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. Â 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 