What’s New in Cortona?

This great space!  It is under the large piazza and has been revitalized by our friends, Megan and Sebastian of Del Brenna Jewellery  (www.delbrenna.it)  The space will house a new showroom and a design studio.  And also a space that can be used for  wine tastings.

 

 

 

 

 

Jewelry designs.

 

 

The final product.

 

 

Work area

 

 

 

Reeds uncovered in the ceilings

 

 

 

 

The old wine press/grape stomping area.

 

 

 

An old olive press

 

 

 

Newer fixtures

 

 

 

 

 

 

Olive oil and balsamic vinegar from our friends, Tania and Keith  (http://www.lartedellolivo.com/).

 

 

 

Some of the good food that we enjoyed at the reception.

 

 

Richard (in purple) chatting with our friend Chuck who helped out as bartender that evening.

 

 

 

The lovely Megan. 

 

So now one more reason to visit Italy and Cortona.  Congratulations to Megan and Sebastian on a well thought out, beautiful new use for this space.  

Spring in Tuscany

Just a pretty picture for you.

 

Dinah’s Garden

Regular readers of this blog will remember when I have written about our friends, Dinah and Allen and the place that they own in nearby Lucignano.  They have been having a lot of work done to the place and the wonderful terrace was turned in to a builders’ store yard.  But now the work is finishing; Allen is about to come for a stay; summer is arriving; so Dinah wanted to clean up the terrace add some color and make it an inviting place to sit.

She asked me to go with her to help pick out plants.  Ohhhh, yeah, she really had to persuade me.  Nothing I like less that looking at and buying plants.  HA!

 

 

One afternoon, we went out to my favorite nursery and Dinah helped the local economy by buying a nice selection of plants.  The next day was cloudy and a good day to get all the plants in the ground.

Here are the results.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s Dinah!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dinah thinks that I was being sooooo helpful.  Little does she know, that like many gardeners,  I am always looking for more space to plant.  I was really just ‘colonizing’ her terrace.   Now if I could get her to buy a hot tub….

I don’t know what to think…

Guest Post:  by Nerone, the dog

 

So here I am, just bein’ the good dog, barking’ at cats, takin’ walks, watchin’ the laundry dry (that’s hard work you know…)  And all of a sudden, my friends, the chicks DISAPPEAR!   I told that lady who feeds me, She Who Must Be Obeyed, that we needed to get right on that.  So She talked to my friend Costantino.  I saw him shakin’ his head and all.  I’m thinkin’ bad things happened.  He’s all the time ridin’ around on that big ole tractor, cuttin’ grass.  Maybe he ran over them.  But She said no.  And She said She didn’t really understand what Costo was tellin’ her.  Then the next day She was talkin’ to his wife, Olive Oyl.  She told me that Olive Oyl pretty much said the same thing.  That ‘the chickens’ year was over’.  (What does that mean?)  And that the chickens were peckin’ at their eggs.  And that was bad.   Well!  I’m not surprised!  The way Olive Oyl and Costo go on about the chickens being fat and all.  They were probably hungry!  You know Olive Oyl calls me Grossone.  Really! 

 

I mean she’s (Olive Oyl) all the time worryin’ about weight.  But she’s a strong one.  A few weeks ago before the chickens left, I saw ‘em when they was movin’ that mattress.  She Who Must Be Obeyed and Costo had gotten it down the steps but then the two of them couldn’t get it any further.  So Costo called Olive Oyl to come help.  (He calls her by right name.  I’m the only one who calls her Olive Oyl.  Look what she calls me!)  Any way, she come over.  Now she’s wayyyy taller than either Costo or SWMBO.  So Olive Oyl hefts up the mattress and is in one corner, Costo is in the middle, with most of the weight fallin’ on his head and SWMBO is diagonal from Olive Oyl in the back corner.  So they all three set off, heftin’ this mattress like jungle bearers bein’ chased by a tiger.  Ceptin’ it was the chickens chasin’ them.   Man alive, I just about peed on my tail it was so funny!    Those chickens were good for all kinds of fun and now SWMBO seems to think that they are livin’ somewhere else.

 

But then… I don’t know what SWMBO did, but I thought She was tryin’ to get rid of ME!  

 

 

 

Look what She’s feedin’ me!  That’s not Italian, that’s Spanish!   Well, I have a delicate stomach.  I was sicker than a dawg!  For days!  I don’t know.   Maybe it was just dog flu.  I’m feelin’ better now but I had to stay in from work, protectin’ and watchin’ for cats for a few days.  I was so sick.

 

 

 

And it’s not like I get any privacy.  Here I am in my own room, just tryin’ to take a little nap but She just has to take a picture. 

 

 

 

Really, life is so hard sometimes…  I miss my chicken friends.

Sagra and Festa posters

One of the purposes of this blog is to provide me with an illustrated diary of events.  So that in the future I can look back and see when this happened or (in the case of sagras and festas) recall what was available to eat or how much it cost…  Just all sorts of things.  Last year I started posting pictures of posters.  Whether we went to the event or not.  I am doing that again this year. 

 

 

 

 

 

For a sagra in JUNE!  But up this early in a place where many folks were for the kite festa and then the pilot (yes like planes, mostly ultralites)  were gathered near the lake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see there is a lot happening here.

Poppies and Poppies

Well, after seeing them in France in my inspiration flower bed, I have been totally fixated on Oriental poppies.  So what’s the difference? 

 

 

 

Color for one thing.  These are the wild ones that grow naturally here in Tuscany.  Always red. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are what I called Oriental poppies.  And I was so delighted to find them at the Esselunga.  I paid a lot for them 3.50  Euros each which is more than I will normally pay for a plant but I am pretty sure that if I mulch them they will be back next year.  I guess we’ll see.

Retirement

I’ve been thinking about retirement lately.  Ben and I came early to the retirement party.  (I was still in my 50s)  Our fathers were our role models.  Ben’s father didn’t get to retire from work because he really retired …from life… if you know what I mean.  My father, retired from work as soon as he could.  He was retired for over 20 years.  He got his money’s worth out of his pensions and he and my mother lived an active full life until their late 80s.  Ben and I decided that we wanted that too.  So when a chance came to retire, we did.  Sure we could have continued to work, sure we could have wanted to have a bigger house, a newer car, to take wonderful trips but  we chose what was right for us; to live modestly and comfortably in a foreign country where our standard of living is higher than if we were still in the United States.  (Yes, even with the exchange rate)

 

And now, as my high school friends start to  turn 62,  many of them are leaving work and considering new choices.  Every now and then I see on FaceBook  another friend who is retiring.  And I am always so happy for them that they are.  We have found retirement to be delightful.  It is great fun to be able to enjoy life instead of feeling that you are rushing through it.  

 

And some of us are considering applying for Social Security.  My friend, Allan, (note the spelling of his name.  It will be important later) just wrote to me of his experience of going to the Social Security Office to see what benefits were available to him.  Because he still works part time if he took his benefit now, more than half of it would be deducted.  So he decided to continue working and postpone taking his benefit.  On the other hand, I decided to go ahead and receive mine.  I did not trek to a Social Security Office, instead completing everything online.  It was a very easy process.  I now eagerly await my first check. 

 

And I have been thinking about retirement because friends here in Italy are finally retiring.   The guys who owned the house that we used to rent have retired.   Ben and I are sooooo happy that they are back here to live permanently.  And that black cat, Elizabetta is happy too.

 

 

 

Here are Richard and John, fresh off the plane, about to open the gate on their new life together.  They have  lived all over the world but have always remained focused on returning to their wonderful home in Italy.   Both of them are younger than I am, so I am happy to see that at the first chance that they got to retire, they took it.    We gave them a nice bottle of wine to celebrate.

 

And then our other friend Allen, (see, different spelling)   (of Dinah and Allen)  has also decided to retire.  We didn’t know that he was going to retire but have been hoping that he would.   Dinah and many, many people have been working to finish the ‘new’ part of their house in Lucignano and it is almost done.  Now they will be coming here more often as they start a new chapter of their lives together.

 

 

We gave Allen a nice bag of garden peas.  (Not everybody thinks a bottle of wine is the best gift in the world)  

 

 

My parents moved to Florida after living in the same house in Kentucky for over 40 years.  They moved to a retirement community and hung around with folks their own age.  I can still remember how each Sunday,  my mother would delightedly tell  me of their week’s social activities.  While they had always traveled, we had done this as a family.  They had never really had friends and gone to their houses for dinner or parties.  So all of a sudden they are going out to eat with others and going to people’s houses and blah blah… I was very puzzled by this but  now I understand that probably when they were together all the time they were ready to kill each other.  My father probably had to drag my mother to the first few events but eventually she realized that it was quite fun to have some one else to talk to besides my father. 

 

So maybe selfishly,  I am so excited about John, Richard,  Allen and Dinah retiring because it adds new bodies to the pool of folks that we can play with.  Or maybe I am just really happy for them to be able to just enjoy life.  And you folks out there that are still working… just keep at it.  You know, my Social Security check depends on you.  But, the first chance you get to retire, grab it and run with it.  It is just so much fun.