Friday, 27 June 2014

First Pick of Summer 2014

We have a peach tree growing just outside
our bedroom window.
The fruit are white fleshed, flat peaches -
very common around here, but we'd never 
seen them before the summer of 2011,
when our tree bore a lot of fruit
(which the cinghiale thoroughly enjoyed at
2 am one morning - I heard them munching
as I made a trip to the loo).

Summer 2012 saw it bear the most fruit ever,
and Leila invented a game of 'jump up & bite the peaches' -
putting a net over the whole tree to stop her
just made the game more fun!

Then last year the tree succumbed to leaf curl &
although the fruit formed, they didn't grow. Also 
probably down to not having the usual month of
rain the previous November.

We have this week picked our first couple
of peaches from the tree....


Sadly, they may be the only ones - our
equine visitors of 17th June managed to 
munch their way through most of them.

Saturday, 21 June 2014

Summer Solstice Sunset

20:33:05 
As those of you who follow me on
Twitter, Facebook or Google+ will know,
I have a passion for photographing the sunset - 
maybe because no two are ever the same.

With today being the Summer Solstice, I thought
I'd take some shots as the sun began
to sink beyond Monte Licosa.
And as I clicked away, I noticed that 
the Sun wasn't the perfect orb it usually 
appears to be......

20:33:07 

20:33:57

20:34:11


Thursday, 19 June 2014

The Unexpected Tweep Meet

At 11.54 am my Samsung Galaxy Note 3
whistled to let me know I had a DM.
It was from one of my Italian 'tweeps', Pino, 
who lives in Rome.
"Ciao Ali come stai?"
I was about to reply when another DM arrived....
and I let out a rather loud squeal
of delight.....Pino was working in Salerno
& wanted to know if hubby & I would like to 
meet for an afternoon coffee.
Silly question!

Pino is every bit as fab as I'd ever imagined
We always knew we'd hit it off when we eventually
got to meet....and we did.....and I'm still grinning

Pino & Hubby
Yours truly & Pino
Can't wait for our trip to Rome next month, 
and the chance to meet up again!

Thursday, 5 June 2014

It Can't Be 33 Years Already........Can It?

As I said in my last blog post,
'Buona Festa della Repubblica' 
2nd June has been a significant date for the past 33 years.
Today is the second date which has been significant
for just as long.....
5th June 1981 was the date we met
at a party.

It doesn't feel like 33 years ago......
I still remember quite clearly leaving the party the
following morning, bottle of Bacardi in hand
as only hubby (obviously, he wasn't hubby then & at the time
I don't think he had any intention of becoming hubby)
and I had been drinking rum & my bottle was still unopened.
We were unceremoniously pushed out of the front
door by Jayne, my section head, 
who (unknown to me)
had designs on hubby for herself & didn't speak to me
for 4 days when we were back in the office.

In fact, I'm sure neither of us is old enough 
to have been together for 33 years; after all,
I'm still only 25 on the inside.


Monday, 2 June 2014

Buona Festa della Repubblica

June 2nd has been a significant date
for me for the past 33 years - it's hubby's birthday.

But since we moved to Italy, it has also
become significant for a different reason:
it is 'Festa della Repubblica'.

So, in honour of our adoptive country,
I came up with my own 'Tricolore'.....

Not being an 'Essex Girl', I don't own a pair of white stilettos


Sunday, 1 June 2014

Stormy Sunset

The sunset looked as though it would be
a bit of a non event yesterday evening - 
there was way too much cloud cover.
In fact, the clouds looked full of rain....
and they were....


Then the thunder began to rumble, just as the sun managed a 
dramatic burst of colour, trapped beneath the clouds.....


And the lightning began to flash....

I knew instantly that I'd captured this shot of a lightning bolt.....




But I was even more pleased when I checked my pics & discovered
I'd also captured one in an earlier shot......