Posts

Featured Post

Loving - The Movie. A beautiful portrayal of a forgotten civil rights story

Image
Ruth Negga (2 nd from right) stars as Mildred and Joel Edgerton (right) stars as Richard in Jeff Nichols LOVING, a Focus Features release. Credit : Ben Rothstein / Focus Features   Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving grew up in the rural unincorporated town of Central Point, Virginia. They met in high school, spent time together, and eventually, when Mildred became pregnant, decided to marry. But this was the 1950’s and Mildred was African American and Richard was white. Virginia had anti-miscegenation laws which made their marriage illegal. How did these two young people get beyond Jim Crow and fall in love? Well that had a lot to with Central Point VA. Central Point was and is still a very rural area. At a distance of about 90 miles south east from Washington DC it was community with a history of poor farmers, black and white, ignoring the rules of segregation, living together. According to a 2012 article in the Washington Post , Central Point and Caroline Count...

Walking the Old City of Valletta, Malta

Image
  The city of Valletta, Malta, is almost 500 years old. But, unlike most European cities of that age, Valletta was a completely planned community. This means that the streets in the old city were laid out in a grid pattern, with wider streets running parallel to the peninsula, and smaller ones crossing it. It also means that there is a uniformity to its buildings in style and size. One repeated feature of Valletta’s buildings are their enclosed balconies. These wooden structures are an adaptation of balconies seen in North Africa and southern Spain. Of course, in any old city, the doorways offer a fascinating look at structure, design and color. Valletta is built on the hilltop of the Sciberra Peninsula. It southern side, overlooking the Grand Harbor, has a steep run to a series of cliffs over it docks.   Finally, like any city set up for walking, people watching is something I love to do. Whether they are discussing their jobs, setting up shop, or just scrolling on their phon...

Fort St.Elmo. Valletta, Malta

Image
Relief Gate   Malta has played a key role in the history of military battles in the Mediterranean Sea. So, it is no surprise that one of the first things that the Knights Hospitaller did when they were given control of the island was to construct a fort. Fort St. Elmo By Dion Hinchcliffe via commons.wikimedia.org Construction began on Fort St. Elmo in 1552. It was designed to occupy the tip of the Sciberras Peninsula. From this position it could protect the newly rising city of Valletta, and the entrances to both the Grand and Marsamxett Harbors. During the Great Siege of 1565, the Fort was the site of major battles between the Knights and the Turkish forces.  Relief Gate A World War II observation tower Over the centuries, Fort St. Elmo has been modified and modernized. During the British colonial era, there were tremendous changes to the internal buildings including the construction of new barracks and offices. They also built many support structures around the outside the ...