Verduno Vineyard Trail

Verduno Vineyard Trail

A new friend introduced me to this pretty awesome trail through the vineyards of Verduno a couple weeks ago.  It’s very picturesque and just the right difficulty for us semi-couch potato types.  There are enough hills to keep it interesting without making it overly challenging.  We were both sweating by the end, but it was more of a pilates sweat than a super- cardio sweat.  It’s a dirt road with some rocks and you’re not likely to run into anyone else.  We went at 7:30pm and on the way back the sun was starting to set.

 

 

Garden 2013: Day 1

Garden 2013: Day 1

I finally started cleaning up the garden yesterday.   Little late this year, but it’s been raining constantly.  I never cease to be amazed at the amount of weedage that grows in a couple weeks of warmish weather.  According to the neighborhood gardeners, my sunny plot isn’t the only one that’s especially verdant this year: the weeds are prolific everywhere.  Perhaps its because we live in Verduno. Ha!

Below are the before and after pictures of my work thus far. The first couple days of cleanup are always overwhelming. More than “gardening” it feels like (barely checked) annihilation or extreme refuse removal.

Towards the end of my two hour pulling spree I usually start to get a little creeped out by all the spiders and bugs whose homes I’ve just destroyed. It wasn’t just by chance that I was attacked by an army of angry red ants who seemed to be looking for a new home inside my glove after I accidentally threw theirs into the compost pile. Payback baby.

On a positive note, I have six small fig trees that are about three years old and are full of fruit! These trees spontaneously sprouted from a beautiful old tree that my neighbor cut down about 4 years ago. In other news, my scraggly little rosemary plant has tripled in size and turned into a rather large rosemary hedge! The spring onions are taking over everywhere. If anyone needs some, PLEASE stop by and I’ll give you and your cousins and your Uncle Frank as many as you want.

Here are some pictures…though it doesn’t look like much at this point:

This One’s Going Out to Seth!

Here are some especially lovely pictures Seth and I took in the car once back in winter ’06.  Yup, that would be seven years ago now… I happened upon them while doing some Spring cleaning and they’re just too good not to share.

 

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The 52 Week Money Challenge – you game?

52week

I am officially participating in the 52 week money challenge.  Anyone else in?  I’m on week three now and still going strong. (Ha!)  All you have to do is get a jar, print out this chart, and add the indicated amount of money to the jar each week.

Week one: one dollar, week 3: three dollars, and so on.  At the end of the  year you’ll have $1378 in your jar!!!  That’s at least one trans-atlantic plane ticket!

And while you’re looking around the house for large empty jars, put one aside for this other fun idea: A Year of Fun & Good Times.

Every time something especially funny happens throughout the year, write it on a little piece of paper and stick it in the jar.  You could write happy memories, funny stories, or other things you don’t want to forget.  On New Year’s Eve, open the jar up and read about all the great things that happened to you this year.

Stockingless

board

Well, I’m guessing your stockings are no longer hung by the chimney with care since Christmas has been over for about a month now.  I usually post about what I’d like to find in my stocking BEFORE Christmas, but this year I’m writing about my stocking wishes after the fact.

Actually, in Italy, we do the stocking thing on the night of January 5th, not December 24th.  So I’m not all that late for the Italian holiday, which, fyi, is known as the Befana.

I made my stocking list on Pinterest this year and think that it’s a fabulous way to keep track of these kinds of presents.  Why?  A) You have a picture that gives you an immediate visual and 2) You have a link that (usually) takes you to a site where you can buy that item or at least find out more about it.  If you’re playing Santa for someone and they have a list like this, it makes your “job” so much easier!  Plus, Santa’s helpers can leave comments like, “I heard through the Elf grapevine that this stocking stuffer has already been accounted for.”  (Disclaimer: I’m currently rather obsessed with Pinterest, so my opinion here may be slightly biased)

 

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