living nativity scene in our hometown

it's getting time to put something in here.
christmas was very quiet - just the way we wanted it. we did not see any advertisements heard no jingle-bells, no blown-up snowman, no rushing through the store. we cut a little juniper on the lower field, i decorated it sparsely. some wax-candles made it special AND we had the 2 stoves going for some days and it was very nice in the house.
for christmas we got 2 new improvements: the balcony-door in the kitchen got double-glazed windows and a new electric blancet with wool and! workable without a transformer to get it on 240 volts. what does this all tell: it is cold in our house. that's the reason we restore the little one so we will not be cold any more.
that is what Jon was working on mostly. the wall he took down next to the big house is almost all built back with a brick wall on the inside and connected with rods to get it stronger than it ever was. the window, more for ventilation than to lookout - i can hand Jon peanutbuttersandwiches over, out of the bathroom window :-)- keeps that guy going...


but with the cold weather- under 5C degree 58F mortar is not doing the job - Jon is working on his music, he wants to get ready with a bunch of songs that he could perform soon. the computer part of the whole thing is tremendous. so many thing can and do go wrong. new parts have to be ordered, voltage of old equipment has to be altered, softwares equalized so they like each other. too much for me .... i am working on the visible part of all this. business cards, brochure and website, cd-labels. as soon all is done i will post it here.

on the 2. of January Gualdo had a wonderful event.
our neighbor Valentina decided to give gualdo the presepe vivente back.

Valentina giving last thumb up

it was going here many years ago. but this one could not have gotten much better. except ---the weather--- that was bad, but not changeable. actually when it started at 16:00 Gualdo was in thick fog, what made the streets a bit mystical, strange, like in movies when they wanna show something cold and old they diffuse it through fog. but it changed into rain (later even snow) and that makes people wet, us as the vendors at the market scene and all the visitors. they were very cold. we wore ski outfits underneath the costumes and were warm, we also had the fire just behind us to warm up. but - after just 2 hours they closed it and i did not get to take photos of all of it - dang - or how the neighbor says boohhhh.

Jon is listening what she is saying

the preparation for this was immense. Alfredo helped his daughter for 2 months to get all the cantinas and basements of many houses cleaned and decorated with ancient artifacts. we were helping to get the good old cow and donkey in a truck and into the city. there were sheep, goats,

sheep in bamboo

they had bread with fresh olive oil

we were the farmers having our own 2 chicken

carola :) with her feathered friends

Jon from the back

and roosters, rabbits, doves, ducks, geese. weaver, spinner, baker, cooks,- all ladies, potter, carpenter, blacksmith, alcohol making, winery, tavern, shepard and a temple - all guys. the roman emperor with his harem, 3 kings - 1 was black!, and the nativity scene with a real baby boy. there would have been a camel ,but it cost 500 euros to rent.
but they made through donation 1500 euros, what covers some of the costs.
it was just fantastic!!!! and we were part of this and enjoyed it a lot.

that was too dark for my camera


the loom was in many parts and had to be reassembled

i think she is making bread dough

una cucina

at the market

some kinda spinning thing

they had to sew 150 costumes

the romans taken care of everything

Jon again - no, no the one who is sitting!

the fires were really nice

Jon's birthday lunch : fresh brussel-sprouts 1/2 hour old, squash, potatoes, eggs with arugula all homegrown (and a birthday sausage ;) + wine from our little road.

F L O W E R S !!!! S T I L L in our garden

these photos were taken the last 2 days of november and some even yesterday. germany is having big snows and minus temperatures - we are so spoiled. so i do NOT complain about cold feet and the heating blanket i have to turn on 1 hour before i go to bed. FLOWERS in december. nothing else to say.
and yes these are tomatoes/+flowers.

and the summer is over

this beautiful summer is over - we had already the 1st snow showing on the tops of the mountains and the leaves turn slowly to gorgeous colors.


Dietmar came for a visit and we took the chance to see something in our neighborhoods. we had an appointment with the czechian consulate to get an identification approval (he was not able to help us with that), but it was a fantastic day - perfect for a little trip to Ascoli Piceno. the consulate building was in the old part of the city and we got some history explanations from him. roman stones/walls at the bottom - medieval build on that and the top just 200 years old.

here is the entrance door and the hallway behind it

we were also at the "big" castaniata in our hometown gualdo and got fresh, hot marron out of a paper-bag and new wine-for free!

our runner duck parents Nancy&Udo found a new home. i put a little paper at several locations with a photo of the 2 and a very nice young man - who spoke wonderful english - wanted them for having different breeds. he has already the wild mallards, white ducks and geese for company. since the 2 are gone it got so much quieter out here. i could not hear the little noises, birds, insects with the constant quaking of Nancy and the back chatter from the little girls.

Jon is getting really serious about the reconstruction of the little house. after the filling in the old doorway he rebuild the little entrance. he got the ugly cement and bricks off and filled in with stones:



this is what weakens the walls a lot : ants building in and with the clay their nests and make big hollow spaces in-between the rocks.

after this last test Jon decided he can take down the wall and rebuilt it new:



the front part of the roof had to come down and supports up underneath the beams to hold it up strongly. the inside of that wall will be built with normal building bricks and the space between them filled with perlite to get a good insulation. the delivery of the blocks in my flower garden ;-)

this kind of walls was built like this for ancient times are called muro di sacco- yes- a sac-wall!!! 2 sites of stones act like a sac and hold the clay and stones and whatever could be filled in between. here is the stuff out of the sac laying on the ground:

i hope we can keep this little niche



and this is my project, much easier to deal with - on solid ground - Jon has no thoughts to stand on a pipe 3 meters high and lift huge rocks at the same time, he is so flexible.



i fill in all the cracks and gaps with mortar - so this wall will be there also next year and we will be sure no rocks falling on us while doing yoga, other things will still come down, chestnuts ...

and this is a maremanno girl at the sheep barn with her little puppy

no post in september

toooo late - did not make it to write in september once, that might tell you :
we are B U S Y around here and even the october is already quite old. but the 1st rain and autumn fog brings me back to the keyboard and resume what happened all this weeks.

there is the finishing of the wall/ceiling we started 1? year ago. time goes fast when you have fun- says Jon. the stove and chimney

got cleaned and we started our loved stove last night and it is sooooooo nice to sit in front of a fire. the best channel ever to watch, highly recommended and N O !!! commercial breaks.



there were wonderful hikes in the marchigiani
country and towns.
this is a hidden gorge with crystal clear water:

the most amazing flowers in my new gardens:
a tithonia torch over 2 meter high:


the fun times at festas in the neighborhood villages, a midnight firework and strolling through very old cellars. Jon is trying a vino cotto from 1956:

many happy guests and dogs from germany in the 2 guesthouses i am involved in.
this is at the next neighbor on their wide open pasture:

veggies in fantastic colors meet jefferson - iowa

and progress on our little house, watched over by the queen:

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