago is shaped by a system of trails, taken by pilgrims with different kinds of travel inspiration along different routes, but all converging at the same point.

A scallop shell, like the symbol for the Camino de Santiago, a route taken by pilgrims following their unique kinds of travel inspiration. (Image © )

Thank you, Father Allen and Jenna, for sharing your stories. For planning your own route on the Camino de Santiago, visit Camino Ways.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Eva Boynton Comments

Adventure Travel/On Foot/Quotes of Note/Spain

Apr

A Taste of French Sayings

by Meredith Mullins on April 20, 2015

Triptych of mustard, beans, and bread, showing the food focus of French sayings. (Image © Meredith Mullins)

French Idioms—A Focus on Food

You may never have had the pleasure of mustard up your nose.

You may never have felt the desperation of having no beans in the house.

You may not know the boredom of a long dreary day, which, in French lore, is “a day without bread.”

But, if you’re living in the world of French sayings, these expressions are common—and mean more than their literal translations.

Meredith Mullins 2 Comments

France (Paris)/Proverbs & Sayings

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