Another Sunday in Maberga

In which the sun shone, a cool breeze blew, and some friends showed up with pot of wild boar.

and a sack of potatoes directly from the earth

and a few bottles of wine

David got up early to do his part

He also made his very first ever torta verde that was delicious! sorry no photo of his, but this is what it looks like...

 

And I made a peach pie, no photo of that either....it looked like they usually do.

After this typical Maberga Sunday lunch a walk to watch the orto grow

and a dip in the Maberga pool

um, maybe not today

Happy Sunday.

Gifts

Sometimes they just come a rollin' in and it isn't even your birthday.  That's nice when that happens.

Q brought me this the other day

Thanks, Q!  That's awesome.

David's brother, Michael sent us a CD of his music.

How thoughtful.  Thanks, Michael!


My friend, Cindy sent me an email this morning with an image and a quote that made her think of me (in a nice way),

which I would copy here if I wasn't so tech challenged.  

Shucks, Cin.  Thanks!

Cousin Bumpy sent us this book she made about Maberga.

It's really beautiful.  Here, look inside

Dang, Bump.  You can get married here anytime.  Thanks!

Then, pal Christine brought me these Peruvian goodies from, well, Peru.

Hand-spun llama wool.  Whoa.  Muchas gracias, Amiga!

And on our morning walk today, some neighbors gave us

Maberga sunflower seeds for our garden and Maberga cherries for our bellies.  Grazie, Alba and Oreste!  That's darn neighborly of you.

Generosity and thoughtfulness are truly gifts.

Finishing Well

We're just back from our trip to the States.  Two weeks of non-stop family, fun, and finishing.  It seems that every where I turned and everyone I talked with, the message was always the same.  Finish it and finish well.

First example and the reason that 5 different families, traveling far and wide, converged on Lake Cayuga in New York, is this gal

Yep, Dr. Emily Cornwell received her doctorate of veterinary medicine, making her DoctorS Emily Cornwell. Wait, that's creepy, makes her sound like she has multiple personalities.  Double Dr. Emily?  No, that sounds like ice cream.  How about Dr. Emily Cornwell Squared.  Naw.  We'll just stick with Dr. Dr.  After roughly 30 years, Emily has finished well her formal education....for now, anyway.

Here are some of the others I observed during this holiday in the "finish it well" catagory....

I want to say a huge thanks to these two people, Rod and

Janice 

Obviously Janice is the lovely lady BEHIND the uncle shoving chips in his mouth.  Really sorry I didn't catch a better shot of you, Janice.

Thank you, Rod and Janice for finishing Emily's celebration with an amazing party.

And thank you thank you thank you to all the extended families who came to celebrate this huge achievement.  As Emily likes to say, it was awesome.

Back on the mountain, we had to rush to get our orto planted.

yeah, ok.  It doesn't look like much now, but we're hoping it will finish well.

Made it.

Here's our destination

 Before

After

Truth told, it wasn't nearly as horrible horrific hideous heinous hard as I had built it up to be in my mind.  Ain't that always the case. As far as cycling climbs go, it's the baby hill.  But it's still a hill.

David's clever.  He's been trying to get me to cycle with him for years.  I kind of thought that I had been cycling with him for years but he insisted that riding a 4 wheeled bike on the  path along the sea to the nearest bar for a coffee is not technically cycling.  "you have to start doing some climbs.", he would say.  "yeah, that's just not going to happen."  I'd say.

So he just waited.  And waited.  Then one day we weren't on 4 wheels any more but on two (well, 4 together but 2 each).  And we rode our two-wheeled bikes on the bike path to the nearest coffee.

And he waited.  Then one day I noticed that I wasn't wearing a cute floral print skirt and top anymore on these rides but rather I was donning the uglyass requisite gear....riding on the bike path to the nearest cafe.

So he waited and waited until a couple nights ago when I said, "I think we should ride to Badalucco!"

This "climb" was just challenging enough that it felt like a huge accomplishment and was easy enough that I actually made it.  Now I want to do longer and harder climbs.  That dude is clever....or at least very patient.

In Badalucco we had a welcome party waiting for us (at the nearest bar).  I suspect they are there every morning, not just anticipating our arrival, but it was nice just the same.

And Pino the Barber was just taking a break from making the inhabitants of Badalucco beautiful so he bought us breakfast.

David is still waiting for me to believe him decide that I need those dumbass cycling shoes that clip you to the pedals.  But now that I've got that nice cyclist's tattoo....

I might need those shoes for the next ride to Molini di Triora.

Spring is for...

...making stuff.
David's been making some bread

I've been making some bowls

and some buttons

and some sweaters to put the buttons on

And the rose bush has been making roses

And the apple tree apples

and whatever this is is making pretty white flowers

And the fig tree is making new leaves that look like butterflies sitting on its branches

Ruff and Q are making swimming

Ingrid

is making pregnant biscuits

Gino is making sardenara

Gianni is making a pizza while his wife is making quality control

Valerio and Jon are making friends

Isolde is making a cigarette

and a most unfortunately photographed but delicious dessert

And, last but certainly not least, today I'm making an attempt at riding my bike up hill.  Don't be silly, I'm not going to try to ride my bike up OUR hill.  David and I are going to ride to the next village up the road. It will be my first time off the very flat bike path that runs along the sea and onto the not so flat road to Badalucco.  If you don't hear about this ride ever again that's because I didn't make it.

I soooo want to post a real post right now but....come on. Wisconsin is playing in like 4 hours and I need some sleep.    A domani......and .....On Wisconsin