lots of flowers

it is my favored poppytime! this tower will get restored and maybe turned in a B&B and i can find the guests for it YEAHHH
to see what actually happened the last weeks, i am referring to my photos - that is my memory. much better than that brain, it is getting kinda unpredictable, means: how often can you look for the special reading glasses? i need them to do the re-pointing so they move around and they are than at the strangest places - IF i find them.

we got invited for a meal at our dear neighbor Nello and his wife - LOTS to eat and talk. these old lady's reach from 73  to 97 (the one on the  left - her brother is 106 ! )you get old in le marche.

of course we more listening and making hand signals ;-)

fresh fava beans with homemade

pecorino and yes! white and red wine 

in the bottles in the back

 

  

one fantastic view in another hilltop town-
no words with that

this gorgeous place is for sale just 230000 Euro just the walls and the grounds unbelievable view!!!!!

Gualdo's big festa in the spring : all about cheese and food:

 

Dietmar was a week here for enjoying the sweet weather, he helped on the house :-)  !!!

and we visited the gran piane / Castelluccio and found the pastures covered with tulips and narcisses. no poppies at that time.

 

icecream and cappuccino in the little town Visso on the way from the mountains

catch up

i don't know who is actually reading this blog? and realized that i did not write for 2 month? comments are welcome;-). the other concert got canceled too: MUCH MORE SNOW. there was another 60 cm. we and anybody else had to stay home and be patient until someone scooped the road clear. all the snow on the roof started melting and froze while dripping down. the icicles were huge (doh no insulation in the roof - i know) and the thin coat of mortar underneath the gutter froze off. the ceiling in the kitchen got also water stained - a bit more... 

the concert got rescheduled to the 14. of april and we had the theater half full and the performing artist and the audience were happy. a success! after the concert we went to a restaurant with the major, who has a big interest for art in his little town, our art-director (also owns the 'edilnuovo' where we get all the building supply with all the family. it was lots of fun, even we stayed up until 2 in the morning.  

 
last year a couple asked me when i was at casa cuculo if i could help them to get renters for there house just around the corner. they started to renovate it, some parts completely - with an architect and lots of money to spend. so i agreed to make a website and try to find tourists for their place. so far, maybe because of the unfinished website - not much respond. it can also be that apartments (it has 3 units) are not that appealing. will see when i can make new photos if it gets more respond.

Jon found after all the practicing some time to work on the little house. we decided that the back wall in the kitchen needs a concrete foundation support. that took lots of time and material. but it is now definitely a solid support for the whole structure.

after already working there he made a hole in the upper wall for the so much wished for, window over the counter. later - after the the wall was opened we realized it is an easy walk in for all the little friends. the cat and  the chicken are living in the house already - they don't care about missing tiles and windows. we will need something to keep them from jumping into the sink...

the spring brought all the beauty back into the garden. it just goes so fast, in just a week all turned green and lush. the cherries and plums had a special performance this year - white clouds all through the valley, not enough bees i'm afraid to make it into fruits.

we're snowed in

 

it is snowing since 2 days and is not stopping. on wednesday  we tested to drive to the paved road. it worked nicely, some sliding. at the sheep barn the road was cleared by the comune. Alfredo thought they would have plowed to us. DooHH, on the way back - hills! Jon had to put the chains on. so that was the test run to get to the dentist the next day. the appointment was a week LATER!  me and understanding italiana on the phone (but she had no time to listen to my repeating). so instead of drilling into me we went to the tire guy. a father/son business. the temperature on the fancy pellet stove standing in the middle of that huge warehouse was 7 degrees. it was warm, while turning like a chicken right next to this wonder of heater, made for a small living-room. we bought the tires he found somewhere (he had to drive away to get them) and got them onto the car. with new car-shoes and filled with good pasta from a new restaurant close to casa cuculo we made it home. we were so pleased how the car just pulled us through the snow back into the woods.

i was so happy about the missing out on dental torture that i built a BIG snowlady. the final touch up i saved for the next day.

she changed dramatically with another 20 cm snow on her. the eyes were closed and the pretty hair-due disappeared. the drive to the neighbors to get their house frost save showed: the tire do it - barely. since than we got more snow, 

when something like this snow happened in woodward our amazing neighbor from down the road just drove his tractor into the driveway and cleared it all. DAVE !!! where are you???????. but this is too long of a stretch- at least 1 km.the forecast says it will be warmer next week . . .

with too much snow Jon's solo concert at the pub mirage down in the big valley might be canceled. who is shoveling themselves out to see Jon at 22.30? but he is practicing lots in the basement.

the other gig together with Flavia is in the old theater in Sant' Angelo in Pontano. that is on carneval saturday - should be much better weather.

daumen drücken!!!!!!!!!

 

more from the roof

the new year started very nice for us. first we thought, staying home - but sarnano is just 25 minutes away. so we gave it a try. and we did well. on the piazza was the ice-ring built, drawing kids and the once who do not care to fall on their bud. a dj created some total new music what even got some break-dancers going. under some big umbrellas were tables with champagne and panetone. for free... so we had some glasses to cheer into the new year. after the countdown - a good way to learn counting backwards in italian, the italian private pyrotechnics had the once in the year chance to scare everybody around them ;-) it was lOUd. no police in sight to keep it controlled. sweet italian lady's offered red plastic plates with ..... lentil soup and some sausage rings swimming in that delicious soup. in spain you have to eat a huge amount of grapes in the last minute of the last year to get the new one lucky - here you spoon wonderful lentil soup and the new year will be great.!!!!!!!.

just 2 more days and the year is over...

i have to hurry to get my last blog in. weather was very nice to us - so we are working outside as much as possible. today Jon got 2 trees cut out of the chicken/duck run. so Erminia has more fire wood for next year. she lets us have the old pig building for our feathered friends and it works very well for all of us. and i figured that the weeds after a little frost and back to sun come out like from soft butter - i got tap roots 30 cm long out with 1 easy pull - that makes my gardener heart smile:)

we were a part of the presepe vivende like last year. we did not show our silly chicken, this year we were wafer baker.
at least that was the idea. after several trial to make the dough for the hostia, we went sunday 26.12. -also Jon's B-day- with a bag of crispy sweet wafers and the perfect batter to our prepared place. but Jon figured soon that the iron is not getting evenly hot in the open fire pit and actually warped!!!!! oh what a disappointment, hundreds of people were strolling by and we could not show them our new learned baking ability.

the 3 Kings including a real african

a shoemaker in his shop

this guy does make this baskets!

market scenes

at the piazza- this is a very friendly goat

that wall is a new addition, closes up the part of the village

the boat and the fisher

another market scene

the laundry place

at the black smiths


all the fire-stones stones and carts were there for this 4 hour event

it is now back to a parking area

this is my favorite scene: the cheese makers

the horse shoes in the alley have a very unique sound

the setting of the living christmas scenes were fantastic, even more detailed and beautiful arranged than last year. i still don't know facts, numbers - but from my point of view a super success (except our waffle iron).

the little baby got hungry and sick of all the people looking....

on the day before Jon's special birthday celebration he was playing his music the 1st time real official with announcement and poster. we set up the music equipment at 15:00 on sunday and at 4:30 Flavia and Jon started their concerto di natale.

it was very busy at that place. people were coming in their prettiest outfits - who are by the way ALWAYS completely black - and their bambini after a loooong christmas lunch - one lady said they stopped eating at 17:00 after 4 hours!!!!!!i tried to film all with my tiny camera - some moments are well kept.



in this time of preparing for the big concert and than the baking the roof also had to be finished so the precipitation cannot damage our new ceiling. that was a big piece of work- but the weather gods were nice and it all got up. it needs more finishing on the edges, but from a distance it looks like a roof even all the cotto tiles are still on the ground.
photos will come a bit later........ pazienza

autumn

the 1st snow was on 9th of oktober --- in the mountains --- a bit scary, but the closest high peek is 1500 meter higher than our location and only 18 km away ( as the crow flies).

finally we made a decision what to do with our old car. whatever we choose is stupid - so we did the easiest version. Simona's sister has a agency to get foreign cars through the technical inspection and turn it over into an italian vehicle. it will cost us all together 600 Euro. and there are many different steps involved. of course the car paper are in german and have to be translated into italia. the tax has to be arranged. we got through the inspection - unbelievable simple compared to the german "TüV . they did not even check the underneath of the car. only lights and breaks. :-). than we got new license plates. a paper for the time until we have some official ones. will be in 3 months - i heard.

Dietmar was here for a short week visit and took the old license plates with to germany. but there they will not do anything before they get the old papers back from the italian office. this is all very slow. pazienza.

the weekend of Halloween came and we were thinking to through an old bedsheets over our heads and go to a town where the ghost and pumpkin are all over. but the friends from a neighbor on our road came to invite us to dinner. no pumpkins anywhere. Nello the host 83 years old did not even know what it is all about. great!!!!!!! after all it is the day when the holy and saints (all dead) are celebrated. but no pumpkins.

Jon's test with the new speakers were also at Nello's, just some weeks earlier. the guests did dance!!!!!! it sounded very good and he did very well.



at the end of september a smaller female calico colored cat came up towards the house and meowed so loud that i could not overlook her. she inspected everything very well, liked it and adopted us. she still has no name, but comes with "Mietzi" "Kitty" and "MeowMeow" and spends every possible minute purring on our lab and between our walking feet.