Reflections on My 40 Years in Umbria

The striking beauty of Sardinia needs few words to describe. This just-past-high-season-still-full-summer-weather trip was magnificent and unforgettable.

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Continue reading "IDYLLIC SARDINIA IN SEPTEMBER" »

Years ago when Mar was doing her primary research for two years in Florence for her Ph.D. at Yale, we went to Carnival in Venice on Martedì Grasso. NEVER will I forget the emotion of that experience, the dream-like quality of the slow-motion movements of the donners of historic, gorgeously detailed costumes against the unique architectural backdrop of Venice!

The elegant slow-motion-like movements of the donners create a feeling of suspension of reality, of an unreal sensation of floating and dreaming.

There is no hype, no clamor...just serene beauty with strains of Vivaldi seeping from remote corners, adding to the atmosphere and the sense of total mesmerization.

Mar returned this week: These are just a few of the images she captured which I would like to share with you.

Continue reading "THE DREAM-LIKE QUALITY OF THE VENICE CARNIVAL" »

Armed with my camera, unable to stay inside, I walked in the garden again today, admiring my mosses

and finding and admiring the tiniest new-just-bloomed wild flowers

trying to catch their beauty from different angles and with different light.

the ivy berries with their bright colors, intricate patterns and contrast are always among my favorites

Spring beauty on a winter day

Umbria has been blessed with a magnificent winter this year. There have been some cold nights, even some frost...even a couple of cold days - but it has been sunny, clear and warmer than usual. Nature is restless, ready to get on with spring! Characteristically jagged photinia buds are painfully swollen

daffodils are over 8-10 inches tall

bushes are on fire

lawns are carpeted in miniscule "occhio della Madonna" flowers with their distinct striping

and half-inch high mosses thread small cracks on the terracotta mattoni, with their intricate, delicate angel hair.

They have the tiniest fleck-like, brightly colored buds (unnoticeable without a macro lense), no larger than the point of a pin!

Forsythia bushes are showing their yellow tips, mimosa trees are a rage of yellow, Oregon grape holly buds are screaming to explode...

The magical beauty through a macro lense on a normal February 6 spring walk in the garden!

Genius Loci is surrounded by the breathtaking beauty of the raging reds, rusts and yellows of the Sagrantino and the Sangiovese vineyards which contrast so beautifully against the grey-green leaves of the olive trees, ready to bear their season's fruit. Again, we are witness to Nature's cycles and her wisdom: a time to sow- a time to reap - a time to rest and take stock!