Week Ten

This week has been a very nice quiet one and that is the way I like it!   
K took the motorbike out for a spin yesterday evening and has kindly given me permission to add this photo here.

I just love all the colours of the sunset.  This was taken at the top of our road.  The predicted rain still hasn't arrived and fingers crossed it won't be too bad if it does come.  The road is beginning to move again, (yes, I know, it is a scary thought) and cracks are appearing across it again.

I created a tagxedo heart for a summary on Monday.

I highlighted a forthcoming Spring Blog Festival on my main blog here.  
I reused the image of the almond tree in blossom, as I like it so much!

It promises to be a great event and lots of presenters will be discussing the art of blogging, including Shelly Terrell, Sylvia Guinan and many more.

On Thursday I picked a few flowers to put in this sweet little jug I bought from a charity shop.  I like to add fresh rosemary twigs into the display.

I am keeping a constant eye on the bowl of olives I am pickling.  They were freshly picked off our trees in November and have been in a brine solution since then.  I have to keep checking the taste and changing the liquid from time to time, and tonight I think they are almost ready for eating!  They taste quite delicious and the sprigs of rosemary adds a nice flavour to them.

I recycled some plastic tubs which had contained food and made some plant labels out of them. Nothing ever goes to waste!

I created a Good Luck comic to send to 2 colleagues who are going to China for a few weeks to do some teacher training on behalf of the Lake School. Comics are a fun way to send all kinds of messages.

Our cutter hadn't arrived by Friday so I had to ring the company to ask where it was....It should arive tomorrow.

A lovely Friday evening spent in a local pizzeria with some friends.  It was great to catch up on their news and it all came to the princely sum of 10 euros each.  We had a huge pizza each and wine and beer to drink.  In the UK an equivalent meal would cost up to £20 per head, so prices can still be reasonable in Italy.

For an online weekend activity I created a rose Tagxedo to highlight activities I was doing over the weekend.  

A nice relaxing week, all in all!

Roll on Week 11.

Project 52 - Week Seven

Monday was spent pottering around with seedlings and checking of pots.  I sowed some Cut & Come Again lettuce seeds and put them in a tray in the window sill in the empty back room.

I really enjoy looking through my packets of seeds and planning when and where to sow them!

A view of one of our almond trees which is just in blossom now.  It's the first sign of spring approaching!

Spring arriving in the garden

Off to Penne on Thursday, a beautiful day!  Below a vision of the snow-capped mountains nearby.

 A view of the entrance to Penne from the other side.

Then we enjoyed a lovely celebration meal in La Grotta, in the centre of Penne.  We celebrated K's birthday on 15th January, and mine on 23rd of January.

I love the decor and ambience in La Grotta and the food was fantastic!

I want to buy some uplighters like these in the picture above. They come from Castelli, one of my favourite villages in Abruzzo!

Below a bigger image.  I can imagine how lovely these will look on our walls!

I received a nice ecard in the morning!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Friday being Valentine's Day we decided to go off on a motorbike trip to Palombaro, setting for the new film Lords of London, starring Ray Winstone.  A film review here.

Palombaro is a beautiful hill-top village in the middle of the Abruzzo mountains, within the national park of La Maiella.


First, though, we had to get down our road, so K kindly drove me to the top of it. The top end isn't too bad at the moment, and it is drying out as you can see below...

 

Whilst waiting for K to go back home then grab the motorbike, I had a bit of fun taking a selfie of my shadow!

 

The end of the road on the other side....

An unbelievable blue sky today!!

 

My carriage arriving!!

It's too risky to carry a pillion going from the house to the end of the road, so that is why we had to do 2 separate journies along the 1.2 kilometre long road.

Once on the motorbike we set off and travelled for about an hour, stopping off for a coffee on the way. 

As we got closer to Palombaro the day got more and more sombre-looking and misty.

Approaching Palombaro in the Abruzzo mountains

The scenery surrounding us was beautiful and I loved seeing it pass by.  K was video recording everything on his GoPro camera attached to his helmet.

Palombaro in the distance...

We walked around the streets reliving the scenes from the film.  Then we had a lovely lunch at the Dal Pagano Trattoria up in the mountains, where the view was truly spectacular.  We were served by the owner and chef, Leonardo, who was very nice and friendly.  He told us the star of the film, Glen Murphy, had fallen in love with the area and had bought a house near Palombaro.  This is why Lords of London was filmed in Palombaro, because he wanted to promote the Abruzzo region!

Walking around the village we came across this sculpture of hands holding a heart, with 'To the Giver' inscribed as a caption. ...

I feel a little bit sad that the EVO eBook session is finishing today, but I am sure there will be posts to view over the next few days, so it won't really be the final ending. It will be nice to keep in touch with the community....   I enjoyed checking in on a daily basis to see the amazing ebooks created.  All the participants have put their heart and soul into their beautiful ebook chapters and they should all feel very proud of their achievement!!


Here is a link to the Padlet set up as a feedback to the session.

Here is a Bookr I have created as a little personal feedback.


 



Week 7 has been a very enjoyable and lovely one!