We got hit by the earthquake on the 24. of august, which destroyed half of the big house, the 26. of september und the last one on 30. of oktober destroyed the rest including our little house... all the work is now a big pile of rocks with the memories , photos and collected treasures from around the world covered with very old italian rocks and we are now looking for another paradise, not easy, we got spoiled. But we are alive ""..............

the end

i run out of picture space and this blog lived from the photos - so - this is it.

i am posting photos on FaceBook under carola wicenti and put up photos of our little paradise. we are still very happy here and do not want to go anywhere else.
with Coco our happy companion : a last look back : CIAO

the second and LAST post in 2013

just 5 more days and the years is over - i thought i better take this chance to write 'another' post in this 2013. i am writing mostly on FaceBook the interesting news and just forget the blog through that.
the year was good to us, we got quite some work done on the little house and ! we have a new member of the family. we had and still have a real problem with the road and the responsable major from gualdo.

the powerline is still not stoped - in italia is all a bit slooooow. but we are still hoping to stop it.
the surgery is now a year ago and all is forgotten, also the pain in the shoulder, lots of physical therapy and slowly all went away - totally without surgery !!!!!!!!! why not a little miracle for me :-)

spring was fantastic and we prepared for Jon's father Jean's visit.
it was the old lose tile floor in the livingroom i really wanted to fix. it was a long bad story - with a real nice ending.

the power line

  the adria at grottamare - there were wind surfer out - in december

the last weeks, months we were at meetings and met new people about a protest of a planned high voltage power line. the planned corridor for it would be just 500 meter away from us. i did not see how big they will be , but 1 number we heard was up to 70 meters tall. the magnetic waves coming from this lines can be harmful to human and animals. and for sure very harmful to realty investors. so there is a lot of worries about the loss of house value. but no question is the damage of beautiful views in one of the most prettiest landscapes i know.
there is a good chance that it will not be built, lots of voices and articles in the papers about the need of the new line question the whole project. it will take a long time anyhow.

the red line is the last version of the route - and just on top of our little road. the right plan shows the corridor through the complete Marche

the cinemas were packed with people who are against the power lines

we were at the last carnevals day - faschingsdienstag- in gualdo for a dance.( i think the 1st one in this country with Jon :-) i learned that the italians (at least in our little village) do not do costume, or do anything different than going to a funeral. they were just sitting on the chairs lined up on both walls and we - the foreigners /stranieries were costumed and hopping around. but after 2 hours feeling very different some italians with masks released us and the atmosphere.

 now i can also make a definite statement about the italian healthcare system: i spend 6 days in the local hospital after a 4 hour surgery. a very friendly dottoressa cut a little lump behind my ear out - no problem!- and i learned that cellphones are the worst in a hospital, so earplugs are very helpful utensils. the food was interesting and after my wishes for vegetarian, without prosciutto.

 












 spring and winter change by the weeks - i like this a lot. the apricot tree was thrilled about the warm sun, opened the flower buds just before the next snow, we will not get that many fruits this year .. but other flowers are just coming and going and show up again when the snow melts - lovely.

 Jon is also flowering like the anemones

i made little wreaths instead of cutting the weeping branches

 Jon put up the anchors to hold the house together



 




 

the alley in front of the old monestery - and there will NOT be the cheese market this year : LA CRISA !!!!

the nativity scenes this year were without us as actors, but lots of visitors and wonderful. weather was perfect to see the gualdese playing year "one".

a christmas concert in a village Colmurano was also packed full with people listening to a bigband playing swingy christmas songs

 he was my favorite surprise, a tenor with goosebumps voice

 and a huge moving nativity scene with changing activity and light from day to night

no "Nikolausi " in italia

 the pretty colors around our casa

 

 

and here with the mountains in the back

 

 and the reason why i was there --- the olive harvest at our neighbor

it is the 6th of december 

(if anyone wants to hear mr Polt :   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGwOCFMl_Hk)  and i know - there will not be anything wonderful in my boots standing in front of the door. ;-(... i have to consider that the Sankt Nikolaus tradition is dead

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas (this tells everything about santa claus and that he is actually Nikolaus and where he comes from) ... so i am munching on the chocolate bought at the lidl: schogetten cappuccino and the warm stove is doing the best to keep me warm.

it snowed yesterday, right when we decided to bring Flavia back to sarnano. the flakes were huge and the road covered in just 15 minutes. cars all over stuck in the heavy snow. but with our winter tires and! the 4 wheel drive - Jon put the kardanwelle/driveshaft back just in time - no problem. we decided to buy lots of noodle so if we have to stay in the house like last year for 10 days we are prepared. there is more snow in the forecast....

the P stands for a long italian word to tell others -there is a beginner driving - i called it P for pazienza/patience i just loved watching that bowed over lady getting into the cinquecento, priceless...

the last month was filled with lots of drives with a chauffeur : Flavia. she was making her drivers license, got perfectly through the theory, but had no car to get the driving skill. so i jumped in and played mother for 3 weeks. i realized the only time i really wanted to get pregnant with a babygirl!(not successful) in my life was around when Flavia was born. so - it was a pleasure to have a daughter and let her drive me around. she made it easily though the driving test and she has now the patente!

 german lead around an italian chimney made by an american - this is the recipe to keep it tide !!!

Jon put a bit of mortar underneath the tiles, no chance for them to move around

the casa is making progress, not much my verdienst,merit? Jon really got into gear and finished the east side of the roof, including putting the chimney up. i was in charge to design the little roof for the top of it and thanks to a painful shoulder i am not a valuable helper. i got already an ultra sound scan, an MRI, 2 drives to Camerino to a shoulder surgent, a lot of anti inflammatory pills in my system.... and still it's getting worse ;-(.....but there is hope - i found a spalla specialist, he is at the sea - so we will have some fun with this shoulder

we are still alive ;-)

first some flowers from today (yes in november!) for the readers of this blog, not finding anything new - for months - sorry, no clue how it happened to be already in november, but i better put a new post up here before someone thinks we left to a new shore.

the summer was very dry, all i remember is watering, watering, i had days with 4 hours standing holding a hose in my hand. the flimsy water pressure is not helping with this chores. the garden went from green spring into dessert. what did not make it out of the seeds in time got baked - like the moonflowers/datura. they germinated after the fall rain and i have NOW! 30 cm tall seedlings.....who knows, maybe i get them to flower.

Jon played at our german neighbors road party, that was still with the old computer.

the veggies this year were also sparse, because we still have the tomatoes from 2 years ago in the freezer. but than there was Jon's dead computer and long days and nights fixing, ordering parts and building a new one and get the music back onto it. the little casa had to wait for all that to get in order.

 here is our major, praising the foreigners in his beautiful town Gualdo in italiano,

we went to several festas, especially to Gualdo, it had it's first big august filled with festas. Valentina, our neighbor, getting so many different events organized - including a day for the stranieries / strangers with different food, poetry, Jon and Flavia playing/singing and even me selling some of the stuff i collected over my life.

 

the buy of the summer : my complete suit sandfly proved - here helpful to get a hornet nest out of the shutter box in the livingroom

 a wonderful event in Gualdo with dance music - and a brother handy to make me something like dancing, big fun

San Ginesio is the best place for a late pizza on the piazza without cars, but dogs and kids playing at midnight  

i had 2 more ladies asking me to help to find renters for their unused houses. i gave it a try and was VERY busy especially on one saturday - i cannot remember 16 dogs and 8 people, that was an interesting experience: who are these people calling and which house did they rent. actually it went totally smooth just my stomach got totally twisted. so no more of that. after all we are in this gorgeous place, to increase our happiness, calmness and peace. the money part is absolute secondary.

another warm summer night in gualdo with loud music and good food.

 

 here we are in the neighbor town Sant Angelo in Pontano with a big band performing 

that was just a wonderful event : a duck-race in a tiny village just 3 km away.

 

the wine harvest this year in our little road was with perfect weather and lots of helping hands

 

 the grapes got squeezed and into the cellar right away

 

 this is a very special event we planned many months ago: a 10 day meditation 300 km away from here. it was a classic retreat with silence, no meals after lunch and minimum 10 hours sitting meditation. we got instructed by videos from Guenka, the founder of this vipassana meditation centers. the course is completely free. everything is based on donation ! after you went through the course and want the next ones have the same possibility you can give money. the food was vegetarian and excellent. Jon got his meditation much more deepend and i got my mind slowed down enough to forget to think for 10 minutes - that is a big accomplishment, even i have much more to go to reach Jon.

 with new power Jon started to work on the roof. he put up the last row of terracotta tiles on the edge.

the upper row of new bricks in the upstairs bedroom are already mortared over - looks like a real wall ;-)

 

these are still photos from the downstairs ceiling the last patch get mortared over 

after that my job was to get the beams painted. 

the chimney blocks are already stacked and  Jon cuts the exact fitting hole into the roof - kinda strange thing - a hole in this perfect ceiling

 there it is,-  a piece of the roof cut out...

and here is a photo of the new porcelain pieces for the  tiny bathroom - extra short and compact.

and the place where they will hang, already strongly connected to the wall. the new window sill is also in place

 

last weekend was the castagnata in Gualdo many people came to munch the hot maroni and the vino brule, hot wine with spices like the german glühwein. very good