"ICE CREAM DEATH WISH" - A POEM!

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GEOLOGICAL. PETRALIA SOTTANA 230 MILLION ANNI FA!

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According to London based World Renowned STOCKWELL GEOPARK's Research Department the Sicilian Madonie Geopark Mountains were under the sea 230 million years ago. Not basking in summer sunshine or winter snows like in modern times. The above image of Ultra Ancient PETRALIA SOTTANA shows it in all its deeply ancient historical CRABINIERI diversity.

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NOW WHICH WAY???? - CROSSING THE NEBRODI IN 1990.

CROSSING THE NEBRODI "A" to "N" -

(1993 NOTEBOOK insert!)

CROSSING THE NEBRODI "NOTEBOOK" 1990 (plus translation).

CROSSING THE NEBRODI "NOTEBOOK" 1990 - (plus translation).
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DOUBLE CLICK on the above IMAGES to ENLARGE.
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Back in 1990 there were no good maps to find your way across the lovely NEBRODI MOUNTAINS. I'd tried in the late 1980's to cross eastwards from the west - from PORTELLA FEMMINA MORTA to FLORESTA by way of BIVIERE di CESARO and BOSCO MANGALAVITI but the map I had was not detailed enough, and so the detail that did exist led me astray.
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So I tried crossing in the opposite direction. From FLORESTA heading westwards. In the end I made it but I still got lost a few times - beyond a certain point after heading west from FLORESTA. All I'd had to rely on - because the road just ended - was a compass. Trouble with a compass is that it can tell you a direction but sometimes heading in the correct direction proves very very difficult because of the way the land is in the direction you need to travel - sometimes it proved difficult t0 find a route because of obstacles etcetera etcetera so there were diversions and improvisations.
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My NOTEBOOKS came in very handy - and above are just a few page examples from my 1990 Notebooks - beneath each page of scrawl and scribble I have recently translated my words etc., and have re-used this information to make an illustrated postcard or two for friends just for amusement.
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Some of the above terrain I re-visited again this summer (July 2010) but some of it because of my increasing age now I will sadly not be able to pass along again. Also, there have been a few landslides that make certain very very solitary spots too dangerous to visit again.
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In a subsequent blogspot I will shortly feature one very lovely location in the vicinity of MONTE MALLARO - the latter is very much at the centre of the scribbled notes from the above 1990 Notebook pages.

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PETRALIA SOTTANA - LIFE AFTER DEATH OLYMPICS!

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Of course among religious communities both in Sicily and the UK one encounters notions suggesting that after we die our spirits ascend to heaven etcetera etcetera - in Petralia Sottana such notions are widely disseminated especially during the summer season when religious festivals abound.

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Being an unbeliever other musings quietly predominate and during the early hours of 17th September 2009 I suddenly awoke and penned the above - it pleased and amused me greatly so much so that once I'd jotted it down I got up and made a cup of tea to celebrate its creation.
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When I die there will certainly be over time a MAGGOT OLYMPICS - the worms and maggots will perform their natural life-after-death chores. We may not much admire their activities but its part of raw nature just like innocent flies had quickly descended on newly laid human faeces at the beautiful Nebrodi BIVIERE DI CESARO parkland in 1994 as described in my earlier blogged poem SICILY ISN'T THE MOON.

(Up-date - HERE - is something extremely relevant - just published on 16 May 2011).
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CAMERON SURPRISE - FLORESTA 5th JULY 2010.

I arrived in FLORESTA - Sicily's highest altitude commune (1275m) - late in the afternoon of Monday 5 July - after not having visited this location for five years or so. I stayed only an hour or two then set out to make a 2 day walk to re-visit the Nebrodi mountains (via Portella Mitti) from where I continued onwards towards Bosco Mangalavitti.

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My primary intention was to re-visit a very quiet pasture I'd not visited for several years where in the immediate vicinity of a deserted delapidated cottage (where I'd holed-up occasionally in previous years) there had always been peacefully grazing beautiful animals.

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A blogspot about this latter Monte Mallaro location will follow later.( HERE now).

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I reached the said location and then returned to Portella Mitti. Then I walked down to the sea passing Rocca San Marco, Ucria, Sinagra, Ficarra and onwards to Brolo - again a walk that I'd very enjoyably made in previous years.

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However the "surprise" at FLORESTA when I'd arrived on 5th July was seeing the above item hung out in the peaceful Nebrodi sun at a local bar where I'd taken light refreshment. The item photographed above is actually in the Scottish CAMERON tartan and so it was an especially heart warming and welcoming sight for me.

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PORTELLA FEMMINA MORTA (NEBRODI PARK) CHARCOAL BURNERS ENCAMPMENT 1994.

POSTSCRIPT ITEM - a trap of sorts found in 1995 amongst the debris of the 1994 encampment - see details below - this trap now labours under 15 plus years of London dust. On its rear end wall just visible through the wiring there is an illustration of a large spider and the SANTA CLAUSE laid inside was a 1995 addition found elsewhere during my MADONIE and NEBRODI walking excursions that year. It was a proper primed if somewhat small trap contraption.

Nebrodi Woodland 1994 Carbon Burners Encampment remains in July 1995.

Another July 1995 shot of the 1994 encampment.

One of the encampment structures under construction in June 1994.

Two of the fellow Carbonai Group.

The same two Carbonai jovially toasting their joint efforts.

Taking a break for a glass of vino!

Ongoing Carbon fire preparations.

Products of the Carbonai Group Labours - shot 1.

Products of the Carbonai Group Labour -shot 2.

Products of the Carbonai Group Labours - shot 3.

Showing me the ropes!

Getting things together - another shot.

Carbon fireside scene.

Further Carbon work in progress.

Sat resting in one of their newly built shelters.

Shot of the Nebrodi Woodlands Carbonai Group

who made me so very very welcome.

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In the 3rd week of June 1994 I took a Sicilian 2 weeks Parco dei Nebrodi and Parco delle Madonie excursion and after arriving by air at Catania then took a mid-day coach that travelled via CESARO so as to be able to drop me at PORTELLA FEMMINA MORTA. From there I struck out on foot as I had done in earlier years towards LAGO MAULAZZO and LAGO BIVIERE DI CESARO. Not very far down the winding inviting peaceful roadway towards the above destinations (and before the MONTE SORO bivio) in woodlands to the right hand side were folk who to my recollection were from (relatively nearby) SAN FRATELLO and SAN AGATA di MILITELLO - all these named places can be found on the NEBRODI locations map linked at the bottom of this page. These folk had just about begun to establish their above temporary CARBON production encampment. Basically as I understood things they'd chosen a section of the woodlands where they'd prune the trees, build fires and accomodation shelters (as above) and produce Carbon. Apparently the work that these Sicilian CARBONAI do is "CARBONAIO". They were a truly unexpected novelty for me and maybe hailing from the UK solo I was for them too. Certainly they made me very very welcome indeed and gave me food - pasta, meat, fruit and wine. It remains one of my very memorable encounters.

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LASCARI SALINELLE 1998 - "THE WAY IT SEEMED AT 4am" - a poem.

GOOGLE EARTH AERIAL SHOT OF LASCARI SALINELLE BEACH

AND ADJACENT FIELDS - BEACH AREA PUBLIC SEATING

OVER TO THE RIGHT HAND SIDE.

Un-useable badly damaged Salinelle beach area seating - summer 2009.

Beachside fieldscape 2009 cleared for car parking.

Summer 2009 beachside fieldscape.

Sole wooden post remaining (2009) from earlier times - see below.

Salinelle beachside nearby fieldscape before modern clearances.

Beachside nearby fieldscape 1980's through 1990's.

Fieldscape "high wirings" featured in 1998 poem.

"High wirings".

"High wirings" from which a night-time "Star" was toppled.

THE WAY IT SEEMED AT 4am

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Imagination had

a faintly

fishy smell,
a clear sky, lit

by a thigh high

almost full moon

was slowly but surely

sinking to its knees,

waves crashed,

rolling and receding

along the nearby shore.

In the distance

a dog barked.

Right above me

balanced on a very high wire

that truly I could see

a Star was toppled

by a single puff of passing cloud.

Nobody moaned out loud

(as only nobody can)

"Oi shut it man

d'you know

what time it is".

I.C.

Lascari Salinelle.

6 July 1998.

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The above poem came through at 4am on the night in question when sleeping in the open I awoke just briefly from my summer slumbers amid the fieldscape shown above. In those days it was somewhat helpfully comfortably overgrown with vegetation. That vegetation has all now been removed as have all the wooden upright posts and also of course the "high-line wirings" that so suprisingly crept into "The Way It Seemed" poetic imagery on that summer's night .

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The fieldscape in question, which runs immediately adjacent to salinelle beach, has now been entirely cleared and is used during the summer season for car parking. Just one of the old wooden post survives - now on the horizontal - as shown in one of the above foto's.

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Over the 1987 - 2003 period I peacefully slept out at Lascari Salinelle on some 40 occasions altho' not always in the above fieldscape - there are also quiet peaceful woodlands in the relatively nearby Salinelle area.

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The beachside area nowadays is not as invitingly hospitable as it had been hitherto - for example one of the above foto's made in the summer of 2009 shows that almost all the public seating was smashed and un-useable. To update this smashed seating comment having very recently (late Sept 2010) returned from a Lascari re-visit the seating has now been repaired.

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Anyway it is pleasing to acknowledge that I mainly have very nice memories of my numerous LASCARI SALINELLE visits some of which have already been featured in previous SICILY ABLAZE blogspots - see - HERE & HERE & HERE .

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