corner view

corner view :: what makes you happy

The fact that we have a mere 23 days until summer break...that makes me a very happy woman. That my sister and her family will be here in a little over a month brings nothing but HAPPINESS. The spring in Italy, the tent we just bought, the fact that my daughter has her last geography test of the school year today, the local cherries, the exciting future of my beloved students who are soon to be graduates, the card that arrived from my parents yesterday, finally beginning Flora and Ulysses with Young One last night...happy, Happy, HAPPY.

 

But this little garden patch that we started in April and that is currently thriving...that is undoubtedly topping my happiness charts! 

Corner View is a weekly appointment shared by people around the globe, an appointment started in the spring of 2009 by Jane in Spain and currently hosted by Francesca over at Fuori Borgo. We welcome you to join us.

Corner View

corner view :: small things

Some rather promising small things are currently happening in our little garden behind the house. We have four varieties of tomatoes this year after taking a couple of years off from growing anything besides basil for our pesto habit. I think we'll be up to our ears in pomodori if things go well, and I couldn't be happier than to have that potential problem: tomatoes for breakfast, tomatoes for lunch, tomatoes for dinner, snack time tomatoes, insalata caprese, bruschetta, tomato and mayo sandwiches (my Granda's fav), tomatoes with cucumbers, tomato soup, cold pasta with tomatoes, salsa, BLT, tomatoes with tuna, tomato sauce...neither of us has ever met a homegrown tomato we didn't like. Small things like this do bring me joy. I hope they survive the rest of this chilly spring!

Corner View is a weekly appointment shared by people around the globe, an appointment started in the spring of 2009 by Jane in Spain and currently hosted by Francesca over at Fuori Borgo. We welcome you to join us.

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Sentiero 1

I've taken you on this path before, the one that starts at the cemetery in Lumignano and continues to Castegnero along the high ridge through groves of olive trees with sweeping views along the way; it includes the the opportunity to return to lower Lumignano through the fields of grape vines.  Cherry trees and pines dot the landscape, too.

But that was the early spring and this is mid summer! We so enjoy the opportunity to be spectators to this great free show put on by Mother Nature, without fail, year after year as the seasons change.

The most notable things in our landscape during mid summer are the lush vines fat with grapes on the cusp of harvest, the bone-dry rocky creek beds, and the varying hues of green that cover the panorama, green that will fade upon the arrival of fall and completely disappear until spring.

This is a beautiful place, indeed, this piece of Italy I call home.

verde

While a few trees in the area are covered in blossoms, most branches are still bare, as are the grape vines. The absolute first sign of spring in the paese is the reappearance of green, green grass.

These images were collected during a walk nearby this Saturday. Sunday has brought us nothing but rain, rain, rain.

new year | new beginning

Vineyard in Province of Vicenza

One of my favorite things about the paese is that we experience the wonder of all four seasons here; nowhere is this more evident than in the vineyards that surround us. In the next few weeks the grapes will be harvested and the rich green leaves will change to the colors of a golden sunset before leaving the vines naked for the winter. After a long cold and foggy winter when the vines will appear frozen and dead,  the paese will explode with cherry and apricot blossoms, quite a while before I notice the new growth on the vines. Eventually, though, I will notice, and when I do, I will be filled with hope because of the potential of a new beginning as promised by Mother Nature. I believe that living in a place like this is good for my soul. I truly do.

........................

Tomorrow marks my seventeenth first day of school as an educator. I am filled with hope and ready for a new beginning.

floral inspiration.

Many of the homes in the paese are bedecked with flowering plants at this time of year, making the place quite lovely. Among the favorites of the locals are geraniums and petunias.  The one house at the bottom of the hill, the one just past the pizzeria and across from the church, serves as my model of inspiration. The gazebo is gorgeous but so are the geraniums hanging from the second-floor balcony of the main house (not pictured here). I have a feeling that these geraniums are nurtured and brought back to life each spring.

Alas...I'm hoping that mine will be watered in my absence this summer and will still be alive in August! And, yes, I know that this is a lot to ask of neighbors and friends.

cherry pickin' in the paese

This year Francesco invited us to to make ourselves at home in his trees in the paese.
And that, my friends, is exactly what we did, with Young One eager to climb as high as she might.
And we hope to do so again before the short season ends.
The best part is that we now have permission to frolic in his fields whenever we like.

Access to a campo makes my cartwheel turning girl happy.
Cherry pickin' does it for me.
And Richard? He's happy if the girls in his life are happy!

Grazie, Francesco. 
.........

Have a super weekend!
Find some cheeries :)
(Or some friendly Italian neighbors.)

negotiations

It's time to come in.
But I don't want to come in.
It's time to come in.
But I don't want to come in.
I said --
Please, Daddy. Please. Please. Please. (with appropriate pouty face and puppy eyes)

Okay. Five more minutes. But just this once!

....................
This is the time of year that this plays out every single weekday evening.

I really just wanted to show you another picture of my geraniums because they are so nice and pretty this year. I fear that by August they will be nice and...dead.

Gigi e i Gerani

Luigi and Geraniums

snail relocation program

After the downpour this Saturday, Young One and one of her best buds found quite a collection of snails in the gardens out back. I encouraged the girls to collect the garden pests, and then we instituted a "Snail Relocation" program to a nearby roadside ditch. I wonder if my basil will be better off as a result or if just as many snails remain in hiding in my small plot of land. At last count, the girls collected over 80 of the slimy critters, who were  relocated (using my kitchen bowl) with the utmost care under the first light of the super moon.

Just a side note:  I learned that I have been using, incorrectly, the word "lumaca" for a snail with a shell, when, in fact, the correct word is "chiocciola."  A "lumaca" is the little slimy creature who lives without the shell. Nothing like having  a pair of second graders to keep my Italian vocabulary in line.

conversations with young one

During the drive home after school yesterday:

"Mamma, if you sit in the back of the class, in the very last row, then you can sleep while the teacher is talking so much."

Yawn.

................................

The homework last night was to find a leaf, so we took a little walk about the paese after arriving home. 

How do you like the fabulous grape leaf she selected?

Then I put her to bed early.

...............................

A friend once asked me, in honest disbelief, "If not the teachers' kids, then who?" as we shared stories of a certain couple of teachers' kids who had made some very bad choices in the realm of education.

We are both educators ... we do have a reputation to uphold. Get some zzzzz's little girl.

Late August

Finally faced the neglected and (mostly) dead garden this morning.

Found these there, too.

generosity.

Gloria lives nearby.

Sunday she brought us cherries that she and her family picked in the morning.

I'm never leaving this place.

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By the way, the Festa dea Siaresa, or the Cherry Festival, begins this weekend in Castegnero. 

peas in the paese

A coveted gift at this time of year is the bag full of fresh peas from the neighbor who is, among other things, a seasoned pea farmer. Since we are currently eating our fill of peas at the local sagra and restaurants, we decided to shell these and save them for darker times when a taste of spring will be much welcomed at our table. He shared that he is up to his ears in peas and is personally sick of them.

Bisi di Lumignano

These are no ordinary peas. This variety was introduced to the surrounding hills in the year 1000 by Benedictine monks and are considered a valued delicacy. Don't expect to find them in your local supermarket; the good farmers in the paese cultivate only enough for our local pea festival and for distribution to area restaurants, where city dwellers flock for a taste of the bisi. You can read more about our famous peas here or here (in Italian).

The pea festival, Sagra dei Bisi, continues in the paese this weekend. Those thousands of peas served at the festival are shelled entirely by hand. Entirely. That fact alone should get you out here this weekend. That...and my brownies and my chocolate chip cookie pie that will be found at the sweet table. A tip: order the risi e bisi. You won't be disappointed.

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Bisi is the local dialect word for piselli which is the Italian word for peas.

april 2 list

:: My days of paper scrapbooking have passed; however, I do like Ali's "Conversation with Simon" layout idea and plan to conduct a similar interview, in print and on video, with my girl soon. She is almost 7. How did that happen?

:: Booked it. Looking forward to June.

:: Delighted that Young One likes "Chicken Fried" the best of all the new songs on her player. "It reminds me of Louisiana, Mamma." I try so dang much to keep that connection.

:: Cherry blossoms arrive in the paese this weekend. Simply incredible.

I led the girls on a hike to the hidden waterfall after school yesterday.
Really, I just wanted to photograph them among the blossoms.

:: Eleanora from Aglio, Olio, and Peperoncino created an exhaustive list of Italian / English seafood translations. Love it.

:: Wave at the Bus Guy  How can you not adore this man?

:: Though I'm not in the design industry, I do deal with the publication of a yearbook.  This site has me in stitches -- Clients from Hell.

:: Who is your favorite character from Swamp People? The favorite in our house from season one is Troy Landry, hands down.  Undoubtedly, the favorite episode is the one when "Italy Guy" visits Cajun Country. (Yes, I let my six year old watch this. It's part of my desperation to keep the connection. Bad parenting? Probably.)

:: I'm off to photograph a softball game early on a Saturday morning. Looks like it'll be a gorgeous Veneto day. (I'm attempting to tell you about the good ones as much as I do the bad ones.)

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Have a lovely weekend!  I hope to find time to continue the stories of education and pizza this week.

spring cleaning is ...

Spring cleaning is highly overrated. That's what it is.

Did you think I might say fulfilling, inspiring, invigorating, or even spiritual?

Ha.

You don't know me too well.

This is a look at how I chose to spend my foggy Veneto morning instead.

And the afternoon?
I think I'll go plant some lettuce and some pansies.
Yep, that's exactly what I'll do.
You certainly won't find me engrossed in cleaning. Hello Dear Friends, need I remind you that it is a chore? Like the laundry. Bleh.