gorgonzola

I couldn't help myself. After weighing up all the American options, looking longingly at the turkey panini, I chose the salad with gorgonzola.

My on-line Italian lesson for the week is about an Indian drink made from cow's urine. Yes, I had to check, it sounded so off-beat it had to be true, and sure enough google produced many well researched and informative articles about it.

I'll stick to water for now... the size of the free refill drinks here would undo all the gains from eating salad instead of traditional southern cuisine. I do enjoy the shrimps, and recommend browsing Uncle Ben's website for some healthy not-so-southern meals.

This morning's thunderstorms had the front-of-house squirrel tree-hopping for shelter in the evergreen by the driveway. Between storms it was back into the spring foliage and open branches. I too would prefer spring and new growth to stagnant and stale.

Today I am grateful for healthy food that reminds me that (on some level) we are what we eat and think.

making cushions

Bright little yellow cushions on a red couch make me feel like decorating my own home. I have been resisting adding decoration until I get the "bones" (ie, rocks) of it in order. But joining in with the renovation here has given me itchy fingers...I want colour in my home, and comfort.

I think there could be a cushion and curtain effort coming up when I get home... or maybe not! The diary is already pretty full.

Ah well...

Today I am grateful for bright colours and the use of a lovely sewing machine.
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wide and high

There is a song I used to sing as a kid, with the words "the prairie sky is wide and high" deep in the heart of Texas.

This isn't Texas, but each time I visit I am struck by how wide the sky is. I guess I have always lived near hills.

The sky is pale here (when not stormy!) In Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, it is cobalt blue above cerulean; where I live in Italy it is cobalt blue over cobalt blue light.

I wonder, how deep is the ocean, how wide is the sky?

Today I am grateful for sunshine and warm weather.
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mostly i accept

Mostly I accept without comment the things that work very differently in my new culture. After all, I chose to live there, with my eyes relatively wide open. I had been "coming and going" there for a couple of years, had read Frances Mayes and Marlena di Blasi. I had watched all the home improvement programmes, the ex-pats following their dreams. I assumed it would be reasonably similar for a migrating kiwi. There have been a few surprises, but every day the good outweighs any minor frustrations.

This one has me flummoxed though. I have almost finished my supply of watercolour paper purchased in New Zealand... yes, Italian watercolour paper. I brought it back to Italy. I haven't managed to find a replacement source near my home.

I have searched and searched on line. I carried my last purchase half the length of Italy by train from Riccione. Here in the USA I have found a supply at a relatively good price. Dilemma! Do I buy it here and take it home to Italy again?

In my search I found this... beautiful white paper that is green!
Well done, Fabriano. Now your next challenge is to supply affordable paper down in my part of Italy...

*****

Daily delight...


Today I am grateful for the little chipmunk who visits us every day.
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american cats

American cats are not allowed outdoors, so when I bought a little damp outdoors indoors there was much curiosity. How could I tell them to get down off the table?Today cats are grateful for... visiting Nonnas!

wondering

I have been prescribed a cream for an ongoing patch of skin damage, solar keratosis, which has been treated by burning with dry ice over the past ten years or so. The specialist who prescribed the cream was most insistent that I return to be checked after two weeks. Unfortunately the cream wasn't available until one week before I travelled.

Two weeks into treatment I have an itchy rash over most of my body, and my eyes have been bothering me for about a week. I have had a headache for ten days, I am not sleeping well and at times I think my fibromyalgia has recurred.

I am writing this because, unsure about the cause of the rash (it is pollen time here, I am eating a different diet, I am in a house with four cats), I researched the side effects of Aldara cream.

Wonder drug or dangerous medicine? I don't know, but I will stop using it and hope that no real damage has been done. I have had no adverse reaction at the application site (forehead) but enough of the reported side effects to wonder if this drug requires much more testing before it is prescribed. Surgery may have been a better option.

There will be no sun for me this summer. Perhaps I should have moved further north? (Just joking... I'm a wuss in the cold!)

Today I am grateful for cautious dermatologists.
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end of the month

Tomorrow is the "pinch and a punch for the first of the month" day.

I wonder where that strange ritual came from?

We are spring cleaning, here in Alabama. It has been a long day... so no "real" post but some sitting back to relax instead!

Today I am grateful for happy company as I worked.