Week 26 - Half way Point

We are now halfway through this project and how time has flown!! It has been fun doing Project 52 together with Sue, and I feel inspired by her posts.

To mark the occasion, I have created a  tagxedo of this blog.  I just typed in my blog address and this is what it came up with.  I had fun trying to remember when and why I had used the following words, which include 'Facebook'.  I can't recall writing about Facebook these past 6 months, so that is a mystery why it is included!

This week I was delighted to see a reference in Shelly Terrell's wonderful slideshare presentation called Virtual Makeover: 15+ Ideas to Get Students Actively Learning Online This was part of the Teaching Online MOOC, which looks very interesting!

One of Shelly's slides with my 3,2,1 Introduction screenshot in the top left hand corner:

In the middle of the week, I was inspired to do nothing for 2 minutes after reading Ana Maria's excellent blog post called 5, 4, 3, 2, I Relax.....

Below a screenshot of the message I got when I actually followed the instructions and did nothing.  It was very relaxing indeed, and I should do nothing more often!!  Try it here!

Kittens have been crowding into my pots to sleep in at night time, and last night there were 5 squashed in.  I only managed to take a picture with 2 of them in.  As you can see, my sedum plant and Snapdragons have been well and truly squashed!

At the same time I managed to take a photo of a creature on my potted pea plants.  As you can see, it is extremely well-camoflaged!

 Last but not least, a picture of a kitten wrapped round a statue of a dog, fast asleep and purring away to its heart content....

Next week I won't be online much as I have family visiting from England, so I will be very busy.  Hopefully I can take a few nice photos to share here.

Week 25

I spotted this grasshopper on one of my gladioli on Sunday evening, and I instantly rushed inside to get my camera.  It was quite a big creature as you can see.

I have begun adding a few of owls from my collection to my pots, just to give them a extra little touch. 

T-shirts
I bought myself a new t-shirt this week and it is an Italy one.  I have always supported both England and Italy in World Cup matches.  I was very disappointed to see England perform so dismally and lose their first 2 matches.  They are now well and truly out of the world cup and their next match against Costa Rica, will be rather meaningless.  I do hope they will go all out to score a few goals, just to at least win 3 points!!
Will Italy make it through to the next stage, I wonder? They play Uruguay next week....

 

 

As I am on the theme of t-shirts, I thought I would hunt out a few in my drawer, which have a special meaning for me!

Below the t-shirt I bought in Assen in 2004 for the Moto GP.  Valentino Rossi came first in that race and went on to become World Champion that year.  I have worn it lots of times and washed it, and it is in fairly good condition after 10 years!

 

Below is one of my most treasured gifts from a group of FCE students, given to me 15 years ago.  I have never worn it because I want to keep it for as long as possible without having to wash it, and risk having the lovely messages being washed away.  Reading them all again after all these years, made me smile, and  look back with great fondness for that particular class, who were a delight to teach.  They got this t-shirt made for me as their leaving gift. The joke is that I always asked them to come to class 'on the dot', as I was (and still am) very strict regarding punctuality. 

The weather this week was mostly miserable with lots of heavy rain coming down in buckets.  Our road is now well and truly a mess again, and all the work done on it recently has come undone.... This has made us feel a bit despondant, and will mean more communication with the local comune..... I really hate having to write emails / letters about this issue.

It is now set to be very hot and sunny over the next few days, so at least that will be good to get out in the garden again.

Below one of my gladioli that has come out - the colour is really vibrant and looks lovely in a vase!

I gathered lots of buckets and containers to collect all the rainfall. I was able to collect nearly 60 litres of water, to use in my garden. This will save a little bit on our water bill.  

One of the kttens has decided to use a pot planted with lillies as a sleeping area.....

 

Victoria has taken to sleeping in an Orlando cardboard box, which I placed for her on top of a small table.  She loves it!  These boxes come in useful for all sorts of recycling purposes, and when I finish with them, they go straight into the compost bin.

So Week 25, has been a bit frustrating, with the weather, the road coming undone so quickly and with England out of the World Cup so soon.  Let's hope Italy can go through to the next round, as that will be something to cheer about :-)

Roll on Week 26, the halfway point of the year!!

Week 24 - Boots, Tyres, Toads and Land Work

Fluffy has been recovering from a few cat fights and he is now feeling a bit better.  Photo taken by K.

The kittens continue to have lots of fun and here's one with their mum.

 This one is very lively and mischievous!

...and is also known as the 'food sweeper' kitten!

It was very hot on Friday 13th and in this image, you can see 3 kittens and Olivia and Socks all having a cat nap.

That night I got a picture of the full moon but it looks a bit blurred....

Gardening..
One of the pot courgette plants in flower

K has given me some of his old CapoNord motorcycle tyres to recycle, and I have used them as a container for my Sedum plant below and more courgettes in the veggie plot!



K's old boots have been recycled and now they are unusual plant pots!

 
A very ugly toad caught in a dark corner of the garden.  He nearly scared the life out of me! He is so cleverly camoflaged, it was no wonder I didn't spot him.  He then proceeded to hop onto my pots, as seen below.  I have to confess I don't like toads at all, but recently the snails have not been visible, so that is a good thing a toad does, eats them all up!

 
This huge lizard was caught by one of the mummy cats to give to her kittens.  She is feeding them very well indeed!  I guess this is a lizard who had  an untimely exit.

The fields opposite are full of bales of hay, waiting to be collected by the local farmers.  The weather is very hot, in the 80s!!

Of course we can't afford a professional baler, so this is what my gathered hay looks like!  It was very hard work in the hot sunshine..

Only a third of the land has been worked on so far, but not bad in a day's work!  Before it used to take us a week or so to do the same amount without the cutter!

 My cap, garden sack and raker is all I have to do this sweeping-up job!!

Whilst out with K in our jungle, I came across thousands of cornflowers along the path K has created!  Their beautiful bright colour is so eyecatching. These are purple, as opposed to the usual bright blue, so I may be wrong calling them cornflowers....

 Naturally I picked some and added them to a vase!

You can read more in wikipedia about this flower-  Centaurea cyanus.

I have enjoyed working in the garden so much this week!  It was really high time I devoted myself fully to helping K out with keeping things in shape.  

I sometimes wonder at how life has changed, from being a city girl, to being a temporary land worker in 2014!!

Week 23 - Garden Stuff

This week, lots of photos connected to the garden!

This little kitten's first walk into the unknown.

Hand-picked mulberries, turned into delicious jams

Fresh flowers picked from the garden, consisting of a beautifully scented Lili Marlene red rose, freesias, snapdragons, rosemary & mini bush rose.

Below a bowl with the rose added to the pot pourris collection.  This way I get to enjoy it for a much longer period of time...

Another bus trip to Pescara, via the airport, with an image of this nice poster welcoming travellers and tourists to Abruzzo.

There is free car parking in Auchan, opposite the airport.

Two courgette plants in a pot ....

I am already cooking with the courgettes from the Cold Frame.  They are small but delicious when fried! 

I throw fresh herbs into the mix, such as parsley, sage, rosemary & thyme....

The potatoe tubers in a bag are doing well.  They are in flower now so maybe time to harvest the potatoes in a few weeks' time?

 The oleander cutting is growing rampantly!

The salad box is coming along nicely.  It is right in front of the kitchen, so hopefully easy to pick the leaves when they are ready!  The box consists of the following:

1. cherry tomatoes
2. basil
3. onions
4.  lettuce leaves
5. coriander
6. cress
7. parsley

   
A view of the baler in the top field opposite, image taken this morning from outside the kitchen.

So Week 23 has been a lovely one, doing the things I enjoy!

Week 22 - Cherries & Beach

At the beginning of the week, the first cherries were picked.  Sadly the insects had already got to some of the sweetest and juiciest ones, but there were still a few left.  

However, the reddest and best ones are way high up, too risky to attempt to grab them as the cherry tree is on a steep embankment. 

 The cherries have been turned into lovely jam, which I now spread on my toast for breakfast each morning!

La Strada & A Thought
To our disappointment our road has been churned up again by passing tractors, and once again, ruts are forming.  I am beginning to despair about this situation that has beset us for the past few years. As soon as this feeling tries to take a hold of me, I immediately tell myself to keep calm and carry on... 

I always think of Cris Stewart's book 'Driving over Lemons' and think that we are far better off than he was when he went to live in his house deep in the  Spanish countryside in Andalucia.  He didn't even have a road going to his new house, and he had to carry his furniture and possessions over a stream!!!  This always makes me feel that our situation is not as bad as his, and he survived and made an international best selling book out of his experiences in rural Spain.  Another part of the Lemons trilogy is The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society, which I haven't read yet, but must do!!

Could K and I ever get our heads together to write a best-selling novel about our very simple life in Abruzzo?  We don't have much money, but we are happy.... Maybe the book could be called, Driving over a Troublesome Road, Two Optimists in Rural Abruzzo'.  I am only half kidding!

Pescara

A trip to Pescara on Wednesday by bus was a very interesting day out.  The graffiti under a bridge caught my eye.  I have no idea what it means.

A walk along the deserted beach was a nice change.  We had a pizza and an icecream in a local beach cafe.

A huge palm tree

  

The beach was practically deserted.  Soon as the summer season commences, it will be difficult to grab an 'ombrellone' to sit under and relax. 

 

My Cold Frame.....
..... is getting too small for the courgettes, that have been growing rather rapidly.  I have already picked and used a few courgettes and added them to pasta sauces.



One of the kittens out and about in an empty planter.

The pomegranate bush in bloom

All in all a quiet week, but an interesting one....