As my mother would say, "Home again, home again, jiggety-jog!"

 

See Liz Cochrane's new watercolor, looking like a window in the wall!  and below.  This mirror now acts as a bit of a hub for what's up at Villa Maddalena - hanging from the center, the Montisi Italian Film Festival membership badge and below that, and a bit to the right, a new photo of Corin sitting on his daddy.   All is well at the house, with cool spring weather coaxing flowers to last longer.  AND just now, I heard a FROG singing in the garden.  Fingers crossed, he or she will stick around.  Some of you know of my Herculean efforts over the years to import them to the garden. 

Another look at Liz' lovely painting....

 

And this, below, was what was waiting for me on the kitchen counter when I arrived last night!  Thank you Jean and Ben!  And from your note, I know you 'settled in'!  The basil will be much-appreciated as I begin putting in this year's summer garden.  I carried over 4 French tarragon plants to test another place in the garden for this herb.  Parsley and basil go around the tomatoes, but tarragon, "dragoncello" in Italian, will prefer a location where it won't be disturbed, I think. Where I have it now, I suspect it gets too much run-off rain water from the terrace.  We'll see.

 

 

So, now for a little stroll, together, around the garden.....

Wisteria in full bloom!!  The new climbing roses have HUGE flowers.  We'll see if this new cultivar really will bloom more continuously....

Lettuce needs eating, a few fresh purple artichokes and beyond the bietola - perfect for a lovely veg soup....AND....

PERFECT FAVA BEANS!!  Oh, my kingdom for  some pecorino....I've had a couple and will wait til tomorrow for a bit of cheese and salt with each bean.  When they are this fresh they are actually creamy in texture - eaten minutes from the vine.  Tonight I might make a little risotto with fava, asparagus and some fresh thyme.

 

A view back to the kitchen door - jasmine about to burst into flower and some of Mother's calla lilies, thyme in bloom and the miniature marguerites....

 

The new linen sling chairs are just waiting for you!!!

 

White wisteria - something I haven't gotten to see before!  Next year, with proper pruning this upper terrace, off the Fresco Room, it should be beautiful.  A little glimpse of the countryside...

 

And here's this year's badge.  Many pocket schedules (Thank you, Tom!) to fold....and a few more things to arrange.  We need a few more members....

 

More on that later.

 

All for now, jiggety-jog!!

 

M

 

March 17, 2014, almost time for aperitivo.... 

This morning I awoke to an amazing glowing white morning.  A cloud had settled just over the wall, suffused with morning sunlight, but completely opaque.  The air was surprisingly warm and tiny dew beads had laced every cobweb in the garden. 

The day began with a strong coffee by the fish pond with Alessandro to discuss his new venture.  He's observed that not everyone has a kitchen like the one we all enjoy here at VM.  He is going to begin a cooking lesson program - either at his sister's new pursuit (running Santa Caterina) or at the new little café in Castelmuzio.  The lesson will be E25 and begin at 4:30, hands-on and culminate with dining on the result.  Clever man, that Alessandro. 

The day progressed with graduate-level procrastination, since, as the cloud lifted, the sun strengthened and the garden beckoned.  My 4:00 with Gianluca about MIFF has rescheduled until tomorrow, so.... the day passed with luxurious slowness and warm delight, sitting in various locations in the garden.  Tomorrow will be charged with energy and purpose...beginning with coffee with Antonella. 

I DID meet with Francesco Trecci and discussed the planned commission for an 'animated contribution box'. 

 

The wooden top will be suspended perhaps on springs and the 'elements' will be on sprung steel pins, so that when one puts in one's contribution, moving the 'lid', the 'elements' animate, nodding at the contribution... wish I could figure how to get it to chide for more, eh?  Francesco liked the idea and will work on a design.  I have Eleanor Marriot, the photographer coming, as my house guest to the festival and we'll photograph it such that we can make a high contrast image of it, in hopes it will make a good graphic for a tee-shirt for next year - white ink on black cotton tee-shirt with MIFF as the caption.  Each year Francesco will update the box, changing the 'elements', adding feet, changing the color...?  Who knows?

 

 

Just a little note of whimsy, yesterday morning on my way out to the autostrada for my day trip to Florence.  I had stopped for a coffee and looked down into the pastry case. 

American-style _____?_________

 

Then, as I took a sip of my cappuccino, I turned my head ever-so-slightly to my left....

 

Now, this is Italian-style.....

Sometimes you gotta just LOVE this culture!!!!  And this was 10 a.m.  I could see there were 'brownies' missing, though.  So, maybe we have some good cross-cultural thing going on.....

Tonight I'll try to share a few images from the day in Florence.  Met a fabulous new guide, Alessia, a friend of Antonella's.  She even has a special kids' tour that starts with a carriage-ride!  Exceedingly expert in all aspects of history, art and architectural history, but also very lively and fun.  Last year she put a food tasting tour together last year for a new NYC restaurateur who wanted to know what Italian food and ingredients SHOULD taste like.   And she did an artisan walk-around!  More on all this later. 

Off to Petroio now.

M

Hello, on this 6th day of 2014.  I'll just take a moment to share the situation here, while all of the US midsection, the east coast, large parts of the UK are suffering with the extreme cold.

Awoke this morning to find the sky clear blue, vacant of cloud and.....

only the Lady, Mt. Amiata, wearing a mantle of fluff....sun everywhere....

The garden is bathed in sun, surprisingly warm....

the huge scented geranium waiting its turn to be trundled into the winter greenhouse...

Artichokes beginning and a few sage leaves that will be fried for dinner tonight....

The few winter lettuces and the startling, tall red-flowered pineapple sage, left, bask a bit in the sun after our heavy rains of a few days ago....

And the fava bean plants hold promise for spring.  Eaten fresh from the cottony pods, eaten raw with a fragment of aged pecorino and a tad of salt....essence of spring...

MGH

Happy New Year!  Here in Montisi, now the 4th of January, it is cool, with dramatic skies, some rain and as always, beautiful panoramas and delicious food.  I have had a lovely group of friends nestled into the house since before Christmas.  Even a decorated live Christmas tree, about 10' tall, in the dining room!!  I arrived the 28th and we enjoyed a few day trips and waited, with great expectation, a lovely New Year's eve dinner.  We had arranged with Patrizia, who has been helping with Vitis Vinifera, to prepare a many-course, traditional Tuscan New Year dinner.  It far exceeded our hopes.  I will have photos shortly.  We built a large fire in the fireplace and 'settled in' for a succession of delicious and beautiful dishes - leek tart, traditional lentil dish (for luck and prosperity) and an extraordinary dessert of yeast-leavened cake as the base for a tiramisu garnished with glistening shards of pistachio brittle.

Yesterday we all parted company in Florence and I had the chance to wander the neighborhood where Madelyn and I lived 2 years ago.  I had a remarkable experience.  This is our street, via Osteria del Guanto. 

 

 

Our apartment doorway is just out of the frame to the right.  This photo is taken, as if you were walking to the Arno, west.  Notice the little niche in the wall, set into the wall.  That is typical of the cities, towns and villages throughout Italy. They hold religious images and figures, sometimes behind glass and metal grills, or just open.  Sometimes people living in the area tend them with flowers and candles.  They are a special element in almost every neighborhood.  I loved this one, visiting it, Madonna and Child almost every day, as I walked by.  Set high in the wall, it was not possible to study the sculpture but I had photographed and enlarged it on my computer to see more detail.

 

But this day, here is what I saw....

 

 

!!!!!!!!

 

I stopped into the little used furniture shop across from our apartment door and asked.  The story is this - a few weeks ago two men tried to steal it in the middle of the night.  They discovered that it was not made of wood or plaster, but was 80 kg of pietra serena!!!  Solid, heavy basalt stone!!!  Needless to say they could not carry it off and made so much noise neighbors called the police.  The statue was recovered and Giuseppe, who runs the furniture shop, took it in, to wait for the officials to come and reinstall it. 

 

So imagine my delight!!!  Please allow me to introduce this little statue, created about the time of Michelangelo....

 

 

Now you can see the amazing detail, the delicate features, the layers of pigment and the tender hands holding the baby.  The three little buttons...

 

Florence and Italy always amaze!!  What a wonderful occasion for me!!

 

 

I wanted to share this today.  I will write more and post some food photos when I get them in a few days.

 

To the Christmas/New Year's group - thank you for coming and sharing Villa Maddalena and her magic!  Travel safe!

M

 

********

Just so you can know that the gentle moments in winter, here, can bring new dimensions to one's love of Italy....a wander around Siena for example ~

 

A soft, luminous January day..... San Domenico frames the Duomo...

Nearby, my only shop for Siena painted ceramics...after visiting ALL shops, twice each, some years ago...this is my favorite.  Who would know, to look at it?  One of the surprises...

Complexity....

Each street, both in Siena and Florence, strung with a different theme of lights.  A fairyland at night...

A lovely Madonna and Child watches over....

Another, intriguing and lovely even when closed....

A study in patience, yes....?

A view from via dei Termini to via Banchi di Sopra...dressed for the festivities...the loveliest of skybridges, no?

Complexity, again....

Complexity continued....

Simplicity ~ arches, delicate lacework of the iron, the patina of the soft green mosses, the faded shutters with their painted surrounds...but how did they get the perfect pigeon to be the final detail?

Streets like this, long-since covered from the sky, now tunnels connecting...add a mystery and magic...

Complexity again - almost a confusion....

A lost lamb....

A glimpse of Il Campo, below....

 

 

 A last gesture, from the side chapel inside the duomo....

 

Siena, a tapestry, in any season.  Perhaps all the sweeter to consider when it becomes, again, a proud city of Italians going about savoring the holidays.....

 

Buon Anno!!  MGH