Our magnificent countryside offers a stupendous picture of variegated colours throughout the different phases of the year, interspersed with the ubiquitous rubble walls infusing local character to the scene.

At the moment, it looks a stunning riot of beautiful bright yellow through the mass of flowers from the plants of the prolific ‘l-Ingliza’ and ‘il-Lelluxa’ varieties. This will soon be followed by attractive patches of red and pink in mature silla fields.

The picture then changes again to the sedate colour of grey from fields of ripening corn and oats. Finally, the brown and grey hues of the soil indicate that the fields are enjoying a restive summer break occasionally interrupted by small, green patches of tomato and marrow plants.

All this magnificence exists thanks to a disciplined nature combined with the hard work and sweat of our energetic and enterprising farmers, to whom we should all be indebted and grateful for our food and the beauty that surrounds us all the year round.

Malta is indeed a paradise for the painter and artist, particularly those chasing after natural colours viewed against a background of blue seas and skies, sometimes punctuated with tinges of white and the grey of waves and clouds.