… and the Spring has already arrived… what a beautiful scenes !

This winter has brought very intensive cold, with very copious snow… so the cold was double, triple ….maybe it recalled the winters of many, many years ago, because the very low temperatures.

Then suddenly, the cold has left us and temperature has become warm more and more and very punctually … the spring has arrived… I believe "none words are needed"!

all of them are flowers in my garden !!!

The cat GEDEONE

As already told, we have a cat, a female cat. Her name is Nelly.

She was born on 30^th June 2008.

She has an older brother , I don't know exactly when he was born but for sure , it was at least 1 year before than Nelly.

Frankly speaking we never learnt his name since too difficult so,….

We call him GEDEONE

His "human mum", (who is my neighbor) every winter, leaves her house here in the countryside, and moves to the city center.

Her cat stays here, together us.


 
After a very terrible weather in the past days, the temperatures are getting warm little by little.

 
This morning and early afternoon we had a very beautiful day. The sky was blue and the temperature got even 14°C. … not bad if , we consider that 1 week ago, in the early morning it was even less than -10°C.  

GEDEONE has decided to enjoy this very beautiful day on his "private watchtower" .


 
I couldn't resist to take him some pictures

Magic snow

Just two lines since an imagine tells us more than thousand words …. !!

Last week,  I went to the city center, in the late afternoon and this is what I saw

 

 
Beautiful , isn't it ?

It is snowing (also this year ) !

Again, also this year, punctually in February the snow visits us .

All media  advised us. They told about very, very  low temperatures and too much snow … it was true.

It started on Tuesday afternoon and it lasted till the late afternoon of Wednesday.

Then it came again during the morning of Thursday and a little bit during the night of Friday .

My well I almost completely covered: 

  And also my poor plants, here one of my rose trees.

 

It is very cold and it is very difficult to drive since the low temperatures  iced the snow , so I have stayed  at home all this time.

I have read “The help”  by  Kathryn Stockett.

And I have observed the birds . I have put some feeds at the entrance of my home and they have come many of them.

I also have taken many pictures but not all of them are very detailed

In any case I am sure that I have seen ROBIN birds many of them

But also a new bird, never seen before. I am almost sure that it is the Chaffinch

 

Then I have checked in Internet and …

 

This bird is common and very familiar throughout Europe. It is the second most familiar bird in the U.K. Islands .

It was introduced from Britain into a number of its overseas territories in the 18th and 19th centuries.

It uses a variety of habitats, but open woodland is favored, although it is common in gardens and on farmland.

 

it's been such a long time!!!!

Many weeks (even months) have passed since my last post.

This last summer and autumn have been very busy period in the office, then all the other things to follow, so I have not had too much time for my personal things.

Now, a calmer period is arrived and I can write, and read and cook even I can work in my garden.

Christmas period is already over . It was a busy time too, preparing everything thing: decorations, gifts, greeting cards, sweets, lunches, dinners .

We are now in the most crude winter: in the morning, sometime it is very cold (even -7°C) or very foggy .

The sky offers fantastic scenes

 
Sometimes it seems to be into a dream

 

The fields sleep, the trees and flowers sleeps too. The birds are some difficulties to find something to eat.


I see them from the window of my kitchen with a cup of tea, hot and sweet. I feel I would like to be a bear, I would like to go into hibernation and then to wake up to the life only in spring.


 

Traditions

Rome, January 2011

I don't know why but, even if I am not a religious person, I like very much the Holy representations which can be found around our streets or on the facades of our buildings. 

Rome, January 2011

Rome, January 2011

Rome, January 2011

Rome, January 2011

Maybe,  

it is because I, in any case, have been educated into Catholic religion and seeing habitually them, I finished for liking them since undoubtedly, they are so beautiful and also they are an important part of our history.

Siena, June 2011

Siena, June 2011

Siena, June 2011

It is very easy to find hundred of them all around: they recall to our mind many remembering of traditions and rituallity 

“My” bee eaters.

The bee-eaters are birds , Meropidae is their family.

From my observations, I understood that they love warm temperatures, but not too hot. In fact I see, they arrive here around end of April and leave our places before July.

Then, I have seen several of them in July at Principina a mare (sea village near Grosseto, where I have spent my holidays when my son was small) . I suppose they move to the sea side because the sea breeze.

So I learn that most species are from Africa and Asia but others from the South of Europe, Australia, and New Guinea.

They are particularly beautiful since their colored plumage. The colours I could see are: yellow, green, red and turquoise.

Winds and tail are pointed and they are to swallows (even if bee-eater is bigger), Their bills are probing.

I knew that there are 26 different species of bee-eaters.

As their name tells us, they eat flying insect, basically bees !

They are gregarious and mainly monogamous (what a love ! ).

They arrive here, to my garden, 3 years ago.

Before that summer, they lived a couple of km far away and I was very invidious . It was so beautiful to see them while flying !

Now a part of them moved to me. I sit down under a tree and for a instant, I forget everything and everybody.