Ferragosto

we did not know what Ferragosto is, everybody is talking about it. it is everywhere in italy in august. we figured it out - here some smarter writer with their explanation:

August 15th is Ferragosto in Italy

August 15th. It’s got to be the most dead moment in any Italian city. It’s the national holiday particular to Italy called Ferragosto. Everyone is at the beach, preparing for the night’s feast, fireworks, and camp-out under the stars. For an Italian, it is truly offensive to work on this day. When I was in grad school, my father in law once caught me trying to study on Ferragosto and I got in a lot of trouble for this. It’s not that it’s a religious holiday – it is ALSO the assumption of Mary – but rather it’s an instituted moment of rest that has roots in Ancient Roman culture. It’s the height of summer, the hottest days… Before Italy picked up the pace and joined the world economy, almost all businesses closed in August, probably because before airconditioning it was too hot to concentrate. You will find that many small businesses and stores still do close-, if not for the whole month, at least for the two central weeks that include Ferragosto.

look at these photos in this article:

http://www.romeartlover.it/Ferragosto.html

und die deutsche erklaerung:

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferragosto

wir haben also gar nicht erst versucht irgendwas zu kaufen was nicht essbar ist. alle repararaturen sind auf september verlegt :-)
the august is definitely the hottest time here, african winds are wilting the plants even the soil is moist underneath them - i spend long time to mulch around them. we got from our dear neighbor 2 old hay-bails and Jon drove over the unrolled hay and chopped it with the motozappa to pieces. wonderful stuff for mulch.

this are also the places where chicken prefer to scratch, when they can dig up something. so i put the strew underneath and they get it out again- of course they do not dig the plant out on purpose ;-( . the ducks make holes into the strew cover much less damage. but they DO love to eat my sorrel- almost gone - and they ate the tiny leaves from my rooted bougainvillea. but they are also much fun. we discovered the ducks forget everything when they have a chance to dig in a tomato. everything will be red after that. Jon thinks it's a bit like feeding sharks: red stuff flying around everywhere - the good thing is they do not have teeth and it does not hurt at all when they try to eat my fingers. so this is a very good recycling to give the old tomatoes to the bibies.

Jon had his 1.gig . he played at our contrada festa at the neighbors. it was a big success. the people liked the music, the setting was easy, so they could still chat and some got even to dance to the play. the food was great german potato-salad and american sweet corn and italian wine. Jon said after some german sausages: who would want to spend more time with eating, if he could play music. that's devotion. he got even compliments for his singing. well done. now he is learning italian songs.

in this time are all the festas, sagras und pallios, we went to some of it. the most visitors are italians watching the people playing in costumes, children dressed ancient, horses, flag thrower and of course, may be the most important there: food.

the marchigianer love what they eat. somewhere it even says they eat the most meat in italy?? we had some wonderful fried fish, gnocchi, penne arrabiata, wonderful meat, sausages for Jon. mostly the people of the town come together and prepare the food in some temporary tents and you get it on plastic plates with plastic "silverware". my recycling soul cramps every time - but that's how it is. i have to except or start a no-plastic revolution in the marche. i do not - so i better stop complaining......

these are the gnocchi they make behind that curtain - of course from scratch - everything is from scratch.

the priest has to give his blessings to all the play and the official photographers are in costumes

estate/summer - or we lost our landmark

the summer made it -- took quite a while. it rained so much, that the combine sunk in the moist soil harvesting the grain. my garden is green and flowering- all over the place and i am busy for weeks and weeks to get the started usa seeds in the pots and than into the ground ( there are still some waiting- and kinda giving up on me). my thought about having an orange garden did not really work out. there is lots of orange, but some just turned into PURPLE flowers, looks like wrong! a 4-0'clock in purple and one even white. but pretty plants - so i keep them - bursting color between all the yellow and orange flower-heads.

this is the view of our garden with our landmark/bombola when we moved in here - july 2 years ago! and now we got our bombola removed. first it seemed all so easy. they called and said they will come and install the new gas-tank.

the 2 trucks arrived - made it all the way to our house, managed to even turn around.



the bombola was flying in the air in a blink,

and than started the measuring: the end of the tank had to be exactly no less than 5 meter - by the centimeter!!! away from our trees. we got instead of a tall but smaller diameter a longer shorter gas tank. that guy did not fit between the 2 trees anymore at the border of the garden.

the hole had to be moved towards the concrete slab where the old bombola was sitting on. actually half the slab had to get dug up. while the little caterpillar was digging deeper and wider we remembered the waterline, and yes, it was right there where the bombola had to go - they do not care about the waterline - they are only responsible for gas! no extra fuzz for that. but it did not get damaged !!!!!

when they sunk in the tank, it was 30 cm sticking out over the slab and when i mentioned that, they said it has to be so high so no water can run into it. the thought about a new tank was: it will not be visible anymore -- doohhh. after they were gone - they left 3 yellow plastic marker and a sign about security stuck in the soil around the tank cover, i had to start thinking how to landscape this earth eruption in the front yard.

i found a solution.

our duckies are grown - 2 months and they are as big as their parents. but they are different behaving than the old ones. they come to me - if i have the right treat for them - and they nibble it out of my fingers. they are no lab-ducks but become calm after a minute and let me pet them a bit. we still have not tried so reduce our duck population. it is getting a bit crowded around them and the sorting for bedtime is time consuming. we have Queeny with the young ones and Udo especially and Nancy have to be alone by themselves. duck temper---- who would have thought that i ever have to deal with that kinda thing.

the veggie-garden is doing very well this year:
tomatoes are coming big time 7 different kinds- including 'big beef' and 'moscavitch?', still waiting for 'razzleberry' what had amazing reviews.
potatoes are getting ready or better : are waiting to get in the root-cellar. we have 3 kinds :red from a trip through the high plateau of the sibillini mountains, yellow from the local farmers coop and a special one from the ex DDR. a potato saved over generations and left for us by a couple staying at the vacation house - a treat!!
sweet corn from usa seeds - tastes just like in iowa sweet and juicy - may be this could be a crop for the market here!?

and plums, plums from the neighbors tree. we are getting them in the freezer - just like last year and i will make plum jam and cake all year round. (we still have some bags from last year :-)

yesterday the ceiling/floor in the little house got pored with the help of the old crew: Luigi - our neighbor, his cousin Juliani and Jon- it took them 5.5 hours and 20 sacs of cement and we can now walk on the upstairs and i will soon make marks for the bed and bathroom.

Jon had to make a trip !by himself! to germany and get the technical license for our car redone. every 2 years it has to be inspected again and you get a sticker on the license plate. i had to let him go by himself because our little duckies and all the plants in the greenhouse and beds need care. so 1 had to stay home and it was me because i cannot drive 13 hours without falling asleep while driving..... life on a little farm means - no more vacations together?......

frittata or duckies

this is a thought going through my head and when i just write it down here - maybe i find a solution....
we got the runner-ducks for 2 reasons:

1. they love snails and all the other insects and do not scratch the heck out of my garden.
2. the internet says they are very good egg-layers, up to 250 eggs a year.

the 1st point is right, the 2nd kinda, they laid a lot of eggs - for sure not 250 more like the half of it. but the point here is that i ate the eggs last year - they tasted good, just like chicken eggs. but now i took 6 eggs and they turned in this darling creatures. whenever i find an egg from Nancy i think : there is such a cute little thing in there - only 30 days away--- how can i eat this????? i am a vegetarian? i thought? i am for the right of a women to choose to have a baby or not. but i also think there is a new person in every fetus.
kinda difficult thoughts in our natural peaceful life at the end of the gravel road....
'frittata or ducky-babies'?

sechslinge

we always wanted baby-ducks and Nancy our only female duck able to produce fertile eggs started laying after the winter break. we were thrilled and after the weather got warm enough we left them in the nest. she started to sit - a bit - and got more interested in water games - laid more eggs - sat again and so on... i counted 13 eggs. and still not ready to sit all the time. i decided after Queeny got also in a sitting mood - and stayed - on her unfertilized eggs ( she and Udo do NOT like each other and even if - these are 2 different birds and make some strange babies) to put Nancy's eggs under neath our good white duck Queeny; and she sat and sat 30 days. she got barely anything to eat, just some short times in the water and back on her eggs. i lifted her wing after i heard a tiny noise and yes - there was a baby-duck.

wild activity followed. we did not really knew if there is anything coming out of the eggs and got some duckling feed, a waterer, and prepared a box. and the next one hatched underneath good mother duck and at the end of the 26. of may we had 6 ducklings.

we decided it will be too difficult to let them be with Queeny. she would have had been totally isolated from runners and chicken so --- we took them into the living-room and i became the mother of 6 newborn babies, how sweet they were and still are. but boy they grow fast.

our 1st day outside:

and the 1st bath:

one ducky today 17 days old:

of course in the last 2 month happened a lot, on the little house more things are getting done, soon the upper cement floor can be poured and the gardens are using a lot of time too. but i just had to put these little friends up and share them with you.

the long and starting all over spring

the last weeks were filled with easter surprises, a lot of spring flowers and snow, snow, snow again. we were in the total easter fewer with seeding - i have all this little packages with unknown flowers waiting to be discovered. and the tomatoes had to be started. it was sunny- i did actually took the shirt off one day. then we had snow:

kinda pretty and excepted. my b-day in the middle of march without snow - was not too warm, but we went to a beach town with palm-trees covered:

only men are playing boccia and they are all older

but accurate

and we had the 1st ice-cream!!!! very good-, pizza and a walk on the sand. it was total no season. and then you can see how a beach looks like when it is not cleaned: lots of natural material but endless plastic parts:

it will look like this after cleaning:

i am watching the plastiki online : http://www.theplastiki.com/
the facts about the plastic waste are scary...

we had also friends coming to explore our little creek and the kids loved to make new paths

through facebook i got to chat with Nicola, a friend who helped us with translating when we got our 1st bee-supplies. he had the time to come and do our old wall behind the living room stove. a virtuosic professional - working with stones all his life and he did a wonderful job, put 2! little niche in for me - i have to put a little vase with flowers in!!

Dietmar came to an eastervisit and we had a great time - lot's on the computer :-) but we also went to sarnano and watched the good-friday-procession:

the sinner (we were told) have to walk at this procession for their penance. they are covered up - so they are not identifiable, barefoot, the men carrying a cross and were also dragging a little chain. it seems all the citizen were also walking with through the cold town.

spring feelings came back after easter - Jon cut the big oak right through the middle for our future beam, we will have in the little house. soooo straight!

last sunday was cold and colder and it snowed again, all the plants back in the house, seed trays rescuded, but Queeny has no problems - finally she is invisible

it already started

the view to the mountains from the upper field behind the house

the leaves are coming out! the first is the sweeping willow with unfolding the little greens. the plum-trees have flowers all over (they will be killed with the next frost - for sure there is one waiting). pillows of perfuming violets are on the road-banks, the snow bells are still hanging in there and the narcissus have their high performing time right now. once i had the idea to travel to wherever the spring is. an all year round experiencing this wonderful awakening of the nature after a winter sleep must be amazing. but the good thing with our little place on earth is- the spring last for months! there are actually never no flowers and in february starting the early ones.

these are the once i found on the 23.of february

but there could be frost much longer - the neighbor puts his tomatoes out in the garden in may! the rubarb is making this big red bumps and the greens of white lilys are already 30 cm tall.
i cannot wait to get the seeds going. we were a bit too early last year with the annuals. 50 kilo of seeding soil and 100ds of seed packs are ready to go. i know this sounds wild, but i had the chance to order seeds in usa and our dear friends brought them with when they visited in february. they are so much cheaper and so many more varietals. how can i resest to get a little pack of an orange snapdragon for 2 $, that would be what? 1euro here? no way i could..... 62 different seeds. i will be busy this spring :-) here they all are:

but the february was also full of rain and fog and an avalanche on our road, right in-front of us when we were walking towards the sheep to look at the newborn lambs:

we were aware that there are little pebbles falling and looked up and the whole bunch came down with a big dust cloud. quite impressive! no drive for 2 days - no big deal - except it was on the 14.2.2010 no dinner!

we lost one of our 5 chickens, in the bright day light around 3:00. something killed Blondy and started eating her just 10 meter away from the house. Erminia thinks it was a fox, my thoughts are more to a stray cat hanging around here. but whoever - i have to be there all the time when the birds are outside of their 2 meter fenced place, what we covered up now on the top with a mesh. mostly because the chicken could fly outside. 7 birds left.

but now something just toooo funny i laughed and laughed, i do not know about the baseball bat- but everything else happened to me by my cats, too funny. i really love cats, but they can be soooo annoying: