Thursday, July 22, 2010

July Etsy beadweavers competition

This month's EBW competition theme was "The Secret Garden".
It was such an inspiring theme, everybody came up with wonderful pieces; it was interesting to see how most of them were related to real gardens, part of our memories.
My piece was inspired by the beautiful country of my region:


I've spent my summers until the age of 12 at my parent's house in Ostuni, Puglia, Italy: a place full of vines, oak trees, almond trees and prickly pears which grow spontaneously everywhere. I used to play there with my little cousins, hidden by the trees from our parents' eyes, in our little secret spots. We used to pick and eat almonds and every kind of fruits, playing and running, trying to climb dry stone walls, and covering up our clothes with dirt, but at the end of the day we were happy and exhausted. Of course it was forbidden to us to pick fruits, especially the prickly pears: a single spine in the hand was a terrible wound at that age!

My grandfather often picked prickly pears without the protection of anything, so he ended up with his hands full of spines, which I patiently removed one by one.

He also used to teach me how to recognize every kind of tree and we watered them together.
My grandpa passed away almost 3 years ago and I really miss him a lot.
My whole family still reunites in that house on summer sundays or for special events, and I always go back in my little secret garden thinking about him.

No comments:

Post a Comment