Denise Lesley Oldfield is responsible for the colourful Northern Lights photos above. Thanks for letting me use them Denise.
On Friday night I had nightmares about storms. I dreamed I couldn’t get home from the gym. I haven’t used a gym in years so I don’t know where that came from. It was quite terrifying! The following morning I read that we were experiencing quite a strong solar storm. Maybe it was the reason for my dream…I used to have a kind of second sight. It’s not so prevalent as I get older but maybe last night it stirred. I’ve had a few pretty bad headaches lately too, which used to come with premonitions. I know, sounds unlikely, but I could tell you so many stories of things I predicted. I always told someone when I had them, and they would humour me…until the premonitions came true. Then they just thought I was weird.
The solar storm made the Northern Lights visible to many people who don’t normally see them. There were sightings in the Southern US, parts of England, and also here in Italy. I wish I’d seen it.
My mum loved flowers and I’m following in her footsteps. On Friday I had no intention of working outside, but as usual the garden called my name. The photo below looks a little raggle taggle (is that a word?). Our house backs onto a steep hill (collina), and we’re working to tidy it up and make it pretty. Hubby used a pick axe to dig into the rock, and on Friday afternoon, planted some flowers. These concrete cubes are normally used for a drainage system, but their shape was perfect for the hillside, and they were cheap (us retirees like cheap). Next he cut into the rock to make steps so I can get up there and tend to my plants. I think it will all look beautiful when it’s finished.
Of course, being Friday, my day started at Villa Lempa market, which is also where I bought the plants for the garden. I love the plant stall there, and the man who runs it. He always gives me a ‘bargain’. I usually pick up lunch after shopping and on Friday it was pesce fritto (fried fish) . Every Friday it’s on the menu at our local fish shop for €24 a kilo. We only need half a kilo for two of us so there is another bargain. It is very popular, and the queue is long if you don’t get there before 11:30. It made for a great lunch with crusty bread. This week I requested calamari and baccalà, (squid and salted cod), and it was delicious.
Have a lovely weekend everyone, and watch the skies tonight, we may be lucky again.
Our garden is starting to bloom. I’m planting things I know will come back every year and also trying to incorporate the wildflowers already growing there. It’s not a garden of neat borders and perfect grass, but a mountainside haven to be left as natural as possible.
Gabriela and her mum stopped by on Friday morning. It was good to see them both. Gabriela’s mum is in her mid eighties, but looks at least ten years younger than that. She is an amazing woman. They both inspected our garden, eager to see what we’d been up to. Like all Italians, they wanted to know how much we’d paid for everything, in particular our garden furniture, and approved my “Assassino” bargains. I was told I should plant some fruit trees. I like that idea. They approved the woodshed hubby built, and the flowers I’ve planted, asking if I’d used seeds or seedlings. They accepted my invitation to Lunch in July. I’ll cook English Cuisine. I wonder how they’ll react to Scotch Eggs and Cottage Pie! “È un giorno speciale, festeggi qualcosa?” Gabriela asked if we were celebrating something. “Sì, ti festeggiamo.” I replied we were celebrating her. Gabriela has helped us tremendously since we moved here. She has introduced us to other people, who in turn have helped us pull this house together. Changing the LPG gas to Metano, finding a reliable firewood supplier, introducing me to a good physiotherapist, to name but a few. As she left she said: “Questa casa era morta, l’hai riportata in vita!” (Before we moved into our house, it was dead and we’ve brought it back to life.) Those words touched me. Many locals have stopped by and chatted, watching us as we work, and I can tell they appreciate what we’ve done. It makes us feel part of the community. I think we belong here.
Monday was exhausting. It started with an early drive to Pescara for the car to be serviced, and have our winter tyres fitted. The call centre had made a mistake and only booked the tyre change, not the service, so I had to use my best Italian to persuade them to make time to complete the service too. It’s a little over an hour’s drive to Pescara so I didn’t want to make another trip. Well done Alessandro at Audi Zentrum Pasquerelli https://www.pasquarelliauto.it/ , you got it done for me.
We’ve had a few stressful moments lately, due to the previous owners of the house not disclosing something to us, but I think we now have it all under control. Speriamo, as the Italians say. (Lets hope so). We love being here and have views I didn’t even know existed. The locals are friendly, funny and helpful and I’m enjoying making new friends. On Tuesday morning we had to pop into Villa Lempa for a couple of things, including bread. Villa Lempa has three very good bakeries. Today we stopped off at San Gio https://fornosangio.it/. Of course the smell of the fresh bread and cakes lured us to have a cappuccino and a pastry. Hubby is the one with the sweet tooth and has decided we’ll stop off there once a week until he had tasted all of the pastries he likes the look of.
Ever since we moved here I’ve been excited about making the garden beautiful and now the planting has begun. I dug up a little area by the gate that was not attractive to look at, and difficult to mow. Some local foraging turned up a few pieces of discarded travertine and marble, as well as some big rocks to make the area look more interesting interesting. I planted daffodils, snowdrops and crocus bulbs. Let’s hope spring (primavera) produces some colourful flowers. My mum’s favourite flowers were daffodils, and as a kid, mine were snowdrops. I’m going to make a happy garden, and believe me, there is a lot of garden to make happy.
Oh, and in my spare time I’m back to writing “Escape to Abruzzo”, I think I needed the garden to get my digestive juices flowing again. I have to say, I’ve re-written the first forty pages at least half a dozen times. Each time, I hear my content editor’s voice in my head, more dialogue…make it interesting. I hope I’ll be sending it to her soon.
After a busy morning in Lanciano it was nice to come home and relax. After lunch, I pottered around outside paying attention to the flowers on our terrace and outside the kitchen door. The winters here may feel cold to the locals, but the flowers and plants barely notice them. The young lemon tree only produced one fruit this year, but my beautiful rose bushes flowered in abundance. One determined bloom is still reaching towards the sun. In spring and summer (below) the view from our terrace is a dazzling emerald green, before turning crazy bright shades of red and yellow in the autumn. Even now, with the bare trees, it looks beautiful against the bright blue sky.
Every season is very different in Colledimezzo and I enjoy them all.
I forgot about book marketing and writing today, and had a lazy day at home.
I had to pop out to the local Cantina in Bomba for some wine which was a pleasure. The Cantina is on a beautiful country road, a road I love to drive. It’s bordered with wild flowers and wild fruit trees. Gorgeous. I bought a five liter box of their Vino Bianco, and a five liter box of Pecorino. The local wines are really good, better than I ever bought back in the US. Ten Liters of wine came to the grand total of…twenty one euros…yes, thats less than thirty dollars. Life is good!
I stopped at my favorite garden center and bought a few more plants for my terrace too. Have to be surrounded by pretty flowers while I drink my wine!
Pottered around trimming, repotting, and enjoying the day. Then cleaned myself up a bit and dragged my husband up to the piazza for a couple of drinks. Prosecco for me and Birra Italia for him.
It’s a hard life being retired.
Take care everyone and stay safe, get vaccinated, this new variant is a bad one.
There are rumors that the lockdown is going to become stricter in Abruzzo. The infections have risen over the past few days. There aren’t a huge amount of cases, but Abruzzo is very rural, so hospital beds are limited. With that news, I decided to get out this afternoon and buy one or two things that may not be available to me next week. Wine of course!!! One of my favorite cantina’s “Spinelli” is close by, so I stocked up on Rosso, Pecorino and Rosato. Next stop was a nursery/flower shop called “One Shop”. I don’t have a garden here by choice. After tending to over three acres in Colorado I decided a patio was all I wanted. It’s a little too early for summer flowers, but I managed to find few flowering shrubs to pretty up the area by my back door. Also herbs for the balcony on the top floor. Nothing better than fresh herbs. Shopping in small, local, family run shops is a perfect opportunity to practice my Italian vocabulary. Today, for the very first time, I was able to speak more Italian than English. I was thrilled to be understood and happy to translate English words into Italian when requested. The friendly people in this area love to learn English just as much as I enjoy learning Italian. Piano piano (slowly slowly), I’ll get there in the end. Colledimezzo is a very small village, with around 550 inhabitants, and currently we have four active COVID cases. All isolated, but it is still a worry. I don’t think they’re seriously ill. Speriamo di no. (We hope not).
I enjoy my daily afternoon walks, especially on days like this. The weekend snow has almost disappeared. Trees are blossoming and flowers turning their heads towards the sun. The end of winter is in sight. If only we could wash COVID away with the snow. So tired of it. I heard there were a couple of cases in our village today, I hope they’re not serious. I really want life to be normal again. Can you remember what a normal life was like? Stay safe everyone, and let’s look forward to spring.
Easter approaches and I remember my youth and the way we spent Easter Sunday. We would picnic in beautiful places around England. Sometimes we’d travel for a couple of hours just to find the perfect spot. One my dad’s favorite places to sit and eat his Easter Sunday picnic was Blanchland. We’d spread out a ‘picnic blanket’ and enjoy our ham sandwiches while we watched the sea of Daffodils moving in the breeze. England isn’t renowned for warmth at Easter, so a steaming thermos of tea was a welcome accompaniment. I wish my mam and dad were still around, I’d love to share one more Easter with them. This is for them.
Married to a workaholic makes you remember things for different reasons sometimes. During a long week-end in Santa Fe a few years ago my husband had to work remotely for a couple of hours. I’d almost forgotten about it until I came across some photos. I had to spend some time on my own. I made good use of it.
I take photographs and write novels and short stories to keep me occupied.
It helps keep the Alzheimer’s at bay.
Click on the link below to see what I’ve been up to.
Travel Tales and Mishaps 