gARden's WiSHes

Some time ago we have been working on a new garden which is nearly finished now. 
Some of the roses are already in bloom, jasmine is smelling like heaven, the purple clematis is running up the entrance arch and it looks already full of buds... but most of all I am waiting for the hydrangeas to show off their -I hope- majestic beauty. 
I have a couple who unfortunately did not flower at all lately, but I recently bought a new one and I can't wait to see its flowers, they should be blue...
What you see here are not pictures of my garden, but some gorgeous hydrangeas I came across walking around. The more I look at them, the more I wish to buy some white ones to add to my collection.
I will post pictures of my garden soon, I promise.

GREen

Thanks to my friend Stefi who visited us last Sunday, I now have these sweet pictures with my little man. I just have done some cropping in the last 2, for the rest they just capture the moment [in a hurry as you know Erik does not like to be photographed].

hEALthy MAy> week 4

Hi, this is my last update. Healthy may ends here and week 4 was not good.
I can only say I am happy may is over as it has been a difficult month.
I am looking forward to June.

oH jOY 1 hUNDred!

Oh joy 100! This is my hundredth post.
+++ Celebration time!
I really enjoy writing on this blog, sharing things I do or like. Believe me I truly miss this place when I can not be here.
Thank you everyone for popping by, to the ones who said 'hi' and the ones who encorage me to continue and tell me this is a daily apointment. See you next time everyone!

rESoLUtions updATing

Remember my 3 new year's resolutions? You can read more about it here.
More cinema|art + get my business going + get rid of unnecessary stuff!

Nearly half 2012 has passed, time for a little update.
Right away in January I had written my 3 resolutions in the inside cover of my diary, and everytime I do something in one of those areas I glue a little star on it.
It's lovely to see the stars adding up; even if they are not adding up in huge numbers it makes me happy to see I am doing things for myself despite the little time I have and depsite the feeling it hever happens.
Most importantly it builds awareness: each time I open my diary  I have a measurement at a glance of where I have to work harder in order to achieve my goals.
So far I am doing ok in art (visiting exhibitions, musea etc) but need to improve on cinema going and clearing up. About working on my business... I am working on my portfolio and the opening of my shop in the near future. Stay tuned..

+ cinema|art 3+7

++ my own business ?

+++ clearing up 5

sHAkiNg HEArth ...

At 4:02 in the morning I was suddently awake. My bed was moving back and forwards, a lot. The wardwobe glass sliding doors were jingeling like if a train was passing by too closely -but there is no railway here. Confused I looked at the chandelier on top of my bed swinging strongly ... by then I knew it, it was an earthquake.
I immediately put my shoes on, ready to fetch Erik from his little bed and run outside if necessary, but instead I stayed still and listened. Nothing. He was asleep all the time.
The night was totally quiet, none of my neighbors seemed to have noticed. No one outside.  I decided to go back to bed, stay alert but even if my heart pounded hard for half hour I finally fell back into sleep.

---

This morning I have heard many people in the city of Bologna did run out in the streets in the middle of the night. I could not believe my reaction after all. Can you believe i went back to bed? Ok, we live in a 2 floors house on the hills, probably safer then high building in towns. Yet... Anyway nothing happened to us, we are all fine and well. Smaller shakes are happening also right now.

---

My friend Fuji from Japan sent me a very sweet mail to know if everything was ok for us. I cannot begin to think how powerful the fear must have been in japan last year. Our earthquake was just magnitude 5.9, yet so scary. A strange feeling has stayed with me ever since last night.

heALThy MAy: week 3

Hi, it's sunday again and here is my update on Healthy May. 

GOOD!
++ drunk from 1 to 2 liters of water each day
++ light lunches with lots of seasonal vegetables and fruit
++ did eat lots of fish [even gave little E his first sushi... but he did not like it]
++ no pizza this week
++ drunk again 'tomato juice' at one aperitivo with friends instead of alchoolic drinks
BAD!
-- despite of the good weather I did not spend time outside
-- did not walk nor exercise
-- far too many 'italian style bar breakfasts" involving sweet croissants/pastries

well... where do we go from here?
There is only 1 week left to go, may is about to end. I hope next Sunday's update will be mentioning lots of exercise or walks.
if you are in this like me, I'd like to hear how you are doing.
See you then.


If you're new here and want to know more about how this adventure started, you can go here.

dAISY cHAin

Not all days are easy, we all have times when we feel overpowered and quite helpless, but sometimes small things can do wonders to cheer you up: things like to simply sit on the grass and watch your little 3 years old boy trying hard to make a daisy chain for you...

CIRCUS riNg

I had to take pictures of the circus for an assignment. I walked in that environment a little alien to me - as I never liked going to the circus that much - and decided to use black&white film.
Here are some photos I took and developed myself [bliss] of trapeze artists. Strangely enough, I like the graphic quality of black&white for a subject that is usually very very colorful. 

By the way, this was The Russian Circus, in Plymouth-UK. No animal involved in any of the performances, something I truly appreciated.
...here I end with the final somersault from trapeze to the floor, in full glorious color.

sKY abOve uS

Nothings seems the same anymore around here...

HEalthy MAy > week 2

Hi, here's my third update on how I am doing about my goals for Healthy May.
If you are new and don't know what this is about, you can have a look here where it all started.
The past week has been good and bad. Having super healthy lunches every day was the most successful thing. Also, it was excellent to re-discover a forgotten friend of mine:  tomato juice with salt, pepper, few drops of lemon and worcester sauce. It's an alternative solution when going out in substitution of alchoolic drinks. Very refreshing, with good nutritional value and super low in calories.

... on the other hand the week has been full of birthdays, birthdays' rehearsals and a few melancholic moments followed by "comfort food"...not so good towards my goals.

 Next week I must concentrate on more walks, something I did not do much at all this week. I have been walking just once, about two hours and I have enjoyed it.

See you next sunday.

seCRet misSIOn [part II]

Later on his birthday E had more balloons. He played, he ate all the candy and then, to my surprise, he decided to set the balloons free. Nothing I said did convince him not to do that. One after the other one [exception made for the green one I managed to save] they have flown away in the air full of poplars' seeds. It looked as if it snowed..

seCREt misSION [part I]

The day started with the implementation of the plan 'secret mission' : surprise little E with breakfast in bed, wake-up 'happy Bday' songs in dutch and italian by mum and dad(on the phone) plus a nice turquoise baloon connected with a ribbon to his hand so that it could follow him to the kindergarden. Enough to make a little man of 3 happy, apparently.

ebONy & ivORy

Sometimes I really wish I had a camera on me all the time. 
I was out with my little boy and we were playing next to a fountain. Suddenly another boy came along, a beautiful boy of African origins who started playing with water next to him. The smile on little E was huge, he looked at him with big sparkly eyes and started touching his hands, caressing his skin, trying to touch his curly hair. Erik was totally fascinated, you could tell. They became quickly best of friends and played with water like crazy.
Unfortunately I don't have a picture of their little hands together but instead I am using an illustration I made some time ago, which kind of express that tenderness.


Later I asked E why he was touching the boy's hands and face and he simply told me he liked the other boy color a lot. Oh blissful innocence without prejudice of children! I loved that moment and hope E will never change.

++++++HEALthy maY > WEEk 1

Remember? 
Hi! here is my first update. In this first half week I only succeeded in my just-one-pizza-per-week goal. YAY!!!! The rest has not been easy.
Sometimes for supper the faster thing to do is cooking some nice pasta, or lovely couscous with vegetables and so the intention of not eating carbohydrates in evening meals goes. 
I could not find time for long walks. Finally in the evening in front of a film, of the computer or of a book, snacks were not always exaclty healthy. But it did not happen many times, luckily.
There was a friend's birthday, which meant celebtrating with a nice meal and wine, and dessert.  My question is: how do you do keep eating very healthy when celebrating or going out with friends? If anyone has good suggestion let me know.
How was your healthy may so far anyway? Drop me a line if you, like me, joined Healthy MAy.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
On the positive side, lunches have been generally very healthy: fresh salad with the best super tasty italian 'datterini' tomatoes, light delicious 'primo sale' cheese, lots of fruit, raw fish or steamed shrimps.
See you next sunday with a new update :-)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

one of the delicious meals at HOlbaek School of Art in Denmark.

♥ ♥ ♥

We cannot celebrate this day together, but thinking of all these special years together I feel a very lucky lady! ♥ happy 6 may ♥ 

HEALthY mAy

Amanda from herecomesthesun came up with a interesting suggestion: educating ourseves about what we eat, in being active and taking control of our health and fitness [beyond the tight boundaries of dieting]. So I decided to join her and partecipate in Healthy May project.
Together with her and the others taking part, I will be posting once a week (probably on Sunday) with a review of the week I had and splitting it into these categories: food, exercise, goal setting.

I love healthy food in general and eat tons of fruit and vedges, but I am also an icecream, pizza and snacks lover, wich does not help. The most difficult part for me will be going back in an efficient sustainable exercise routine, but a change of life style is needed, this might just be a nice way of doing & sharing it.

so, this is how I'll begin. See you next time in my Healthy May post.

{ Amanda di herecomesthesun propone qualcosa di interessante a cui mi unisco volentieri: educarci ad una alimentazione piu' consapevole, ad essere attivi e riprendere il controllo della nostra salute e fitness condividendo i progressi sul blog. Scrivero' anche io un post sull'andamento della settimana riguardo a questo tema.

Ci rivediamo nel prossimo post di HEalthy May! } 

a veRy gLOomy DAy

Broken hearted under a light still gray sky we said today goodbye to a friend who left us for good last Friday. She was special. She was young. She was beautiful. She loved life.  Hope you are happy wherever you are, my dear W.

{ Con il cuore spezzato, sotto un cielo fermo chiaro e grigio, abbiamo oggi detto addio ad una amica che ci ha lasciato per sempre venerdi scorso. Era speciale. Era giovane. Era bella. Amava la vita. Spero tu sia felice ovunque tu sia, mia cara W. }