Is progress always good? Right now I would say, no.

So the idralico came to Maberga today.

The idralico put in them tubes I've been waiting for. Actually, it was just one tube, made of some space-age polymer that is guaranteed for 50 years, AND insulated against freezing. Here it is...



Lovely, no? No.

Trying to be optimistic and find the neon blue lining in every cloud, even in one that runs across my back yard, I keep telling myself, "cool! Never ending water with pressure."

So the idralico, and his father, attached this eye-sore from the main water tube to our house. Then they made sure that the boiler didn't leak and that the water actually ran into the house. Cool. All working well. Then they left.

Approximately 10 minutes after they left, I washed some dishes. I washed dishes in some high pressure sink water that had no insects in it. Very cool.

Then....

I turned off the water in the sink. Nope. The water just kept running after I turned the faucets off. We're not talking here about a drip. The water was gushing, with all that beautiful high pressure right through the kitchen sink...whilst the tap was closed.

Ring, ring.

"Augusto?"

"Ciao, Lina? Hai l'acqua?" (do you have the water?!)

"Yep, Augusto. I sure do!"

"bene. bene." (great)

"Yeah, but there's a little problem. It doesn't stop. The water is gushing from the kitchen sink, I can't get it to stop, AND now I have to pay for the water so I've got to make it stop."

"hmmm?"

"yeah. Can you tell the idralico?"

So the idralico calls and tells me he will be here first thing in the morning.

"so I should turn off the water at the main for tonight?"

"si. Se non vuoi pagare per tutta la acqua persa" (yeah. unless you want to pay for the water you are losing in the sink).

So after making dinner tonight, I went out to the garden hose ... which is now connected to the old water tube from the mountain spring. I filled the watering can several times to bring water into the kitchen sink to wash the dishes.

As I was filling the water jug for the third time I thought, "wow, this is really funny. It's like what it must have been like in the old days when one had to bring water inside from the pump to wash." Then I stopped laughing when I remembered that just a few hours ago I had running water INSIDE my house.

So, as I sit here wishing I could have a high pressure city water shower, or even a bug infested mountain spring green water bath, I'm thinking maybe I prefer the old technology.

Good news is, if I have to go several days without a shower, I have a new hat to hide my unwashed-hair...



On a completely unrelated note, I'd like to thank everyone for your kind words of support about my better-than-half success on this summer's projects. Let me tell you, it wasn't easy but, shucks, with you guys behind me, heck, I feel like I can be below average whenever I want. I love this blog.

I would also like to thank Lois for giving me this award. That's so very nice. Thank you.

From now on, I'm an optimist.

So here's the thing. Pessimism doesn't pay.

Remember that city water that we've been waiting for? How could you forget, I've been whinging about it for ...um...years? Yeah, years. I've been waiting, and talking and planning and talking and waiting for the city water to arrive at Casa Cornwell for years. I've got to be honest with you, I just never really thought that it would happen. Pessimism.

Then this heroic neighbor fought and fought, filled out form after form, raised money and interest, and then fought some more. There were arguments with bureaucrats and neighbors and then, when one group was satisfied, the other group started up again with complaints, always stopping or slowing the progress. I'd like to point out that this persistent neighbor doesn't even live in Maberga. He has an amazing rustico (read: ruin) that, with about a million euro and 100 years of work can be habitable. But all the same this neighbor stayed on the water cause. He must have been dreaming about that hot shower with loads of pressure that he could have when he finally moves into that house of his. Optimism.

So then when the bureaucrats finally gave the go ahead, the tubes came. Kilometers of tubes going from the top of the mountain to the bottom. Neighbors pitched in and the tubes were installed. And still, I doubted. So we had some tubes, the water still wasn't running through them.

Last Friday I passed this neighbor on the road. "Lina, the water is open."

"What?"

"The water is open. You can turn on your tubes and have the city water in your house."

No. No I can't. I have no tubes connecting the main to my house. Pessimism dampened that fire that should have been under my ass to organize my water tubes.

So now all that clean, potable water with all its beautiful pressure, that should be showering down on my head, is just rushing by my house.

Lesson learned, from now on I choose optimism.

Let me start here with a look back at Project 20/20...which I have declared is over. Since it was meant to be a summer challenge and since I've just done the summer/winter clothes exchange thing and I'm thinking about turning the heat on tonight, summer must be over. Project 20/20 over.

Let's look at how I did: 12 house and knitted projects completed. Twelve. The challenge was 20. Twenty.

At this point we can take one of two perspectives.

12 out of 20 is 3/5th, or 60%, or a D-. Wow. Decidedly below average and a total drag to think about.

Let's try that again in a different way...

12 out of 20 is more than half done! My glass isn't merely half full, it's 10% MORE than half full! Plus, I have 12 + 12 (house and knitting) projects done that weren't done at the beginning of this brilliant initiative of mine. That's actually 24 projects...wait, I haven't quite finished a couple of the knitting ones, so let's subtract 2...that's still 22 projects which is actually more than 20!!!! That is truly awesome! Well done, indeed. (shut up you pessimists...I know that the project was 20/20 which is actually a total of 40 projects. Just shut up, ok?) Now my glass is over flowing!!!!!

Optimism is way better.

Age or time served?

So, it seems that I've already learned something in my 41st year:

It takes more than a hoe to make a vera contadina.

Yeah, ok, so I finished project 12 but, well, I'm not so proud. Have a look...



Let's compare that to what Augusto "helped" me to do...



Yeah. Well, what's there to say? I need a motozappa? Like that would help. I mean, it WOULD help, assuming I could use it, but tools are not really the problem here.

Remember Rolf?

Rolf said to me once, "Lynn, you need to be a certain age to garden." Actually, since Rolf, of the former East Germany, speaks to me in Italian because he doesn't like speaking English and I don't speak a lick of German, said something along the lines of (translated) "Age, she needs for to work for the garden" or something like that.

According to me, Rolf is for to be right.

Thumb-sized eggplant anyone?



Yeah, ok, let's look at the birthday sweater instead...



A little better than the garden.

Age or just time served?

On a completely unrelated note...METTE HAS A BLOG!!!! Please do go check her out HERE.

(a little background music for today's post)




"L'alba, fa bene al cuore, fa male agli occhi" --Franca, la barista. September 16, 2010



"Sunrise, good for the heart, bad for the eyes."




My writing isn't good enough to explain the sensations of the day I spent saying hello to my 41st year. Let's just look at the photos from the top of the world, which is where I spent the day.










When I reflect on a year finished, I like to think of the things I've learned. Looking back on my 40th year, I can proudly say it was this...



Interpret that as you wish.

It started like this...

I'll let you know how it finishes when it's finished.

Thanks everyone for all the birthday wishes.

Let the games commence... and recommence...

So I'm thinking that beans weren't such a wise choice for the Orto.



Yep. That's the crop. Did I mention that the bean plants took up approximately one-third of the total garden space?

Are you wondering why my beans are not green? Or rather, are you wondering why I let them dry on the vine? Yeah, well, about a month ago all the plants were heavy with fruit and David was home. I said, "do you think we should pick those?" He said, "I think we should just leave them and pick them when we can have dried beans."
Seemed like a good plan at the time.

Now, I'm not so convinced.



Here's why:

1. fresh beans are nice. I didn't eat any fresh beans from my garden.
2. picking beans sucks. picking beans off of dried out and brittle plants sucks more.
3. fresh beans can be eaten without removing their pod. Shucking dried beans might suck more than picking dried beans.
4. I planted, watered, weeded, watered, weeded, waited, waited, waited, picked, and shucked my crop of beans to get this



and I can buy this



for about 43 cents at the store.

House project number ...um...damn....is it only 11? No wait, it's 12! There was an 11, I just didn't write about it. I reorganized my studio, which used to look like this



and now looks like this



Yeah, ok. You can't really tell the difference in those photos. Trust me, there is one, a BIG one.

Anyway, number 12: get a grip on the orto...might even plant some new stuff.

Knitting project 12? Well, my birthday happens to fall this week. This of course means that I head to the top of a mountain, or the bank of a river, or the beach (or all three - but not at the same time) and I cast on my birthday sweater!

As you long time readers know, I like to spend the day of my birthday alone (casting on a new sweater in some beautiful spot!). This tradition was born out of necessity. Several years ago I realized that, because of work, I AM always alone on my birthday so it's a good idea to celebrate myself. This year David helped me kick of the festivities before he left town...



with a picnic by the sea followed by a trip to the river with the dogs and mexican feast at home. A great start to my week.

So, where were we...

Oh yeah, I was getting myself a life. Here it is...

This guy had a birthday last week,



And seeing as how Ruff and Q's



favorite sitter



was shacking up with me, I thought it a good opportunity to get on this



And go here



to surprise that birthday boy



Luckily for all of us, that birthday boy's lovely sister was visiting to celebrate her birthday (which is just a few weeks after her big brother...one year apart, poor mamma Cornwell - she must have been cursing life 50 years ago, 'specially given that her two infant children had been proceeded by 4 other siblings, all one year apart...but I digress)



They had been cycling around Tuscany when I met them in Siena



And crashed their party



They didn't seem to mind, though



Then little sis came back to Liguria with me



where we did some of this



And a lot of this



And danced a few times to this

Life ain't so bad when you get one.