Worms be gone!

I guess it's really going to happen. The work in the bedroom that I talked about at the beginning of the summer. Remember that? Remember that construction guy I was waiting for? Yeah, he never came. But now we have AGUSTO! I so happy about this.

Sometimes in Italy you make plans for things, you have the best intentions and still you just know that it's not going to happen. Or at the very least it's not going to happen for a very long time. Take the water project that we Maberga people planned. I just had a feeling that that was too good to be true that we would have aquaduct water by the end of the summer. I didn't know the mayor was going to go to jail, and that would be the thing to hold up our project. But I did have that feeling that the water wouldn't be coming this summer.

It was the same with the work on the house. I just had that feeling that a number of unforeseen things would come in the way of my having a worm-free bedroom.

But now, I know it will happen. Here's my evidence.
1. Agusto is doing the work. Agusto is a friend of ours who also happens to be a muratore (constuction guy). He is honest, clever, a great worker and he does great work. Everyone knows this which is why we couldn't get him before. He's booked about a year in advance. We finally talked him into saying yes to doing the work about a month ago on the condition that we just wait until he has a whole in his schedule. It happened much sooner than we thought and we are thrilled. He stopped by yesterday to talk about the work and actually do things like plan where the big pile of sand for cement is going to go. Agusto said he's starting and his word is good.
2. Despite the fact that we have thunder every afternoon we never get any rain. Today we did. Evidence number two that we are planning house work. All the stuff that is currently in the bedroom (a bed, two wardrobes, bookshelves, a couch, two tables plus all our clothes, books, computer gear, etc) will need to go somewhere. Much of it outside, probably. It rained today, probaby every day that we will need to have things stored outside.
3. Immediately after Agusto left yesterday evening, my back inexplicably started to stiffen. By the end of the evening I could hardly walk. Today, more of the same. Remember evidence number 2 where I said all that stuff needs to be moved? Yep, I'm having back problems...the first time ever in my life and it's happening just as I need to start moving things.

I guess it's really going to happen.

Every knitter needs a dog

Last night at dinner Bente-from-Denmark-who-is-Bente-staying-in-Montalto requested that I post a photo of Ruffino.

Here ya go, Bente.

Cute, isn’t he? Just a swimmin’ there with his favorite toy, a lemon.





Boy was I thinking about how cute he is this morning when I woke up to find this on the floor







which used to be a part of this.



Thanks Ruffino, ol’ pal. You’ve only just destroyed the first of 48 squares that I need for a blanket I’m working on. A blanket that is 48 of those lovely squares with all those bobbles, and leaves and the other tricky stitches that make you actually have to count while you’re knitting. Did I mention that I need 48 of those and you just ate one of them? Thanks. That’s great.


Perhaps Ruff was really doing me a favor. We are having a record hot summer, 110 degrees by 9am with no rain. What on earth would possess me to knit an wool blanket? I’m sure Ruffino was just trying to help me. He was trying to tell me that knitting a wool blanket is really a bad idea right now. Yeah, I’m sure that’s what he was thinking

Like he was helping David to garden when he used to chew through the grape vines. Which, by the way, David is convinced he was doing.

On the outside chance that David is right and our dog has these higher order thinking skills, then I should probably hide this other bit of knitting I’ve been working on.

I needed to start this project because when it gets too hot to work on the wool blanket I like to switch to this 40lb wool poncho. I especially like to try it on at noon when the temp reaches about 120. Yep, better hide that one from Ruffino, my smart little helper.

ps. is that the hippiest looking poncho you've ever seen or is it just me?!

pss. for all my english-is-not-my-first-language readers..."hippiest" is very different from "hippest". Two different words, two different meanings - two different ponchos.

wonderful water

Sorry sorry sorry...I'm been a little absent. Well, just absent from you. I've actually been here at home but I was entertaining. House guests are now gone....I'll try to write more.

Being a little tired as I am, how about a random post.

Water was the theme of the visit from Jacopo and Amy. Jacopo is a friend of ours from way back when (he's Italian, in case you couldn't tell from his name...and the J is pronounced as a Y). David and I met him in Greece about 8 years ago when we were traveling before we settled for our year sibatical in Assisi. It's really because of him that we ended up moving to Italy. He and his girlfriend, Amy (she's american) came for a visit to say good bye. Amy is wisking Jacopo away to live in the land of the free - San Francisco.

Anyway, as I was saying WATER was the theme. Unfortunately this doesn't mean that it rained. It didn't. We're still waiting for that. However it does mean that we got to play in the water. One day we had a picnic at the river.

I love the river. It's quiet, no one is around, you just park, walk across that great Roman bridge and dive in. The views are pretty lovely too.











The next day we had a Sea experience. Slightly different experience given that the beaches are PACKED in July and August in Italy, there's a ton of traffic, and parking sucks. The view was pretty lovely though.
And I got to collect sea stones. I love sea stone. I love collecting sea stones - me and all the other kids at the beach.

















Speaking of sea stones...I've actually been collecting them for quite some time just because I like to. Seems now that all that work was for a purpose.

The other day David decided to replaster the wall in the kitchen that still has the "popcorn effect". Remember the popcorn effect? That nasty thing that they used to do to ceilings of houses in the 70's? We have a whole wall of it in our kitchen, except ours is cement so you can just pick them off. We used to have a whole wall until David got to work on it. Now we have half a wall (work interrupted to entertain) of popcorn.

See how smooth the wall is now? That bumpy area around the faucet where it says 'before' will soon be a mosaic of sea stones. I can't wait. Let me at it!!!









Oh, back to the water theme. Completely out of the blue these wonderful trucks arrived the other day to deliver us some water.

A full tank of water reserves and we hadn't even asked for it! What a sense of security. Just makes a girl want to go do some laundry.

a new recipe, from an old favorite....

I've been bored lately with our food. David is doing a low carb diet (ie: give-me-all-the-meat-you-can-find diet). Plus he loves to grill. So every night we grill flesh. Sometimes, when I can't face another dead animal on my plate, I make some pasta or cous cous or rice something for myself. This poses problems of it's own because we can never time it right so that my pasta isn't sticking together because I'm waiting for his chicken legs to pass throught the pink stage or he isn't impatiently waiting with a plate of pork collecting flies because my water hasn't boiled yet.

Tonight I thought I found the perfect solution. This morning I went to my favorite cookbook - The Moosewood. Yes, it's a vegetarian cookbook, I usually add meat to every recipe but still, I like where they are coming from. Today I found a recipe for "fish in a pocket". Cool. I'll make that little aluminium pocket with the fish and all the tasty flavors they suggest and have David toss it on the grill with his steak...or whatever flesh he chooses for tonight.

So here I go, aluminium pad waiting...I add a salmon steak, a tomato, some garlic, an onion, oil, lemon juice, cilantro...great. It smells wonderful. I cover it with more aluminium and "make it air tight". I bring it out to David as he is ready to throw his meat on the fire. After just a few minutes, and at the same time he pulls them both off. I'm thinking this is working well. I put some steamed spinach on his plate as a side for his flesh and some cous cous on mine as a bed for my "fish pocket".

David plops the aluminium packet on my plate and very casually says, "oh, you are having jiffy- pop-fish for dinner. Tell me how it is."

Yes, I had jiffy-fish for dinner.















And it was freaking good.

a letter to France

Dear France,

Smell our pits.

We win. You lose.

Love,
Italy

PS. We have better wine and cheese, too.

Small....dolls

So, my “knitted bags” phase is over (at some point there will be a group shot and patterns are available to anyone that asks). I’ve moved onto, or back to would be more accurate, what has been a reoccurring interest of mine throughout my knitting tenure…little dollies.

As I was sitting there i-cording an arm (why are i-cords involved in everything I knit these days? As of a week ago I’d never made an i-cord and now I’ve done like 100…anyway, back to my post) I got to wondering about my interest in knitting little dolls. It’s quite contrary to my nature, actually. I tend to knit things that are useful like sweaters, and hats and checkerboards. Dolls?

Let’s pretend we’re at the therapist’s office for a minute, shall we?

Therapist: Lynn, could your unexplained interest in dolls come from something in your childhood?

Lynn: Well, Doc, do you mind if I call you doc? Looking back on it…I didn’t really play with dolls. I had one Barbie. Well, no, I didn’t have a Barbie – my sister had the Barbie, I was stuck with her shorter and much flatter cousin, Skipper. Skip was my only experience with dolls…except for that one time my sister let me play with her Barbie while we were in the car and I accidentally threw her out of the window where she was promptly run over by the car behind us resulting in her having one collapsed boob. Of course I'm talking about Barbie not my sister.

Therapist: So you seem to subconsciously relate dolls with breasts.

Lynn: Oh, look, Doc, our time is up! See you next week?

PS: Do I have you wondering if my knitted dolls are voluptuous? Judge for yourself:

Seems as though my interest in little dolls has more to do with finding a use for my “knitted egg cozies”. Remember them? Recognize those little sweaters that those little dolls are wearing?

Hi. Perhaps you’ve been wondering what’s happened to me. Perhaps not, but I’ll tell you anyway. Actually, I’m not in a real talkative mood tonight so I will rely heavily on photos.

Wow, check your shoes before you put them on…


Found him on a recent walk with Ruffino. Something got to him before I did as he is missing his head and his tail. Makes him easier to photograph.





Whoa, check both shoes…

Found him living in the space between the insulation and that bamboo that I call the ceiling in my studio. Ever see a mouse pee? Yeah, me neither until the other day.









Staying with the critter theme, I found these on a trip to the river to swim with Ruffino…


Are those the smallest frogs you’ve ever seen? They’re so small you probably can’t even see them, right? Trust me, there are frogs in that photo and they are small.








Here are a few other shots from the swimming day just because they are beautiful.




That’s an old Roman bridge. Cool, huh?













Speaking of Italian things (how was that for a segway?), Viva Italia! We went to the piazza in Taggia to watch the World Cup game - Italy vs Germany (that would be soccer, in case you were wondering).

Check this out…

That flag is bigger than the car behind it. Everyone was happy.
















You might remember that I was knitting up a storm for an artisan market, try to forget it. I am.

This is what I did all day since I wasn’t helping the hoards of people who weren’t buying things from me….


Yep, just watching the world go by.

At least the only critters involved were the stuffed ones on my table.