What lies within?

Vicolo Merzagora 6, Cannobio.

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San Pietro, after the storm

My World at 6:15am today, St Peter's day: last night's storm has left the world bathed in pearly mist.

First dip of the season

After an overcast morning, the sun burned through the clouds and by midday the temperature was 32°. 

Golly! I've just multiplied by 1.8 and added 32. That makes almost 90°F - no wondering I'm feeling a bit wilty! Time for a dip in the cool mountains waters of the old laundry-tub...

Pietà

Hot, hot hot. 

A day for a shady spot among the lavender, a picnic, a snooze, hide-and-seek, ice-lollies and cats lolling in the undergrowth. In the meantime, here's another Madonna for Sunday...

One third of a very moving pietà, 
Chiesa della Purificazione di Maria Vergine, Traffiume (Cannobio).

Quote of the week No. 40 : A Greek proverb

Hot and sunny for the first day of the loooooooong holidays, with a refreshing, windsurfable breeze. 






"As long as you have the blessing of your parents it does not matter even if you live in the mountains."

Now I wonder what it is that the Greeks have got against mountains? After all, some of the best gods live in them...




Pic : Baita, Alpe Devero

The holidays start here!

Twenty-eight degrees and a sunny day today as we came home from the Scuola Materna A. Zaccheo, Cannobio for the last time.

Arms full of the year's labours, dirty aprons, sand-full pumps and unidentifiable objects in various stages of decay from the darkest recesses of the locker.

Eyes full of tears.

Friends, teachers, co-parents, we are forever in your debt. You have shown us kindness and consideration. You have offered your help when we faltered. You have taught me and my children Italian and you haven't laughed (too much) at the mistakes we made. You have entrusted to me your children and together with me they have taken their first steps into the bright world of foreign languages and cultures. I guess one's first class is an experience never to forget. And their affection I return with all my heart.

So one door closes, and we wait in the shining corridor of summer as the door to our new life slowly opens... 

The holidays start here!

Raspberries and roses

Eighteen degrees at 8:15pm as we charged through Cannobio on the morning run. Blue skies with the occasional cloud and a wind strong enough to keep the midday temperature below thirty. 

In my tranquil, if overgrown, garden far from the madding crowd the raspberries and the roses seem to have gained the upper hand. The children lose themselves in the raspberry bushes for what seems like hours, emerging red-faced, red-fingered and (yesterday) red-dressed. 

That would be dessert taken care of. 

And another empty bottle of Vanish to toss in the recycling. 

Mist on Lago Maggiore

In my world, the sun and the mist together conspire to create a magical fairy world of shapeshifting mountains and glittering waters. 


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Madonna in kimono

I've taken the liberty of renaming this print by Mexican artist Jazmin Velasco. Gorgeous!

Jazmin is currently exhibiting at The Moreton Gallery and at The Biscuit Factory. Read a review here.

Blue

The first patch of blue sky to have been seen over Lago Maggiore in some days. 


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Counting blessings

Still raining after a night full of thunderstorms and cloud bursts, thick mountain fog and drifting street-level mists populated by slinking, soggy cats.

I've been feeling rather hard-done-by lately, and I thought it was time to give myself a shake and count my blessings in a good old-fashioned stiff-upper-lip sort of way, for as Paulo Coelho wrote, "Every blessing ignored becomes a curse". 

When I set my mind to it, I got to seven in about as many seconds, and here they are - because seven is a magical number and if I do things by sevens and don't step on the cracks, it might encourage the sun to come out, and that would make everyone feel much better...

1.) I have been blessed with two healthy and energetic children in my middle years when I thought perhaps it might never happen. They're a handful of trouble, but also a heap of happiness.

2.) But for the fact that he doesn't play the Spanish guitar, my beloved husband would count as one of Joanna Trollope's impossible men. And I adore him.

3.) I live in a beautiful place and have as neighbours and friends many people I like and admire. Outings are punctuated with cheerful greetings and friendly conversations - all adding up to making me feel part of a happy and sane community. 

4.) The eternal renovation project I call home, while being a bugger to keep clean and tidy (especially when populated by one under-40 male, two under-6 kids, one over-size adolescent gun dog, half-a-dozen cats and the occasional sick chick), is big enough to contain all our desires and old enough to forgive all our frustrations. 

5.) My so-called garden, while being a bugger to keep up with, is jammed with beautiful colours, exquisite smells and good things to eat - that's if I can find them among the weeds and the heaps of obese slugs. 

6.) We have enough income to keep us in books, burgundy and brockenstube bric-à-brac, and our little family business is steady-as-she-goes. No repossessions. No double-dip debts. No recession night-sweats.

7.) So what is the biggest problem in my life right now? How to transport more than a thousand books from the East End attic where they've languished for seven years to a point south of the English Channel. 

And that's not such a big problem, after all...

Albergo window

Seventeen degrees at 8:20am as I shoot past the digital temperature readout trying to make up precious morning minutes. Raining hard. The car smells of wet dog. So do the children. So do I... Mama makes mental note not to dare go inside the caffè today but to have breakfast huddled under the awning with the smokers, and to throw Jakob! Lord of Misrule into the lake for a bath at the earliest opportunity... 

In Alpe Devero. 

For more images of Alpe Devero, and to read about our adventures there, click here. For more Window Views, click here.

Carmine quotes No. 17 : Mrs Malaprop strikes again

Tuesday, and yet more rain. There are mushrooms mushrooming on the curtains...

Here in Carmine, we're suffering an unusual plague of mosquitoes. Too much rain and not enough bats, perhaps. 

Says B, aged not-quite-four, and scratching yet another inflamed mosquito bite : 

"Mama, I'm covered in molehills. It must be the mozarellas....!"

Quote of the week No. 39 : On education

After a week of on-and-off rain, Saturday has dawned grey and rainy. The view from my kitchen window is of rain-slick granite roofs and wet trees interlaced by streaming mist. 

Plato (428/7 BC - 348/7 BC), Athenian philosopher who really needs no introduction, least of all from me. 

"The most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things."

I wonder what Plato would have made of Gormiti, Ben 10, et al? And I wonder whether he would have approved of car-less Carmine...

Festa del fine anno

A big round thank-you to the 4-6 year-olds of Traffiume and Cannobio, who today and yesterday Sang a Rainbow and made their maestra d'inglese very, very proud!

Bacini!

A gift from God

It's jasmine season here at Lago Maggiore. That doesn't mean we're being visited by Disney princesses in harem pants. And it doesn't mean Jo Malone has set up shop in via Giovanola (although she'd be most welcome). What it does mean is that everywhere - everywhere - one is accompanied by the scent of poet's jasmine, now in full bloom. 

In this part of the world, Jasminum officinale thrives. Gardeners here frequently use it to make impenetrable hedges and areas of deep, cool shade. During the rest of the year its glossy dark green leaves go almost unnoticed as we rush about our business, but in early June suddenly the little white star-shaped flowers open and we come under their perfumed sway. Suddenly the world with its cars and tarmac, its noise and its hardness, becomes an altogether more sensuous place: women seem more elegant, men more dignified, the sky a more pleasing shade of blue and the lake depths more profound. In the morning, with the scent of dew-laden jasmine to carry me down the hill, the day seems more approachable.

The word 'jasmine' comes from the Persian via Old French. In Persian it originally meant 'gift from God'. Truly, it is so! (As the Poet might have said.)

Copper pots, Carmine Superiore

"...two vessels of fine copper, precious as gold...".
[Ezra 8:27]

Early summer for the Carmine kinder

Twenty-two degrees at 8:30am.

Bare feet, no vest, cotton dress, big hat. 
Ballgames in the narrow streets.
To kindergarten by boat. 
Late - light - nights.

Long holidays coming soon...and even Mama's starting to smile!

Trouble at the window

Trouble - who for once is not actually making any trouble - eyeing human antics from the bathroom window.

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Poppies

Twenty degrees at 8:30am, and a solid 28° at 10:30. Hazy blue skies and almost no wind.

When the grapevines are moved out, the poppies move in. A poppy field near Neive, in Piemonte's Langhe region.


Click here to find out more about some particularly nice Langhe wines. 
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