and I’ve been working on the house and the garden, reading, hanging out with the wild girls, and stalking the wild asparagus. I’ve become a real slug vis a vis this blog, but I’ll let it stand and hope to become more inspired soon.
Add comment March 11th, 2008
On New Year’s Eve I watched the fireworks in Sydney on Aljazeera and then there were about sixteen people here in my house for our New Year’s party. Carmela did more than half the cooking, Eugenio played sommeliere. Muriel, Martin and Manuel slept downstairs after Gini was seen off to London . Barbara is up here in the small guestroom. Silvana, Alberto, Giancarlo, Anna, two of their friends from Naples- Maria Teresa and Franco. JeanPierre and Linda from Belgium. Marco, on his best behavior. Macia and Sofia. Only Angelo and Merry, Mario and Cesare, were missing - down in Puglia. There were little explosions of fireworks off in the distance in the valley. Maggie and Molly popped down for a look at everyone now and then. My bedroom with the electric heater going full blast and the windows open was the smoking room in deference to Manuel who is the best baby ever.
Up at 5:30 this morning, out on the highway in my orange vest in the fog directing traffic around the truck with the crane unloading materials into my garden. We’ve just decided to pave the whole damn thing. Scherzo. It’s going to be beautiful. Some gorgeous stone from the Dolimites. They said the tufo cracks and breaks too badly this high up. Guess they haven’t noticed global warming. But I love the stone.
On Sunday evening, a bunch of us drove down into the valley to look at some possible houses to be restored. This was after a great lunch of gnocchi di zucca at my house. Since then, Castiglion has been a bit of a ghost town - lots of rain. But there’ll be Friday night cinema in San Quirico’s library again starting Friday night. That’ll go until nice weather puts our cinema under the stars in one of the piazzette up here again.
Add comment January 16th, 2008
I haven’t written for months. Since last I posted here, I think I’ve been to Brussells and New York. I’ve been to Positano, too, but mostly I’ve just stayed here up above the valley.
Tonight we celebrated my friend Silvana’s birthday up at Alfredo’s ancient house on the Rocca where we could see the frantoio operating, the full moon shining down on the terraces and the valley below, the lights of Montepulciano and Monticchiello. There was a roaring fire in the huge fireplace; we had a minestrone and roasted meats and potatoes and fresh salad, followed by cake and prosecco and gift giving. Then we turned out the lights and sat telling ghost stories by the fire, all twelve of us, until midnight. The clocks go back an hour tonight. I’d spent all day working on a translation of a grant proposal for my friend Alessandra whose theatre company and arts organization has applied for funds from the E.U.. A completely full day and now the dark seasons are underway. Off to London in a couple of weeks and then back here for the true winter. It’s supposed to be really cold this year. We shall see.
Add comment October 27th, 2007
Add comment August 27th, 2007
Add comment August 17th, 2007
Up to Giancarlo and Anna’s place above the village for a swim in the pool surrounded by flowering broom and then dinner on the terrace with a view of the village.
 
 As it got dark, the meadow was a carpet of fireflies. Then all seven of us went in to watch their documentary done in Kabul in 2002 and Eugenio and Carmela’s slides from Mexico which were magnificent.
Add comment June 25th, 2007
Birthday today. The afternoon in Pienza for lunch with G, Z and two new friends, the evening in Bagno Vignoni at the medieval summer festival with friends from Castiglione. A beautiful day! Hot, but hotter tomorrow.
Add comment June 23rd, 2007
We’re so lucky to have it here in the Val d’Orcia which was parched in April and early May. The farmers will complain that it came later than they wanted it and one can see why when looking at the swaths of beaten down wheat in the fields, but they’ll bounce back. Meanwhile, the gardens are flourishing.
The guests from Australia, London and the States can’t have been too happy either, but they appreciated the need and had good times anyway. Lots of dinner parties and restaurant meals and lovely drives between the storms.
I keep reading books and watching the news and wondering how I can stop paying taxes to fund the corporations that promote the wars. Would so prefer to give the money to social justice causes. I’m going to take a brief trip over to NYC next month just to see how it feels back in the belly of the beast. Vedremo.
Add comment June 6th, 2007
My dear friend Barbara celebrated a special birthday a few days ago.
 Last night, my friend Alessandra starred in a dramatic reading of Sylvia Plath’s Three Women in Montepulciano. In Italian and beautifully presented and fine acting. Then two of the three cast members and their families and friends went to a local trattoria for an after show party. Fun night.
Add comment May 7th, 2007
and it’s going to be a major project to get everything transferred over to this Wordpress program, but thanks to Cristina and Annika at Expats, I can finally start blogging again. It’s been almost two months and there’s a lot to catch up on. So give me some time to figure out how to use everything and I’ll be rolling again.
In the meantime, the garden is going well and, as you can see, people are enjoying the spring sunshine between the rain showers that finally came this week. April was really hot here, but now it’s more like spring again.
Now I have to send my latest blog address to everyone on my email list by adding it to my signature.
Add comment May 5th, 2007
