It’s taken months since Cyclone Alfred (in March) to see spiders in my garden again. I’m so pleased they’re back! It’s funny but the older I get, the more I find myself by chance doing things my nonni did, like taking more notice of what’s going on in the garden.
As many will know, older Italian men and women are experts at observing their gardens each day. Noticing when the first fig tree leaves start being eaten by beetles, that the basil needs its tips pinched to stop it going to seed, 😄 or that the lemon tree craves fertiliser to produce its new crop so it’s time to dig in some kitchen scraps near its base.
Older Italians may often be seen standing or ambling along in their garden, touching different leaves, seemingly doing little but all the time looking, noticing, helping keep it all in balance. Now, early most mornings before I sit down at my desk to write, I find myself too taking a short stroll in the garden, observing, noticing. I may still be yet to get to the level of gardening of many older Italians but I’m happy to keep learning, watching and it feels nice to carry on their ways in some small way. 💚
Left to themselves, the basil and parsley I planted when summer began have been relishing the rain and heat and are on a rampage to take over the vegie patch in the backyard. No fertiliser or pesticides, just tucked under the protection of netting propped up by an old mop handle (a nod to Nonno Anni!) 
This artwork is called, Nature Thriving by Gianna Fallavollita and if you look closely, you’ll see it is a front door in Fossa, which has been a ghost town since the 2009 Abruzzo earthquake. I have to say, it evokes many different emotions to see the town where my ancestors lived over more than six centuries, now gradually being taken over by nature, forever entwined with Monte Circolo on which it sits.
Gianna, whose parents are from Abruzzo and who has a strong connection to her own Italian heritage, contacted me to tell me how much Mezza Italiana resonated with her and I was so touched and thrilled when she said this has also inspired her to create a series of artworks depicting my family’s town of Fossa in, ‘Where the Wild Things Thrive’, a group exhibition currently on display until Sunday 26th November, 2023 at Back2Back Gallery, 57 Bull Street, Cooks Hill, Newcastle.
My deepest thanks to you, Gianna, and for your beautiful art. I hope so too. I’m still heartbroken about what happened to Fossa and many other beautiful towns in Abruzzo after the earthquake. Particularly that it will soon be 15 years, in April, that most residents have been unable to return to their homes in Fossa. Some of these houses, like my family’s one, which I wrote about in Mezza Italiana, have belonged to the same families for hundreds of years.
I’ve long had a love of art and it feels particularly special to discover my writing may in some small way have played a part in some of Gianna Fallavollita’s artworks. I hope that together these may convey how natural disasters continue to affect a place and its inhabitants long after the media reports have faded away.
It’s taken me until aged fifty, to build and light a fire for the first time. Curiously, until now, it’s just so happened that the men in my life did this task. Whether it was Dad’s big, brick barbecue in the backyard (built by one of Nonno Anni’s Italian mates). The guys among friends building a bonfire on the beach. Or Roger taking care of the fire if we stayed somewhere cold that had a lovely fireplace. For whatever reasons, including living mostly in a subtropical climate, it just didn’t come about to light a fire myself.
There’s so much I love about this photograph taken in the Brisbane backyard of Granny Maddalena and Nonno Vitale’s house… everyone under the Hills hoist, Granny bending over giggling, the woman’s arm around her. Nonno Anni looking over to see what they’re laughing at, Nanna Francesca always ready for the camera, holding the young boy who doesn’t look so keen to be in the photo.
The Italian saying, ‘Prendere due piccioni con una fava’ – catch two pigeons with one fava bean – sounds slightly kinder than ‘kill two birds with one stone’ but its meaning, ‘achieve two aims at once’ is the same. It’s fave (broad bean) time again here and they’re particularly fresh, sweet and earthy tasting at present.
“On Boxing Day, Annibale, Francesca and the others loaded the back of the Chevrolet with cold drinks, some roast chickens and a couple of large watermelons. After several years of keeping the fruit shop and milk bar open almost every day, Annibale had decided they’d close for a couple of days over Christmas and the family would head to the beach for the day…
Thank you to great-granny Maddalena who showed me about forbearance, cheekiness, growing vegetables and cooking minestrone and great-grandma Charlotte for her work ethic, kindness, growing gerberas and carnations and baking scones.
Doing things like an Italian you’d never have thought you would when growing up… 
Zoë Boccabella 