Returning
Saw Flamingos
Saw Pomegranates
paint the derelict windmill
the pink and blue salt pans before it
Whist painting a large black car pulls up with an official shield on the front.
A man pops his head out of the window and talks about my painting and gives
me the thumbs up.
He says " Would you like coffee at Mama Caura?
I say " Cie, I finish, then see you later"
My mind wonders at this,
Sicilian black car, polizia etc.
I
meet them at the restaraunt, we talk in pigeon english about my trip, the
car and Sicilia . One of the other guys says "Do you know who this man
is?' and he hands me a card reading
On. Nicola Cristaldi, Presidente, Assemblea Regionale Siciliana.
I proclaim my enthusiasm for Sicilia, which he has to agree with. I give him
my Sicilia 06 book and we part, I say next time we meet I will speak more
Italian. He takes my photo and we say our goodbyes - ciao
Later I show the card to Nicola de Spano who with suprise says that I have
just met the most important man in Sicily.
Connections - somehow
Parked
up and weged myself in the car, looking out over the saline, Mulino, Mozia,
The islands of Egadi and Maretimmo.
This is a place.
sat utterly content, looking and working, watching the light turn towards
early evening.
a gold haze develops through my ' Egadi trough '
a dream filled ooze
afternoon into evening
The time the sun gets it in its mind to start to set
Meet an Irish photographer and his wife who live here.
I linger, the Stagnone is so inticing
two
distant mulino - mulino lontano
perch on the Isle de Stagnone
right on the edge
on the gold lip of the horizon
the Egadi island disolved in brilliant haze