Old meets new

Helicopter day in Carmine Superiore.

Eighteen degrees at 8:20am, with clear skies and sunshine. While I've been indisposed as far as cyberspace is concerned, the azaleas, the wisteria and the clematis have blossomed. 

Mist over the lake

A view from above Carmine Superiore, 2001

Fifteen degrees and clear skies at 8:30am. At 3:30pm, 29°C and T-shirts all round.

Monday morning

Sunny but breezy. 

All's well in Carmine. Ezio's in his vegetable garden. The cockerel's crowing over the chicks. The cats are lounging outside my front door like a bunch of hoodies waiting to be fed. The dog is on guard on the terrace. There are windsurfers down on the lake and a professor of art history in the church. 

And the great wild cherries are in bloom. 

Quote of the week No. 37 : On spring

Yesterday started strappy-top sunny and ended woolly-socks overcast.  

Which reminds me. I've been meaning to post this quote for a long time:

Charles Dickens (1812-1870), English novelist and social reformer. The most popular English writer of the Victorian era and still one of the most quoted after Shakespeare. Yes, that's him there, the one with the wickedly sexy beard and the brutal comb-over.


"Spring is the time of year when it is summer in the sun and winter in the shade." (Great Expectations)


I'd say that about sums it up.




Pic swiped from Wikipedia, with thanks.

Lago Maggiore reflections

Wooden pilings reflected in the clear waters of Lago Maggiore at Luino.

For more Weekend Reflections, click here.

Reported conversations No. 19 : Denial in the doghouse

Ten degrees at 8:30am, sunny intervals. Feeling damp.

Mama : [In a full-steam fury] "Jakob! Jakob! Come here! SITZ! Now tell me, what IS THIS?"

Jakob! : "Wasn't me, ma'am! No ma'am yer honour. Me 'twas not! I didn't scatter cacao in the corners, sugar all over the shelves. I didn't go nuts with the noci, oops over the uva, whacky with the walnusskerne. I didn't spray water all over the washer or put pawprints on the porcelain. And I wouldn't ever, ever, ever eat half a bag of dried plums with the pits still in them." 


Mama : [In full English-schoolmarm-sarcasm mode] "So tell me, Mr Smartypants. Who was it then?" 

Jakob! : [Thinking fast] "Erm...the cat of course! The marmalade cat. I'll go fetch. [Tail starts to wag] Shall I? Shall I? I'd really love to! Just say the word! Fetch, ma'am! Just say fetch and that manky marmalade cat will be lying at your feet in 30 seconds..." 


"Oh. Oh dear. Oh dear me. I think I need the loo.........."


Mama smiles to herself in an affectionate serves-you-right sort of way, makes a quiet note of the whereabouts of the disinfectant and the pressure-washer, and gently closes the door. 

Tulips

Seven degrees at 8:30am. But by the time the kindergarten kids had met my glove-puppet friend Kanga, played hide-and-seek with her, and perhaps learned to say "Where are you?" and "Here I am", the temperature had doubled. My blood pressure similar.

In my world this week, the tulips are the thing...

For more images of Carmine Superiore, visit The Carmine Superiore Picture Gallery. For more My World images, visit That's My World.

Desperately seeking ... nice neighbours

Only 7°C this morning at 8:30am. Grey and a little rainy. Last night's more sustained rain brought snow to Cannobio's own Monte Giove and all the surrounding peaks. I'm looking sideways at the romaine, rucola and zucchine that I planted amid 25°C and sunshine last Saturday. I'm also looking sideways at the grass that's sprung up in the rain, and thinking about oiling the weed-whacker.

A beautiful Carmine Superiore house has this morning gone on the market. It's a rare opportunity to buy a lovely cottage-style property with two bedrooms, large kitchen, separate sitting room, cellar and a lovely open terrace - of which I'm very envious - with magnificent views of Lago Maggiore and the surrounding countryside. The agent is Marlis Zanetti in Cannero, although the property is so new to the market it hasn't even made it to the website yet. Give them a call - English, French, Italian and German spoken fluently.


However.


Those without Nice-Neighbour Certificates need not apply. In order to qualify for a Nice-Neighbour Certificate you will need letters proving the following : 

• You have passed the International Plumbers' Association advanced septic-system maintenance course and sworn an oath in front of a judge that you will never stuff your toilet with sanitary towels or flush out the shared septic ecosystem that I have spent the last eight years balancing with bleach, lye or caustic potash. 
• Your face knows how to form itself into a smile whenever one of your neighbours passes by.
• You promise to good-naturedly tell hikers the way to Cannobio, Cannero or Viggiona, even if they're standing slap bang in front of the signpost. 
• You have enough money or brawn to transport building refuse down the hill instead of dumping it in the woods. 
• You promise to learn a courteous answer to the perennial tourist question, "How do you get your shopping up here if there's no road?" in at least four languages, including one non-European one, and to always smile while exercising that skill.
• You understand that a continuous supply of freshly-laid Carmine eggs delivered magically to your doorstep can be assured by the occasional bottle of crémant d'Alsace propped by the side of the chicken coop - those bionda piemontese do like a drop of the old fizzy stuff after they've just laid.

Nice-Neighbour Certificates can be obtained from Louise, Carmine Superiore, Italy. Administration fee, a case of crémant d'Alsace, a large carton of Swiss or Belgian chocolate or this year's Booker shortlist in hardback. Applicants with strapping teenage relatives capable of wielding a weed-whacker and willing to do so in return for English lessons will be given preferential treatment.


PS The outgoing owners have enough Nice-Neighbour Certificates to paper the walls of their wonderful little house three times over. We'll miss them!

The weather at 5.00am is ... dark. It's far ... too ... early.

Tulipa turkestanica

This week of the Easter holidays has been beautiful, weather-wise. Warm - up to the mid-20s I guess - dry, and with warm, open-window nights. B, aged 3, has planted a round of lettuce. The baby chicks, aged now 3 weeks, have learned to fly enough to hop out of their box and explore the ins and outs of the bathroom. Jakob! Lord of Misrule, aged 3 months, has learned to chase sticks. 


Best of all, the tulips, planted five months ago, have started to flower. Thanks again to our friends and neighbours, J & R for the exotic Asian Tulipa turkestanica, which the good weather has brought out of its buds. 

For more beautiful flowers in and around Carmine Superiore, click here. To see some really astonishing flower images from all over the world, visit Macro Flower Shots.

Our beautiful lake

Lago Maggiore, spring 2010.

Easter in Carmine

Azure skies. Fast-flowing mountain streams. Blossom on the fruit trees. Camelias red, pink and white. Warm, wet, freshly-turned soil. Eggs under the broody hen. Chicks trying their wings. The Mama cat heavy with kittens. Children smeared with chocolate. The Carmenites in residence. Tourists in droves.


A belated happy Easter from a Carmine sprung to life.