weekend [-ing]

Hello, November. Nice to see you once again.

First fire, first chestnuts.

Hope your weekend was lovely and slow, too.
xoxo
d

weekend {-ing}

Once the school year starts, I live for the weekends. I long to be home with no obligations. I long for the warmth and light of the sun, but mostly I long just for the opportunity to slow down. And while I enjoy the company of a friend or two, I long for time with my small family or time with just the Mr. and me.

It's an odd weekend when I get all of those things, considering we don't see the sun for four months in these parts! But this weekend was about as good as it gets.

I had time for things like...

Hunting recipes

Walking in the countryside with just Richard

Making a favorite dish to share with friends while Richard whips up a quick lunch  (There was no gin in either dish; it is leftover from rainy Friday night cocktails.)

Growing lettuce (Ha! But we did finally eat the lettuce, the lettuce that the snails did not eat because it grows high in our window. It was so good, as in...I had no idea lettuce could be this good. For the love of lettuce. )

Enjoying a simple and casual lunch, the kind where the three of us eat from one plate

Drying laundry, quickly in the sun

 Finding a new route for a walk in Nanto

Prepping dough for back-to-school cinnamon rolls

How was your weekend?

corner view

corner view :: rock

There's a big one at the top of my street that doesn't seem to bother anyone. I usually don't think much about it either, except for when the Earth rumbles, which it does a few times a year in these parts, and then my imagination laced with fear gets the best of me, and I can't get it out of my mind, this big rock at the top of my street.

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.

weekend (-ing)

Visiting with friends, 

afternoon napping, 

laundry hanging, 

early morning walking, 

football watching, 

cookie baking, 

sidewalk sweeping, 

market shopping, 

jazz listening in the paese, 

movie watching,

scooter riding,

reading, 

music making...

The days were long and slow. The sun was glorious.

Truly & thankfully.

lemonade

Some things cross cultures easily.

makin' groceries on a Sunday

Yesterday we needed to get a few things from the grocery store.

And, yes, quite unbelievably, there is a fabulous grocery store open on Sunday morning in these parts.

This is our ride back from the store, which is about 8 km away, taken mostly while in motion with my iPhone, of course. We bought prosciutto crudo di San Daniele, melon, Saturn peaches, goat cheese, and cucumbers. (Because I thought you needed to know. Our urgent need to visit the store was for lunch, specifically for the prosciutto and melone.)

I hope you enjoyed the ride as much as I did. Making a run to the grocery store, even on Sunday, ain't so bad, is it? 

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

Have a great week! We have officially started the countdown to the end of the school year: two weeks!

For the Love of Cherries

This is the time of year: many of the villages in the area host festivals, usually to celebrate a local harvest (but not always!) Our village wrapped up its "Sagra dei Bisi" last weekend, and now we turn to the two neighboring villages for their sagre, though we know nothing can top the pea festival.

Yes. I can't believe I said that either. Just trust me that you have to taste the peas to understand. A friend told me her father took some of the seeds to his garden, about 20 km away, and the peas just weren't the same! I totally believe it.

The Italian cowboy DJ's are often part of the nightly entertainment, and they have kind of a cult-like following of country line dancers who follow them from sagra to sagra each weekend. I've been often enough that I recognize some of the followers.

It's interesting to watch this embracing of a part of American culture...even if it's not exactly the way it would be at home. I love it because it's so close and so very far simultaneously.

The cherry sagra has something a little different this year: the good folks of Castegnero have finally included cherries on the menu rather than solely for sale as whole, freshly-picked fruit.

We had cherry risotto, local cheeses with cherry jam, and cherry beer! My favorite was the cheese plate, with selections from a nearby organic goat farm. Hmmm....organic goats?! You know what I mean!

I posted a short video of the dancing on my Instagram feed. Check it out.  

Have a great weekend! I'm off to have a few of those freshly-picked cherries! The season is in full swing here and they are oh-so-good. I just might be obsessed. 

........
I feel like I need to apologize for the crappy iPhone photos...it's just how life is running lately. The big camera gets left behind more and more. It makes me a bit sad, really.

Posted with Blogsy

this weekend

Things were hopping in the paese this weekend, and there were a few very specialized pop up shops to take advantage of the extra visitors. Nice. 

corner view

corner view :: taste

This is the time of year that people flock to the paese for a taste of the local peas and cherries. If only someone had invented "taste-o-vision," then you could understand the reason and you would certainly be among the mass of visitors.

If you are local, don't despair, there are a couple of festivals for the remaining weekends in May where you can go for a taste, too. Though, both products are for sale directly from the farmers in the area. Just look for signs.

Festivals
Sagra dei Bisi (peas)
Festa dea Siaresa (cherries)

(Confused with those titles? The good folks in the paese love their dialect!)

And yes...it doesn't get much cheesier than words like "taste-o-vision." Some days I like cheese. What can I say?

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 :: something to celebrate

Soon, this lovely girl of mine will celebrate her First Holy Communion at the little church in the paese.

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.

*More on the origin of that beautiful photo in a upcoming post. I promise. 

a poem... sort of

There is nothing like spring in the paese.
Okay.
So maybe there is.
It's fall in the paese.

But in the fall there are no peas.
And no cherries, blossoms or lip-staining fruit.
Or wisteria.
Or hills dotted with trees rich with purple.

No eager vines already bursting with this fall's harvest.

No glorious fields of gold.
(Think Sting was referring to rapeseed or wheat?)

So.
There is nothing like spring in the paese.
No place with as many dandelion wishes, for sure.

Nothing that gives me quite the headache,
Or causes quite the itch in my throat.

Ah, such is spring in the paese!

And there is
Nothing
Like spring
In the paese.


.........
And that is as close as I am going to get to poetry, my friends.
Don't forget, April is National Poetry Month. Have you selected a poem to share on Poem in My Pocket Day? April 24.