Reflections on My 40 Years in Umbria

Mar is back in Europe - we were all together for a special luncheon of two of their favorite homemade dishes: parmigiana di melanzane and carciofi fritti. What a joy to be around the same table at leisure with good food and wine on a beautiful day!

Tomorrow Mar and I are off for a week to Edinburgh where she is attending an international conference for University Humanities' Institute Directors. We will also be celebrating her recent, remarkable promotion to the status of full professor.

We won't have this gorgeous summer weather but are so excited to be going to beautiful Edinburgh.

Wish we could take our cherry tree with us!

I look forward to posting about our Edinburgh stay. Happy summer travels to so many of you who have exciting plans for the months ahead.

the front

the back with the many different materials

I cannot resist fabric shops, especially in Austria or South Tyrol...and some in the States. I think I have often exasperated the help as I often purchase as little as 8-12 inch strips of various materials. The cottons and delicate prints, fast colors and general quality of these materials is generally better in Europe.

With an array of materials I would then design (but not sew!) various objects as gifts: window hangings, door knob danglers, odd-shaped hearts, center pieces, placemats, suitcase pouches for shoes, sachets sacs, tea holders, always mixing and matching different patterns, often adding small floral and botanical compositions.

All of this fun was before the onset of digital cameras and blogging. A mom of one of Michael's elementary school classmates, did the sewing for me. How many enjoyable hours we spent together over the years, adding bows or borders or lace on our creations and discussing which materials looked best together. For years this was quite a hobby of mine and gave me lots of satisfaction.

Since they were all gifts, I have only one left to share here: a tea bag holder to hang on the wall. Fun to design and to use, an object which was well-received by friends.

The hospitality business is often a difficult one: striving to please, understand, relate to, communicate with, anticipate expectations, be attentive to but not intrusive! In many ways it is an art - a complex art of welcoming stranger and helping them feel at home, at ease, special and part of the inn - encouraging them to move about and use the inn as theirs.

Naturally, due to personality and cultural differences, this is more easily achieved with some guests. Recently, we had the joy of a lovely couple, young, dynamic, well-educated, interesting and interested, sensitive to their surroundings and to others...and fascinating conversationalists.

So young and already an engineer and a dentist - only a few weeks shy of finishing a specialization in Pediatric Dentistry.

Jason and Shiny were a real treat whom we enjoyed immensely. We cooked and ate together, tasted wines and olive oil, openly and easily conversed on a stimulating array of topics.

Shiny wears two huge diamonds: her beautiful, expressive and intelligent eyes! They both wear gorgeous smiles and an exquisite warmth of expression. They were kind enough to send along some of their photos after they returned to California, a much appreciated gesture. With their permission, I post them here to share with my blog readers. They exude such joy of life...and were such a joy as guests!

Michael ON HIS 32ND BIRTHDAY with our precious little Virgola in the garden

with Mom after lunch

with Dad

Continue reading "A VERY SPECIAL DAY - April 19" »

One of the undisputed advantages of older age is NOT having to rush first thing in the morning. With two children seven years apart in age, my hectic morning routine lasted for many years. Until school age, both children were up and bright eyed at 5 A.M...but when school was in their lives, they had to be called repeatedly...and with increasing volume. Rush, rush, rush and we were off!

Our house is up in the hills - there was NO school bus service so we needed to be ready to leave the house all together to get Mar and Michael to their respective schools AND ourselves to work...ON TIME. AND school was SIX days a week. Sundays were no better since both children needed to be at their Scouts' doings by 8 AM.

Mornings AFTER the MANY school years and my teaching job have now become sweet, slow-starting, cozy, comfy, relaxed...magical - especially in the spring!

with time to admire and smell the gardenias and notice the rain drops from an early dawn drizzle

and with time to check the new shoots, rubbing the leaves with my fingers to release the scents, of my herbs

with time to delight at the warmth of my antique, Deruta handmade terracotta pots (already prepared and soon to be planted with geraniums)

Continue reading "THOSE SPRING MORNING WALKS IN THE GARDEN" »