July In Umbria 2

  As we sip our 'morning cup' in bed, well before the sun rises, I look forward to taking our walk in the cool air of dawn.

  The weather has moved from temps in the 90's down to the 80's, so things are swell...as opposed to sweltering.

  All I can hear at this moment are the sounds/songs of a zillion birds. I actually saw my first porcupine (alive) the night before last, and it was the most perfect creature in the world. 

  Hope to go to a farmer's market today....

  Life is pretty much grand.

  My camera and I have been busy, but not too. 

  I thought I had lost some photos from our first morning here, but they showed up again....thankfully.   Here they are-

Another shot of the onion field below our road.
I'm just smitten by these.

Long morning shadows.

Sunflowers and hay bales make for drama in the morning light.

A favorite scene we have seen for years now.

 There are vegetable gardens tucked in spots all over the countryside. They are the domain of men, for the most part. In April, we watch as they are being tilled and planted. What a treat to see them in their glory now.

  This a small one we walked by the other morning-

Tomatoes on the vine.

Sweetest melons ever.

More tomatoes...for sauce I imagine.

  Yesterday we tripped on down to the lake to see what's shaking.

  Not much...just what we were hoping.

Light lunch for two at the lake. yummy.

  More slow, sleepy days to come...stay tuned.

July In Umbria...So Far.

  Ahhhh...What a difference a couple of months make. We can't believe how much the landscape, light and temperature has changed.

  This is why we wanted to spend a bit of time here in high summer. Now that we have our little 'home away from home', we figured it would be a good time to see what all the summer fuss was about.

  It's about this:

  HOT WEATHER..REALLY HOT.

  LOTS MORE PEOPLE. LOTS.

  AMAZING LIGHT...REALLY AMAZING.

  STONE FRUIT!!!

  SWEET TOMATOES!!!

  SUNFLOWERS!!

  MELONS!!!

  LONG HOURS IN THE PIAZZA AT NIGHT!

  Honestly, I was not prepared for the heat. We are sleeping for 4-5 hours in the afternoon, and tonight we are heading to bed at 2am. Seriously. You live in the early hours of the morning and the late hours of the evening. 

  It's a whole new world. Views we have become so familiar with have changed drastically in just a month or two. Who knew? Not us.

  We bought a fan for the apartment today...sleeping at night is basically naked on top of the sheets.

  Coming from a coastal and cool climate, this is such a change.

  But...so glad we are here.

It's all golden and dark green now...

  This view, below is a classic view for us. Here are two shots...now, July 13, and the next in April....

July.

April.

  But our first evening's sunset was too good....

  Around the walls of town, there are big changes, too...

April. Wisteria heaven...

July, it's all about the caper plants!

Caper flower...

  Our morning walk, at six in the morning, was lovely. Cool and crisp. The best and only time to walk...

View from our terrace this morning, before our walk...

From the lower garden, looking at our new home, crack-o-dawn.

Heading down the road for a walk.

Dawn views...sunflowers in the distance.

Grapes getting all grape-y along our walk.

A large plot of onions in the morning light.

  I really hoped that the sunflowers would still be in bloom when we arrived...many are past their prime, but we still are seeing some nice patches here and there...

Bees getting all sexy with sunflowers...

  So thrilled to be back, despite the high temps. Our first lunch at home on the terrace...tomatoes, mozzarella, capers, hummus and bread sticks. Wine, of course.
  Then...a very long nap.

  Life is pretty damn good.

Waiting At The Airport...

  While we wait to board....and we are always, like, three hours early...I thought I'd whip out a quick post here.

  We really can't wait to et back to Umbria. It's going to be hot. Really hot...and the two of us are not used to this. It's not Phoenix hot, but temps in the nineties are not the norm for us.

  We live on the coast...it's foggy, gray and sometimes downright cool in the summer. So we are preparing ourselves for warmest weather. Johnny even brought shorts AND short sleeved shirts! Whoa! Not t-shirts...he'd never do that...but short sleeves, none the less. 

  Me? I just plan to be nekked the whole time, thank you very much. 

  No, not in public...jeez!

  

  Really, we just plan to hang out at the new apartment(!!!), mostly sipping something cool in the pergola.....looking at the lovely garden....

  Since I'm just killing time here at SFO, I went through some photos and found a few to share. 

  Waiting is the pits, but we are sticklers for being here early so we can chill and watch the world go by. Having something fun to do, like this, helps. And I really just can't wait...

  We heard it's not so bad, actually nice..in the mornings, so I hope we can get in our mandatory 'morning walks'....

On a morning walk in March....

  I really want to take the boat out to one of the islands, maybe stay into the evening to enjoy the sunset. Maybe even take a dip in the water???

View from Isola Polvese 

  Drives in the country will be so different. Hotter than hell, and most likely dry...We are used to the lusciousness of green in spring....

  We had a blast getting the apartment all furnished and such when we were there in March & April...Friends helped... a lot!

We had help from the always smiling Bruno. We bought a few pieces of furniture
from pals that are moving out, so it was sad for them, but sweet for us.
Thanks to all!

  

We look forward to going to the weekly markets for produce, because it will also be a different scene. Stone fruits...Can't wait! I wonder what we'll be seeing and eating in this entirely new season.

  We cooked a few times in the fireplace at the new place, and it was a hoot. yummy, for sure...but it will be way to hot to even consider this wonderful option. This will have to wait until the next visit...

The fixings for a grilled radicchio panzanella salad. Yeah, it was awesome.

  Looking forward to reconnecting with our lovely landlord, and his two kitties, Nemo & Tiger Lily.

Ciao, gatti!

  And, of course, we'll be spending long evening hours in the piazza..Not too far to walk to...If it's cooled off, that is.

  Well, I think I'll turn this thing off and stretch me legs again.
  It's going to be a very long day.

 

Sidetripping To Paris In My mInd

  Recently, I broke down and got a new and much lighter laptop. My old one, though I loved it, weighed a ton and was getting harder and harder to travel with. Plus, the poor thing went as far as it could, and is now considered 'vintage', to put it nicely. 

  With my new one, everything has changed...including my photos. I swear, I don't remember seeing half the photos that are on this new beastie....at least not in the last several years...and it's been fun going into the "Way-Back Machine".

  We are getting ready to head back to Umbria soon, so I wanted to start blogging again. It's been super busy at the gallery (thank you, Powers That Be), and I haven't had a chance to write much. I was going through my photos, and came across a mess of them from a trip we took to Paris many years ago.

  I've blogged about Paris before, but not in ages. We love Paris, and ache to return. It's a must. Seeing these images just makes me want to go right now. 

  It will have to wait, though...For now, our minds are on Umbria.

  But, just for fun, I wanted to take a little trip to the City Of Light. 

  She's calling my name....

  At first, I wasn't sure which visit these shots came from. We've been a few times. Seeing all the blooming flowers leads me to believe this was 2005....April in Paris. At least for a week or so....

Back then, Johnny always had the camera, so there are shots of me.
Not so many these days...

  I do remember being blown away by all the spring bulbs in bloom. I wanted to plant nothing but bulbs and Forget-Me-Nots when I got back to the states!

I took this photo. I remember loving this huge wisteria
with this backdrop...

  Our very first trip abroad was to Paris.It was life changing. We fell in love with travel, and have never looked back. We have had the great fortune of returning to Europe every year, except 2008, to either Paris or Italy. These days, it's always Umbria. 

  We need to get back to France, especially the south. We've only been to Paris, and Italy.

  We are defiantly not 'World Travelers'.

Sigh.

Sadly, we had already eaten when we found this sweet spot...and we never went back on that trip.

  So, here's a couple of photos that are proof of how long ago this was- We both look so different!

Way younger, and longer hair!
PS...I loved those sandals and wore them until they fell apart.

Way younger and his signature hat! Which he rarely wears now.....

Some day, we want to rent one of these to stay in
for a couple of weeks.

We ended up buying this little gem
It now hangs in our living room. I love it still....

The perfume from these yellow/orange Wallflowers was so intense.
I remember it well. The light was pretty damn good, too.

To be dead honest, this may be Hyde Park, in London.
We were there for a couple of days on this trip, as well.

Another...Sigh.

  On this trip, we rented an apartment and it was great. Johnny painted several small panels which we kept for ourselves. I love these beautiful reminders.

Somewhat out of focus, but you get the idea.
Always painting, that husband of mine.

Beautiful.

  We'll return, I know we will. In the meantime, we watch the Tour de France every year, and make a point to have a bit of 'Bubbly' on the last leg as the boys ride into Paris. 

  We always smile at each other, and shed a tear or three....

Don't cry, we'll see you soon, City Of Light.