NEW ARRIVAL AT OUR HOME

This spring is a very rainy spring. News paper and tv tell us that this is the most rainy spring of the last two centuries.
I like rainy days, because I think the from the point of view of beauty the NATURE (plants, trees, fields and flowers) is more beautiful after a SOFT squall : everything is clean and colours are brighter
and you can feel a restoring smell.
I like the rain also because it helps me with my garden: I don't need to water my plant… they are watering "naturally" .
Last Friday while the sky decided to take a pause I went down to my vege garden, so I collected some strawberries, some artichoke and some broad beans.
Coming back to home, near the cypress, I found a baby bird: it was a JAY.

For sure, it came down from the nest and it was very lucky I saw it before any of our cats.
This bird , called JAY in English , is called GHIANDAIA in Italian ( it means: the one who eats oak nuts) and in Spanish ARRENDAJO… so I call it RENDY.
Its binominal name is Garrulus glandarius and it belongs to Covidae Family.
I love watch the birds which visit my garden and I had seen that Jays usually eat fruit. For instance , they ate many of my cherries some days ago.
So on the base of this observation, I thought that I could give HIM some grinded cereals + some strawberry , all of them mixed together .
I was afraid he was going to die very soon but …. I was wrong . He is growing up more and more every day and every day is more and more funny, 
here Rendy when he is very HUNGRY 

        

 

 

April month here in Siena.

April is a very rainy month here in Siena.More of 50% of days, are rainy days.

I love when is raining. It seems the Nature thanks the atmosphere. The water in fact washes trees, bushes, flowers and grass. I think every landscape is more beautiful when bathed by the rain.

Even pictures show an special light and fantastic colours….. as into a “dream”.

One more facilitation in my case, is that I don’t need to water my flowers and vegetable in my garden.

When outside is raining I like to cook some bread of biscuits.

One more facilitation in my case, is that I don’t need to water my flowers and my vegetables in the garden.

When outside is raining I like to cook some bread of biscuits.

I don’t like fat or creamy. In fact yesterday I prepared some round shaped cookies, very easy, simple and healthy.

They are nice when to drink a cup of milk.

I mixed

• 1 glass of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 glass of fresh milk
• 200gr. Of white cane sugar
• A pitch of cinnamon
• ½ tea spoon of yeast
• As much as flour as requested.

I firstly mixed in a bowl the milk + oil + sugar. Then, I added the yeast and cinnamon. Finally I added the flour.

In order to mix all ingredients better, I put the dough into the bread machine and I selected the mixed program.

When the dough was ready I took small portions and I shaped them as a doughnut .

I put them into the oven at 180C° for 7 minutes in the bottom part and 7 minutes at 150 C° in the high part (I put a tray between the cookies and the grill, to avoid burning them.

Bon appétit !!

Ancora Neve ! And still the snow !

Sembra proprio che questo inverno voglia metterci alla prova.
Questo fine settimana pensavamo di scamparla, invece la neve è arrivata pure qui.
E’ iniziata alle ore 11:00 di mattina di venerdì e ha continuato fino al tardo pomeriggio.
Ha creato un sacco di inconvenienti, come tutte le volte che nevica.
Infatti, qui non siamo ben organizzati. Mancano le attrezzature giuste, inoltre non siamo bravi a guidare sulle strade coperte da questa bellissima coltre bianca.
Comunque, passato il momento di crisi, la magia della neve ci regala delle sensazioni, dei paesaggi, degli ambienti che ci commuovono.

------Here in English--------
This is the second time in this winter.
The snow arrived here again on Friday morning and it lasted until the late afternoon.
It created us some difficulties since we are not able to drive with road covered by it. However when critic moment was over we could admire beautiful scenes.

Roads around Lischeto / Siena

Yo voy soñando caminos
de la tarde. ¡Las colinas
doradas, los verdes pinos,
las polvorientas encinas!..

¿Adónde el camino irá?

Non ho ombra di dubbio che Antonio Machado sia uno dei poeti più rappresentativi della storia della letteratura spagnola.

Don Antonio era, non ostante la sua creatività, non ostante la sua intelligenza e non ostante la sua cultura, dicevo che … era un uomo semplice.

Un uomo che sicuramente era felice osservando quanto la natura gli aveva donato. Nelle diverse fasi della sua vita, nei diversi posti dove visse: Andalusia, Madrid, Soria e altri, riuscì a cogliere quella bellezza che lo circondava.

La sua sensibilità fa un elogio alla Natura (con la N maiuscola), quindi esprime con l’eleganza della sua semplicità i frutti di quanto vede, quanto sente, quanto respira:

Al olmo viejo, hendido por el rayo

y en su mitad podrido,

con las lluvias de Abril y el sol de Mayo,

algunas hojas verdes le han salido.

¡El olmo centenario en la colina

que lame el Duero! Un musgo amarillento

le mancha la corteza blanquecina

al tronco carcomido y polvoriento.

L’autunno è la stagione che io preferisco. Le passeggiate in questo periodo dell’anno sono quasi un obbligo nei dintorni di Lischeto. Io non riesco a esprimere con i versi le sensazioni che la Natura mi trasmette, come Don Antonio faceva. Provo a cogliere la sua bellezza attraverso la mia macchina fotografica.

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Antonio Machado is one of the most representative poets in Spain.

I believe that Don Antonio’s most important virtue was his simplicity: although his intelligence, although his culture, although his creativity, he had an elegant and simply soul.

I can imagine him while he was walking in the forests, in the fields, in the parks : what he saw, felt, breathed became a praise for the Nature.

I believe that his Elegance is in his simplicity.

Autumn is the season I prefer. In this period it is very beautiful to go for a walk around Lischeto. I cannot tell my feelings through as the poet did. I try to catch Nature beauty around my place through my camera.