City Park--Denver

Denver bungalow

Thanks once again to AirBnB, we have found a delightful place to spend the next three months here in Denver.  We are now ensconced in a little bungalow in Denver's City Park neighborhood.  Situated on a quiet street, the house is perfect for us and includes a nice sized living room, dining area, bedroom and a great, fully functioning kitchen, with all of the modern conveniences, including a dishwasher and ice maker.

Gazebo

What makes it so nice, though, is the wonderful backyard and deck. The deck features a tent gazebo, where we live most of the time.

Denver's climate is so great--warm sunny days with low humidity--or at least low humidity compared to the steamy East, so we often eat all of our meals on the deck.  That sometimes means donning a light fleece or jacket on cool mornings or evenings, but also turning on the fan during the heat of the day. Seriously we feel like we have landed in our own little piece of paradise.  After our first day here we were already making plans for perhaps returning again next spring--but alas that is not to be as our landlady, Cindy, tells us that we are her last AirBnB guests--after we leave she will put the place up for sale.  What a bummer.

The house next door has been converted into a small African American church--The Grace and Truth Tabernacle.  We have gotten to know the caretaker, Sam, and he recently invited us to attend a Sunday service.  This past Sunday we were Sam's guests and we were welcomed with open arms and loving smiles.  Having never attended a pentecostal church before, we were unsure what to expect.  It was a joyful service with lots of singing and praise giving, stand-up swaying and hand clapping to the beat of the drum set and electric organ.   We were even treated to a funny skit performed by some of the parishioners. Although the service lasted close to two hours, the time went by quickly, and we left feeling buoyed and joyful.

Charlie on his bike

As we have repeatedly said, one of the great joys of being in Denver is the more frequent contact with Charlie.  He and his Mom came over for lunch and a visit recently. Afterwards, we all decided to take a walk to the playground nearby.  The playground was closed--but all was not lost--on the street running by the school, the city is installing a new storm drain line.  Lots of big pieces of equipment--diggers, dump trucks, backhoes, etc.  Charlie was in heaven.  We watched them dig up and move dirt, lay pipes, and fill trucks for close to an hour.  The three adults were ready to move on long before Charlie got tired of the goings on.

Cirque du Soleil

One evening we went to a performance of Cirque du Soleil:AmaLuna.  Although we have seen countless TV shows about Cirque du Soleil, we had never been to a live performance.  It was very different.  The traveling shows still perform under a Big Top holding three or four thousand spectators. There is one ring or central stage, and unlike the traditional circus, there is a unifying theme or storyline.  AmaLuna (Mother Moon) is loosely about a young girl's birthday and meeting her first love.  The costumes are fantastic and the acts include contortionists, jugglers, acrobats, aerialists and clowns.  The two hour performance is quite entertaining and at times enthralling--but in the end, we both felt that once was enough. 

This past weekend we went to see Lee Daniels' The Butler, and we would recommend it.  Covering more than fifty years of contemporary American history, it is told from the perspective of an African American man who served as a butler in the White House during seven presidential administrations--Eisenhower to Reagan. You learn how he and his family experienced the monumental changes that occurred during that time from the Federally enforced integration of Little Rock schools in 1957 to the election of Barack Obama in 2008. Having lived ourselves through these events, it was very thought provoking to be reminded of the events such as the March on Washington, the Freedom Riders, the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965, and the assassinations of President Kennedy and Martin Luther King.

Greg & Shirley LLafet with Sue

B39  Bomber, FIFI

Also this weekend, Grant's parents, Greg and Shirley Llafet, invited us to go to an air show with them.  It was much like a country fair or the Scottish "Highland Games" (which we're familiar with):   exhibitors, vendor tents,  food and drink.  All the activities are centered around airplanes and air history.  Greg, who has worked as a pilot and air traffic controller, is very knowledgeable about the planes and the history.  He made the experience so much richer and such fun. The day's events were capped off with a "balloon glow".  Hot air balloons don't ascend, but are inflated at dusk so that they light up and glow--kind of hard to explain, but neat to experience.  A huge fireworks display at the end of the evneing lasted half an hour and was really fantastic.

Our real thrill was to see "FIFI" the sister ship to Enola Gay.  Either plane might have been chosen to drop the first atomic bombs on Japan.  The two planes were identical.  Enola Gay was chosen, and FIFI moth-balled, but  has been lovingly restored by airplane aficionados.  Greg said we were really lucky to have seen it fly and land.  Not many people get that opportunity.

Erin--Ready for her Pakistan assignment

It feels nice to be stationary for three whole months in one house--so much so that we have rented our usual downtown studio for six months from January to June.  During that time we hope to take at least one trip to see Erin.  She is now in Pakistan beginning her year long assignment.  Please keep her in your prayers, though she assures us it is Islamagood, not Islamabad, each time we talk with her.

We always say we welcome visitors and mean it.  Even in our studio there is room for a blow-up mattress and we have one.  If you haven't seen Denver, you are missing a treat !

Up and down the East Coast

Erin & Charlie

We spent the month of July in Washington DC with a quick trip to NC squeezed in.  Erin, who goes to Pakistan on August 19, had invited us to stay with her for the month of July while she completed some training for her new assignment.  It was great to have this time to be with her as we are not sure if we will be able to see her over the next year--it doesn't look like it will be possible to visit with her while she is in Pakistan, but we might be able to meet her in Bali or Thailand or who knows where.

Mart & Bob at the Folk Life Festival

It also gave us some time to reconnect with some friends from the Library of Congress--Barby Morland and her husband Howard and Tori Hill and her wife, Elizabeth Carl. Mart and Bob Larson also met us several times in the District, including for the 4th of July fireworks, the Folk Life Festival and some great "Jazz in the Park" evenings in the Sculpture Garden on 7th Street.

Mart and Bob also have the traveling bug, and we have agreed to meet up in Mexico in November and December--most of the time in San Miguel de Allende but also Mexico City.  We are looking forward to exploring both places with them, and it was great fun finding apartments to share on AirBNB. We're hoping that the reality is as good as the pictures!

Hannah & Betsy at Rehobeth

Out walking with Abby & Evelyn

Anita, Christine, Sue & Dean in Annapolis

 Being in DC also gave us the opportunity to visit with family and see the nieces and nephews and grandnieces.  With Hannah and Betsy, we took a day trip to Rehobeth for short dip in the ocean and an afternoon at Funland--a 1960's era amusement park on the beachfront complete with rides and games.  According to their Mom, Anne, it is one of their favorite places.

Susie and Jerry asked us to watch their girls, Abby and Evelyn, while they took a much deserved short (two day) romantic break in the Virginia countryside.  That was lots of fun.  Little one and two year old girls have a lot more energy than 60 something Great Aunts and Uncles we discovered.  Regardless, they were both so sweet and it was a pleasure being with them. 

Larry, Christine & Thurgood Marshall

Last but not least,  Dean and Anita, hearing we were in town, invited us out to their house in Columbia for an overnight.  After a great takeout Thai dinner, we stayed with Christine while her parents went out for a date night.  Next day we all went to Annapolis to see a children's play.  What fun !

Boone House & garden

After visits with the family, we took a week off to drive down to North Carolina.  Our first stop was Boone, where we attended our friend, Mary Reichel's, retirement party: she was Dean of Libraries at Appalachian State for more than 21 years.  Larry had the great honor of working with her from 2000-2006.

Tom and Kit Fisher were kind enough to host us once again; they jokingly call one of the upstairs bedrooms, the Boyer Suite. Our stay in Boone gave us a chance to check up on the house there. Like other places in the East, Boone has had a lot of rain this spring and summer, so we were a little worried--but fortunately all was well and the gardens have grown incredibly over the last few years.

Maury & Dru

From Boone we traveled across the state and stopped in Louisburg to see Dru and Maury York.  Maury, a colleague of Larry's at ECU, has just retired and they are renovating an older house in Maury's home town.  It was fun visiting with them and taking a tour of historic Louisburg. 

Cynthia in her garden

It was then on to Greenville.  Another one of Larry's colleagues, Blythe Tennent, hosted us.  Sometimes we feel like Blanche DuBois, but instead of depending on the kindness of strangers, we depend on the kindness of our friends to provide us bed and board as well as hospitality during some of our travels. While in Greenville, our friend and Italian traveling companion, Cynthia Adams feted us with a delicious dinner. Since her retirement, Cynthia has been able to devote more time to her garden, and as you can see she is enjoying great success. We loved the tour of the her garden as well as the delicious meal, especially as Nancy Ball--who accompanied Cynthia to Italy was able to make it to dinner with her husband, Lee.  Cynthia's husband, Wayne, was also with us, as well as Blythe, and we all had a wonderful reunion.

Sue and Bea

When we returned to DC, we went to the movies one day and ordered buttered popcorn.  Sue put it on her lap and when the movie was over she had a huge grease spot on her pants.  Thinking this was such bad luck, we started walking back to Erin's apartment.  All of a sudden we heard, "Sue, Larry !"  There, sitting at a streetside table was our good friend, Bea Moulton.  She and her companion had both wondered what that was on that lady's pants.  When Bea looked up, she saw it was Sue.  Without the grease we would have melted into the crowd (no pun intended) !  After that chance meeting we had several nice visits with Bea, including going to our old church, The Church of the Epiphany, and enjoying being there and seeing parishioners we hadn't seen in many years.  Also, we were able to schedule a lunch with Randolph Charles, Rector, and caught up with one another's lives.  You never know what chance meetings are in store as you go through life.

Our trip ended with a visit to Angie and Floyd Godfrey, our dear friends in Alexandria whom we've known since Sue was pregnant with Erin.  We also returned to Maryland's Eastern Shore to spend a night with John, Sue's brother, and wife, Bonnie, who weren't at home when we were there earlier (the Rehobeth trip with Hannah and Betsy).

We were able to spend a couple more days being with Erin and it was hard to say good-bye; the only consolation is that we can SKYPE during the year she is away.  And, hopefully, we'll be able to visit her in the spring somewhere in the world. We left the east coast and flew to Denver where we plan to stay for the next three months.  We're always up for visitors, so if you want to "go west young man", we'll welcome you.

June in Denver

Erin & Bryn

June in Denver was a family centered time.  Erin, on home leave before she heads to Pakistan in August, decided to spend it in Denver, which prompted us to change our plans, come back to the States early, and be in Denver with her and Bryn’s family.

We are so glad that we did.  First, Denver is a wonderful town in the summer.  Although this June was hotter than normal, with the thermometer often topping 90, the dry heat is nothing like the steaming heat of the east coast.

Grant & Bryn's Garden

Bryn and Grant have been working really hard on their yard and garden.  The perennials that they have planted over the last three years are beginning to mature and put on a good show. This year, they have been concentrating on transforming the side yard into a wonderful showcase.  One Saturday, we all—Grant, Bryn, Charlie, Sue and Larry—ventured out to Santa Fe Rock and Gravel to select some rocks and boulders to place in the garden.  It was a lot of fun selecting the rocks we all liked, and Charlie loved watching the big machinery and equipment in operation. When we got the rocks home, it was a lot of work getting them off of the truck and placed in the garden.  Grant did most of the lifting, with a little help from the rest of us. We all really like the dramatic effect that the rocks provide!

Charlie brushing his teeth

We have, of course, loved the time we have been able to spend with Charlie. We couldn’t believe  how big he was when we first arrived, but he also seems to change and grow with each passing day.

 A week after we arrived, he decided that he was done with his crib and proceeded to climb out of it one morning.  We believe that it signaled the end of babyhood.  He is a bundle of energy; always on the go; bouncing up from every fall like a rubber ball, acting like a true toddler.  He seldom cries when he is hurt; usually only when there is blood.   

With his favorite digger

Reading all about trucks

Each day seems to bring a new bruise, black eye, scrape or cut—but he just keeps on trucking.  And speaking of trucking; he is mad for trucks and cars.  His favorite toy is a large digger we got for him, and his favorite book is a board book about trucks that Erin found for him; he will sit for minutes at a time poring over the book, and he has to read it three or four times before he settles down at night.

At the Children's Museum

Sharing?

At the playground

With Oma

Charlie doesn’t say many words yet; but he is always jabbering, singing/humming, and pointing to things.  If he wants your attention, he takes one of your fingers in his chubby little hands and drags you to where he wants you to be. Bryn is using sign language with him, and it is fun watching him sign “more, all done, milk, and smile” among other things. Being able to sign things seems to help a lot with the frustration that he sometimes feels about not being able to communicate.  And although he doesn’t talk much, he seems to understand absolutely everything!

Grant's Family

Bryn

Grant and Bryn have been welcoming and inclusive as usual.  They seem to find some excuse (welcome home, birthday, first day of summer, etc.) to have a party at least once a week, which means inviting friends and family over for a cookout and beer with lots of music and good conversation in the their backyard—the more the merrier.  In addition to us, that often includes Grant’s extended family, and now his parents. Greg and Shirley have sold their house in California and retired (at least temporarily), and like us, they are thinking of making Denver their base of operations if not their year-round residence.

Erin at Botanical Garden

It was fun being with Erin so much, after her two-year stint in Mexico City.  She has invited us to stay with her in DC in July, while she is in training for her next assignment. She especially wanted to be in Denver to see more of her sister and of course have time with Charlie. We were surprised at the number of her friends who managed to come to Denver to visit her during her stay.  All we met were delightful and we enjoyed being with them.

Even though our initial Denver AIRBNB experience was not the best, we have not lost faith, and in fact have had our trust restored.  After taking advantage of Greg and Shirley’s kind offer to stay in their apartment while they were traveling, we finished our last week in Denver renting a room in a house in the Curtis Park neighborhood.  Brian, our host, is a young man who has been renting out his second bedroom through AIRBNB for more than a year—he tells us that he has hosted more than a hundred visitors in that time.  Since he spends a lot of time with his girlfriend who lives nearby, we often had the apartment to ourselves, but we enjoyed the time when he was their getting to know him.  An Upstate New York transplant, Brian is a great Denver booster; we really enjoyed learning about the Bike Sharing Program (B-Bikes) for which he volunteers and his community gardening adventures. We would recommend staying with him to anyone visiting Denver.

It came time to day goodbye, briefly, as we are spending July on the east coast.  We flew to Dulles on July 4^th and will return to Colorado on August 4^th for a three month stay to see if we like spending a longer time there.  Our travels will continue in November when we plan to go back to Mexico.  Meanwhile, we’re in the U.S. and glad to be here.

Rome to Home

Our last week in Italy was spent in Rome.  Once again we used AIRBNB to book a place to stay—this time with Gianpiero, who lives in a Roman suburb called Labaro—an ancient settlement in its own right, but now a bedroom community for the big city.  Gianpiero, a divorced father of two grown sons, lives by himself in a two car garage that he has made over into a small two bedroom house—and the operative word is small.  Still our bedroom and bed were quite comfortable, and Gianpiero was a good host and a super Rome booster.

With Gianpiero as our guide, we saw some wonderful things in Rome, like Ostia Antica, which we had never heard of before.  It is the old port and is about as well preserved as Pompey without all the lava and tourists.  It was very, very interesting and we managed to spend all day there.

Oh the crowds in Rome!

On another day we went back to the Borghese Gallery that we had visited on previous trips to Italy and drooled over a couple Bernini sculptures and tried to take in the gazillion pieces of fine art.  The collection belongs to the state now, but was created by a greedy Cardinal who was not very nice about how he got the paintings and sculptures he craved.  Even had some people killed so he could get his hands on their stuff.  Nice guy.

The last gelato

Our final day we took a nostalgic walk thru Rome—revisited some of the "not to be missed sights, like the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain, and had our very last gelato—now, that was a sad milestone! Our Italian sojourn lasted from March 1 through May 30—91 days. We overstayed our tourist visa by one day, and that can get you barred from traveling to Italy for as much as five years, but fortunately, nobody seemed to notice or mind.

Our plane trip home was long—about 18 hours door to door, Rome to Atlanta, with a change in London.  British Airways treated us fairly well, but are a little schizophrenic about carry-on baggage, with the size limit smaller than we are used to on domestic flights.  We got into a little tussle with a woman at the London airport about a bag we had carried on in Rome and wanted to continue with it as carry on luggage.  She said we had to check it; we flatly refused and told her we just alighted from a BA plane and were boarding another and it fit in the overhead.  We won!  “Next time, I won’t allow it”, she says.  Next time?  How often do we fly through London?

Larry, his Mom, Carlie & his sisters Glenda & Sandy

We flew to Atlanta to give us the opportunity to visit with Larry’s family, most of whom live in North Georgia these days.  His Mom, who will be 85 this July, is fortunately very healthy and lives by herself.  We got to see each of his siblings and many of our nieces and nephews. A big treat for us both was seeing 10 months old Art (Glenn & Garland Ryder’s son and Larry’s sister Sandy’s grandson); he is such a Zen baby and a delight to hold and cuddle.

After a four-day visit, we started on a three-day, 1600-mile driving trek to Denver.  On our first day, June 2^nd, we stopped for a quick lunch and visit with Rob Roschy, Sue’s nephew, who manages a Mangionne’s Little Italy Restaurant in Nashville. We spent our first night in Eastern Missouri and the second in central Kansas.  The American countryside can be every bit as beautiful and interesting as the Italian, although the billboards can be quite ugly and distracting. We were surprised at the lovely rolling hills in both Missouri and Kansas. 

Late in the afternoon of our second day, we stopped for a short visit to the Kansas State History Museum in Topeka—and regret that we had only one hour or so to look around before closing. Since neither of us knew anything about Kansas or its history, it was really lots of fun and educational—we highly recommend it. For a small local museum, it was incredibly well organized and very interactive.

Kansas Wind Farm

In central Kansas, we marveled as we drove through huge wind farms; giant wind turbines relief from the franchises found all along the interstate that seemed to march across the plains for many, many miles. Another recommendation that we might make for cross country travelers—get off the interstate for a few minutes and explore some of the little towns—we found a couple of really great local restaurants.

Still jetlagged and pretty road weary after three days driving, we arrived in Denver on May 5^th, hoping to settle into the apartment we had booked on AIRBNB.  Shock!!! Not only was the place difficult to access through an on-going remodeling and reconstruction of the front yard and path to the house, it was really quite dirty.  In addition, there was no dresser in the bedroom, and dollar store plastic plates, cups, etc., a popcorn popper and one small sauce pan were the entire kitchen.  Worse yet, the owner lived downstairs and was totally crazy. We got what we thought was her entire life story in 15 minutes as she babbled to us upon arrival; then got more and more for the two days we stayed there as she brought up for us several totally useless items from her kitchen to stock ours. 

 We knew quickly that we could not stay there for a month; said we were leaving and fought with her over giving us our money back.  We had stayed two days and had prepayed for the entire month.  Probably the worst experience of our entire trip.  Only “Freddie, everyone knows me” in the Galapagos could match it. Oh, well all trips must have their ups and downs.  The good news for us was that with threatening to write a scathing review of her “furnished apartment” on AIRBNB, she caved and refunded us for the remaining 28 days.

The part we want to remember is what she brought upstairs to stock our severely understocked kitchen. Here goes:  One filthy sandwich grill; two dirty cookie sheets encrusted, possibly for weeks, with bacon grease; two dirty cake pans; a basket put together like a “gift” (fake grass inside) containing such useful things as a hand potato masher, a rolling pin, rubber cupcake baking liners, a meat thermometer, a grapefruit cutter, a garlic press, four, count them, four sets of measuring cups and measuring spoons, an ice cream scoop and several unidentifiable objects that might have been useful to serve cheese.

Erin & Bryn

Fortunately for us, Grant’s parents had rented an apartment starting June 1^st, but will not arrive in Denver until June 28^th.  Their goods and chattle preceded them by professional movers.  They offered to let us stay for free, since we would have to sort through a lot of moving boxes, unpack what we needed to use and it has no TV or Internet. We are here; we have kitchen things; we have a comfortable bed.  Bought a couple towels and sheets so we wouldn’t have to keep unpacking.  We are good to go now with no crazy lady downstairs with total access to our apartment.

Sue, Bryn, Charlie &Larry

The lovely, bright spot in all this, of course is Charlie, along with Bryn, Grant and Erin (who is here on home leave for the month of June.)  It is a joy to be with them and a luxury to see them almost every day. We were all together at Bryn and Grant’s to celebrate Father’s Day—along with many from Grant’s family.  We are settling in nicely here in Denver.  We will be here through July 4^th and then we head off to DC for the month of July.  We will return to Denver for a longer stay in August. But we are already planning and thinking about the next places we want to visit.

Leaving Sovicille and the Siena Countryside

Casabella

It was hard to say goodbye to Casabella  but as we knew would happen, our time in Italy had to end. We so enjoyed out stay at Casabella--so much so that we could not muster up the energy for trips to towns and sites we had earmarked for touring.

With Renzo & Marzia in Casabella

Still, knowing that we want to return to Italy soon, we decided to just relax and enjoy our time in Sovicille and the Siena countryside.  We formed friendships with our hosts, Marzia & Renzo, and we definitely will plan another stay in one of their properties.

We have skipped a couple weeks between our trips to Todi, Poggio with the cooking lesson a la Danilo, and our visit to Certaldo with Cynthia and Nancy.

Cynthia & Nancy picnicking at Ricasoli

Not having written until now, those memories are getting foggy.  We spent the last few days of their stay in Casabella--our only regret being that it was too cool to get into the pool, which Renzo so graciously prepared early in the season at our request.  We did, however, spend time in Siena, revisited Ricasoli castle and winery for the third time, and generally had loads of fun with "the girls".

At our favorite restaurant in Piensa, La Buca della Fate

After they left, we relaxed in our beautiful villa, visited with Renzo and Marzia and had a wonderful evening with Norah White, whom we met at Ricasoli.  She served us all three times at our wine tastings and we grew to like her very much.  She and her husband, Giuseppi, came one night for dinner and we hope to have formed a lasting friendship.

Alas, our bucolic sojourn in the Siena countryside ended on May 25, and we had to head to Rome for a few days before our flight back to the U.S.

Piera, Sue & Nilo

On our way to Rome we made a short but important detour to Parana, a small Umbrian town, to visit with Nilo and Piera Leonardi. When we were last in Siena, in 2000, we stayed with the Leonardis for two months.  They were wonderful hosts then, and Piera is a superb cook, and nothing has changed except their location

Our reunion was delightful; they have a lovely home and they seemed happy to see us.  To aid the students who lived with them to learn Italian, they purposely chose not to learn English. Yet, they are both quite intuitive and seem to have little trouble understanding our halting Italian and making us understand their Italian.  

As we said, Piera is a wonderful "cuoca," and the feast she prepared, which included soup, pici (homemade thick Tuscan pasta), spinach soufle, salad, roasted por in carrot sauce, and a torta, was just incredible. Accompanied by their homemade olive oil, the two hour visit and feast were a delight. It was so nice to renew our bonds of friendship, and we of course promised not to wait another 12 years to return again. But of course, we had to say goodbye as we needed to get onto Rome.

We will write again about Rome and our return, but for now...our best to all and especially to all those who physically shared our journey.  Our virtual companions we love, too, so buon fortunal a tutti !

Spring Rambles in Tuscany

Along one of our nearby country roads

One of the great joys of our time here in Tuscany has been watching the land come alive with the coming of spring and seeing all the blooming plants and  flowers.

Since our arrival in March, the land has seemed to burst forth, and every walk and drive along the country byways, reveals something new.

We recognize some of them from home-- daffodils, lilacs, irises, roses, etc., but the so many of the wildflowers are new to us or in an abundance that we have never seen.

The poppies are incredible

The poppies that seem to spring up in every field, on on every stone wall, in every cranny are especially delightful and fun.

Poppy closeup

We have tried and tried to grow poppies in our various gardens but have never had much success.  To see them growing in such wild profusion has been a treat.

Mustard fields were prevalent during March

Earlier in the spring, the fields of mustard, glistening in the sun were also a new experience for us.  The mustard is mostly gone now, the farmers have plowed them under to sow their spring crops, but while they lasted they were a sight to behold--solid fields of yellow amidst a landscape of green.

Small farmer's vineyard--just a few rows

What dominates one's view most often are the vineyards and olive groves.  It seems to be every Tuscan's birthright to grow his own grapes and olives.

Even in  the smallest plots--in towns, cities and countryside, you see olive trees and grapevines.  We have been told that it takes about one tree to make a liter bottle of olive oil--so everyone's goal seems to be to grow enough for their own use.

Palazzo that we see on our walk with its vineyards & cypresses

Here in the Siena countryside, each farmer  seems to have three or fours rows of grapes; and we assume that is enough to make a year's supply of red table wine for his family's consumption.

As you drive along Tuscan provincial roads you see vineyards covering hundreds if not thousands of acres or hectares, which is how they measure land here in Italy and most of the world. And for many of these large vineyards, there is a winery.  Some like Ricasoli produce 3 million bottles a year, others like a little winery, Tenuto La Nouvela, we visited in Poggio, 12,000 bottles is a big production.

View from our window

But we started out talking about the lovely flowers and blooming plants that we see each time we step out our door or take a drive or better yet, a walk through the countryside.

One aspect of the Tuscan countryside that we like is the clustering of houses in small communities or settlements, so the landscape is not as broken up by farm houses and outbuildings as it is in the States. Casabella is part of a small cluster of houses--not really a village, but just a community.  We are surrounded by family gardens, olive groves, and vineyards as well as fields of wheat and sunflowers. We would love to be here this summer when we are told the wheat fields are golden and the sunflowers all turn their blooms to the sun.  The Italians call sunflowers, girasole, or sun follower.

Yesterday, in a break from the May showers that are more prevalent and frequent than we had expected, we were able to get out for a long, leisurely walk along the country lanes that criss cross the landscape.  We saw any number of new and interesting plants, at least to us--most of which we cannot name. But we wanted to share the pictures with you, in hopes that it might help to understand this faccinating landscape just a little bit better. Everyday, something new and different seems to appear, and of course as the season progresses, things die, stop flowering, or are just get overwhelmed by new growth.

A geranium or cranesbill that we noticed for the first time yesterday

A type of succulent that seems to grow out of every stone wall we pass

Wild gladioli

Not a clue, but found it peaking out of a bank of two foot high grass

There are lots of thistle--both the giant ones and its smaller relative

Earlier in the spring there were lots of ground cover daisies, but now their bigger cousins are showing up

We think this is another kind of geranium

Is the sage native or just naturalized--either way the big bushes of blue are impressive.

Earlier in the season, this plant was everywhere--it has now been overwhelmed by so many other plants, but still in a lovely clump like this it is striking.

There are many others that we have missed or cannot capture well with the iPhone camera, but we know that when we have the time for a walk, these sights and many others will be there to greet us.