Driftwood

After the storms of recent weeks, the modest shingle beach at Carmine Inferiore, which we call our own, is piled high with driftwood. One particular tree-trunk has been tied to the shore. It still bucks and canters with the waves - a sea-horse offering magical rides to little imaginations, and a plethora of textures to young photographers...

Photograph by AJ, aged 6½.

How to get there

After so many days of drought, with temperatures in the mid-20s, we woke to the smell of warm, gentle rain on dry laundry. 

Carmine Superiore, Villaggio Millenario.

Follow the arrows past the cappella and keep going up, and up, and up.

You'll find me at the top.

Anemone : some notes

After a sprinkling of rain late last night, more hot weather today. Soil bone dry, wooden bathtub leaking. Running water battles have broken out in the streets of Carmine among the eight under-14s currently in residence.

On the mulattiera between Carmine Inferiore and Carmine Superiore lies a small Lady Chapel with a representation of the Madonna of which I'm particularly fond. See it here. 

This detail shows that in Her hand she holds what appears to be an anemone, a flower often associated with the Virgin Mary. Like the Fleur-de-Lys (here pictured in the Annunciation gracing the walls of Carmine Superiore's San Gottardo church), the anemone in the Christian tradition symbolises the Trinity. 

The anemone was once dedicated to the Roman goddess Venus. While the goddess of love, she was also the protector of chastity in women, and, interestingly, the anemone was said to have sprung up from the spilled blood of her lover, Adonis (cf. the spilled blood of Christ and the association of the anemone with sorrow and death). 

In the Middle Ages, the anemone was called St Brigid. Brigid was a powerful abbess, and remains one of Ireland's patron saints. She is known, even, as 'the Mary of the Gaels' and is often mentioned in the same breath as the Virgin Mary. 

Both Venus and St Brigid are associated with springtime (St Brigid's festival is 1 February - Imbolc, coinciding with the Celtic festival to mark the start of spring), the season in which this type of anemone flowers. 

For myself, I just like to absorb for a moment the rich colour of the petals and the elegance of that long hand, early on a hard-pressed Monday morning. 

Rainbow flag

Seven degrees at 8:30am, and warm in the sun.

When I first came as a full-time card-carrying resident to Carmine Superiore, the war in Iraq was just beginning. The airwaves were loaded, indeed, overloaded, with claim and counter-claim, Bush and Saddam, WMD real and imaginary.

One of the most potent images in those days was the rainbow flag bearing the word pace, peace. As I travelled to and fro from Carmine to Milan, from Milan to London and back again, I saw dozens of them - colourful, hopeful - draped from buildings ancient and modern, grand and humble. And every time I returned to my new home, I was greeted by Carmine's own contribution to the rainbow protest, hanging from a disused building right on the lake.

As the invasion went ahead and the killing began, the flags continued to flutter in the wind, steadfastly proclaiming a peace that could still be. When Baghdad was taken and Saddam finally executed, most of the flags gradually vanished. Carmine's, though, remained, and as month followed month, year followed year, people continued to die on both sides, and Carmine's flag and the building it flew from became ever more ragged.

Today, this is what you see when you arrive in Carmine Inferiore...

After seven years, Iraq, the cradle of civilisation, lies in tatters, just like Carmine's rainbow flag, and the sadly derelict building it adorns.

For more Window Views from around the world, click here.

Everyday beauty

Two degrees at 8:30am. Snowing in Carmine Superiore, dry in Carmine Inferiore. What a difference a hill makes!

Every time I see it I wish all road signage could be as beautiful as this parking sign.
And I feel glad that it is part of my everyday routine.

Hotel del Lago, Carmine Inferiore.

Des Res

Six degrees at 8:30am and overcast.

Caravan, Carmine Inferiore

For more images of Carmine, Lago Maggiore and beyond, visit The Carmine Superiore Picture Gallery. For more Window Views, click here.