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Wednesday, June 8, 2011

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 

Sunday, May 15, 2011

“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.




 

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Spring in my heart



I just came back from a 4 days break in Spain. I went there to visit my family, in a special way my mum.

I see her twice per year, usually in Easter first and in summer then.


This time I went there even the week after Easter since before it was impossible for me. 
For this reason, I was there in the very late April. 
Maybe the last time I visited my home-country in this period, was more than 20 year ago, before having got married. So I didn't remember how it was beautiful  in Spring.

The first surprise was the green explosion I found when I arrived in this sort of Spanish "Shangri-la".

Two years ago, a very terrible forest fire hit this "Paradise" and till this Spring I saw there desert and burnt landscapes.
Now for the first time in two years I have seen green hills again.

The second surprise was the many kind of flowers, with many kind of colours.

They were specially purple and yellow: two among my favourite colours.


I found many of them planted in gardens but also many of them around the fields growing wildly
             

Then, the trees... the ones which were saved. 

It seems that a "dry" storm was the cause of that tragedy . One thousand hectares of forest were burnt. However this place in my heart, located into a round valley, didn't suffered any damage but  the land around this natural circle was completely destroyed.
In any case, in this last week of April, it was splendid and  rigorous of life. 

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Japan (1)


Las 1000 grullas from Makiko Sese on Vimeo.




Let's go to help Makiko to make 1000 cranes, so she can send their pictures  to North East of Japàn . Let's help Japanese people to make a wish , very important wish.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Il potere di persuasione dei libri


Una volta mi piacevano tutti i libri che leggevo. Qualsiasi cosa cadesse nelle mie mani, la leggevo con avidità. Ne ero sorpresa pure io !

Poi, ovviamente c'erano libri che mi piacevano di più e libri che mi piacevano di meno. Ma non mi capitava di esitare davanti ad un racconto, saggio o altro.

In tutta la mia vita, fino a un paio di anni fa, solo un libro l'aveva avuta vinta su di me e così, lo mollai al secondo capitolo. Adesso non voglio fare nomi, non mi sembra tanto carino.

Poi, invecchiando ho notato che non tutte le letture mi accontentano come una volta! Negli ultimi 2 anni ho dovuto mettere da parte più di un libro in quanto non riuscivo a farmi coinvolgere dalla storia e dai personaggi.

Un po' mi dispiace aver speso dei soldi a vuoto, un po' di dispiace occupare in posto nella libreria con un libro non mi mio gradimento, posto che avrei potuto riempiere con un volume più coinvolgente.

Così ho deciso di prendere i libri in prestito alla Biblioteca degli Intronati di Siena. Non farò commenti sulla biblioteca perché come tutte le biblioteche, a me sembra bellissima…. Un pozzo pieno di fascino e pace, dove poter incontrare se stessi!

Così prendo i libri e solo quelli che mi piaccion li compro in seguito.

Il 7 marzo scadeva il termine per restituire il libro che stavo leggendo e, siccome nel frattempo e visto che mi piaceva l'avevo ordinato on line su un famosissimo portale di libri, ho deciso di non chiedere la proroga per la restituzione e quindi lunedì pomeriggio l'ho tornato in dietro.

Il libro e KAFKA SULLA SPIAGGIA di H. Murakami.



Come spesso succede nei libri di Murakami, questo racconto ci parla di due storie parallele ma contrastanti che convergono su un unico punto.

Parla di un ragazzino intelligente, sveglio, responsabile : Tamura Kafka

Parla di un vecchio segnato sin dall'infanzia per un incidente fortuito; infatti ha dei problemi a livello neurologico … ma sa parlare il linguaggio dei gatti.

Il ragazzino per problemi familiari scapperà di casa e "a caso" sceglierà la sua destinazione.

Il vecchio proprio per la sua capacità di parlare con i gatti, si vedrà coinvolto in una situazione più grande di lui, così "il suo intuito" lo spingerà a cercare la sua destinazione, che guarda a caso e quella che ha scelto Kafka …., e ahimè non so più come continua questa storia!!!. La copia in prestito lo riconsegnata e quella acquistata on line non mi è ancora arrivata!!!

Sia Kafka che Nakata sono personaggi ai quali ti leghi sin dalle prime righe, ti sembra di essere entrata nella loro pelle a capitoli alterni (come li presenta Murakami)….., te ne innamori.

Quando sei sul capitolo di Kafka vuoi finirlo subito per sapere cosa sta combinando Nakata e viceversa.

E' da due giorno che sento la sindrome di astinenza delle loro vite, delle loro giornate, riflessioni e paure.

Sia ieri, sia oggi mi sono scoperta più volte a pensare a loro due, a chiedermi che cosa stavano facendo, a chiedermi se Kafka aveva capito una certa situazione oppure se Nakata aveva trovato la pietra che stava cercando e per la quale, aveva avuto il coraggio di andare a Ovest di Tokyo, nonostante non sapesse né leggere né scrivere.

H.Murakami
Che bello sapere scrivere come Murakami, che bello scrivere libri che esercitano questo potere di persuasione sulle persone .


 


 

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Eating animals


Dear Jonathan Safran Foer

My name is Isabel, I am Spanish even if I live now in Italy.

I read yr. book. I like it very much. It didn't convince me of the kind of diet I have to follow since I was already convinced ,  I became vegetarian in 1983.





I would like to tell you my feelings on yr. book and my experience on this purpose .

When I was child and teen (in Spain) my home was at only 500 meters of  Local abattoir.

All kind of big animals were killed there:  sheeps, cows, pigs.

I am talking about the end of sixties and all seventies. My home town  Zaragoza, at that time wasn't a very big city and frequently you could see the shepherd  with his flock to arrive there walking !!! it was nice .



However,  when you were just passing by there you could hear how animals cried, ...  when you were just passing by there you could felt a terrible smell of death… and when you were  just passing by there you could see animal hanged, skinned and blood dripping.

This abattoir was  composed  by 3 porch buildings. In the middle  there was a patio.  Inside those porch there were many hooks where dead animals were hanged for dripping.



Practically during about 20 years, I everyday saw, hear and smelled that horrible situation, that nightmare !

At the beginning,  when I was child I couldn't  understand which was the point.

At home we ate meat, I liked it… even if I preferred fish.

Then in my youth,  I understood and in 1983 I became vegetarian.

1st I stopped to eat fresh meat, then stopped to eat ham or salami or any other cold meat….., then I understood and also fishes could feel pain and I stopped to eat fish.

 I don't eat anything food which  proceeds  from killed animals.

Your book  makes me dubious about the opportunity to stop also with eggs and cheeses. I buy only ORGANIC ones but I understood that it cannot guarantee animal life style.  Even if I think that here in Italy is less worse than the situation in the States., is it ?

I am always looking for natural and traditional systems.  Now, here in Italy  ZERO KMS. Markets are very common . I usually buy eggs and cheeses there, but not always.

I  thank you because I hope that persons who already  read or will read yr. book can understand the gravity of this situation and they do something to protect and preserve animals rights.

Bye  . Isabel


 

P.S. I don't remember when abattoir stopped its activity. Now, these 3 buildings are a Cultural center  called SALVADOR ALLENDE !!! 


 


 

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Bye winter, Hello spring


This winter has been a very rigid  winter for me.

I had a very hard time at work from the end of August till the middle of November. There were many, many things to do in a very short time.

They were very stressing months.

Then some other family problems had to be followed and the whole situation made me very tired and I felt very weak.

Then, from the beginning of December, we had a very humid winter here in Tuscany . Practically it was raining every day. Sometimes hardly, sometime softly but it was very difficult to do anything outside.



So, from the end of X'mas until now I hibernated inside my warm and comfortable home. I read many, many books. I checked many, many topics/matters in Internet and I made many, many biscuits, bread rolls, pizzas…… and others. I adore to do all these things specially if I can have a very nice cup of Japanese tea and during this winter, I almost finished all my provisions.



However today was a very beautiful day. In early morning it was a little bit chilly but around the afternoon we got 15°C. and a very nice sun was high in the sky .

I saw also that some flowers are open their beautiful faces to glad our days.




This situation encouraged me to go outside after lunch to work in my garden. 







I started seeding some vegetables into small vases. So now, I have to wait until the small plants will come out from mould and at that point, I will transfer them in the garden .





This summer I should have in my garden: carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes, peppers and chilies. 
I keep you posted on development……

It was a very nice day!.