Maine!

Howdy Knittah!

We decided to take advantage of the long weekend and take a trip up to Portland, Maine. Have you ever been there? It's a cute little city, and very laid back, with some lovely scenery. We had tried to find an alpaca farm (but the Garmin did not think the address existed), and we were going to go on a tour of a vodka distillery (but they were closed for the 4th). We did get to see a neat lighthouse though!




















This is the Portland Head Light, and it's much prettier in person. (Someone managed to charge all her camera batteries, but leave the camera at home, so we were stuck with a cell phone and a disposable.) We arrived after the museum closed, but there were still interesting things to see there.







Hope you had a nice 4th!

June 2009 Delivery

I took all your beautiful gifts to my doctor yesterday, and laid out a few for him to see. The rest were in a huge box! Our final tally was:

6 blankets
9 sweaters
3 shawls
15 scarves
8 hats
8 pairs mittens
5 hat sets (with either matching scarf or socks)
1 hand made toy

He was thrilled, and we talked about some ideas for the future as well. He happily posed for a picture, but I caught him while blinking. Sorry Dr. G! I didn't notice until this morning!



Thank you to each of you who donated for this round. Information on the next round will be posted this week!

Big Fat Generosity

You've overwhelmed me with your generosity once again! Today was the deadline for the latest Botswana Project collection, and I've got to cram a lot of gifts into this one post!

Sweaters, by Vicki, Anne Marie, Lara, and Bev:



Here's a better look at the ones at the bottom of the pile (Lara's and Anne Marie's):



Thank you for all the gorgeous gifts. I'll be taking them to my doctor on Monday, and I'll have an update for you next week!

Lisa sent shawls and blankets:



Hats by Maria, Corinna, Yasemin, and Carol:



Hat/scarf sets by Maria and Corinna:



Baby hat and bootie sets by Corinna, and a toy from Bev:



Mittens! Courtesy of Bev and her Monday night knitting group:



A whole mess of scarves from Anne Marie, Maria, Laina, Clarissa



More scarves from Clarissa, Maria and Anne Marie:

Eliza and Me

The June 19th deadline for our next Botswana collection is fast-approaching. Too fast. Where did May go? Anyway, I made this blue pullover:



And Eliza made two baby blankets like this one:



AND she made another baby blanket:



AND she made three scarves:



Rock on, Eliza! Just a reminder that gifts for the Botswana project are due to me on June 19th. We've been asked especially for sweaters and scarves. Email me if you need more info.

Rocca, Bagno Vignoni, and San Quirico

Hi Knittah.

From Rocca, we hiked over to Bagno Vignoni and on to San Quirico. Bagno Vignoni is a spa town with thermal waters considered very beneficial for bone ailments. There are now, still, 2 big hotels that attract people, and certainly on Easter weekend the town was crazy busy with Italians on a day trip. Here's the view from Rocca towards Bagno:



En route, we encountered a Tuscan Serpent!



OK, perhaps not on a par with the Hungarian Horntail or whatever, but still, it was about 2.5 feet and really active and threatening spread out like that across the tail...well, actually, no, it was completely still soaking up the sunshine.



We came to the river Orcia and had to make the crossing. The nazis bombed out the bridge during the retreat...



and it's never been properly replaced...the wooden suspension bridge only lasted a few years before that plan fell apart, as it were.



So we had to walk across the spillway (which you can see in the lower lefthand corner of the above photo). Which means stripping off boots etc. The water came up to Eliza's ankles, about the limit, according to the hike instructions. Of course, the instructions also said that the moss isn't slippery. Yeah, maybe not, if you're wearing crampons. As it was, Eliza almost lost it--And ME--on the second step. From then on, she took baby steps across.

Approaching Bagno Vignoni, we saw a family BBQ'ing. Note the easter egg center piece on the picnic table:



The water and geology felt a little reminiscent of yellowstone:





At some point, the Italians built a grain mill within the hill you saw above, taking advantage of the steam from the water to power things.



Eliza needed to phone her life line, the local contact Paolo, from Bagno to figure out how to get out of town, because the directions, "...follow along the street into the village. After you've finished moseying about...go to the loggia at the end of the pool. Facing the pool, turn left and then right..." etc. made no sense to her. How embarrassing to get lost in a small town.

From there, we walked on towards San Quirico. In San Quirico, the town's gentlemen presided:

Swatchy C a fiori

Hi Knittah.

During grad school, Eliza had an Italian roommate, Emanuela. Ema's mother doesn't speak English. Eliza doesn't speak Italian. Anyway, finally, when Ema's mom visited for graduation, it dawned on them to converse in Spanish, and it would have really simplified things if they'd thought of that sooner. But until that point, it was challenging. Ema's mom would call and Eliza wouldn't know how to explain that Ema was out. Ema finally coached Eliza on how to explain to her mom that she was out. Eliza, however, heard it as "Ema a fiori" which made Ema laugh hysterically because that means "Ema's in the flowers." What Eliza was supposed to understand was "Ema a fuori" meaning Ema's out and about.

Anyway, so my point with this little preview is that Eliza has a...mischievous streak and she delighted in putting ME, Swatchy C, "a fiori":



But finally, Tuscan poppies. And are those wild delphiniums?!!

This post has some random snaps from the hiking. This is a lovely home near Rocca, and don't you just want to hang out on that patio?



Believe it or not, Italy has boxed wine. Which Barbara, Bill, and Eliza decided was a good idea for hiking. Here I am enjoying a much-deserved break on the trail, pizza bianco (basically a plain thick-ish crust) with some prosciutto:



There were tons of lizards all over the place but they mostly moved like lightning so you could never get a good look at one. But here we got lucky:

Rocca d'Orcia

Hi Knittah!

We spent 2 nights in Rocca, the first after the walk from Castelnuovo dell'Abate and the second after a walk from Rocca to San Quirico (from which we got a ride back to town by the local contact, Paolo).

The walk from Montalcino to Rocca was beautiful. We kept seeing the Castello di Ripa d'Orcia, of the Piccolomini family (of Pope Pius II and other infamous personages), from different angles:



Here Barbara and Bill enter Rocca:



Rocca is considered a great example of a medieval borgo (hamlet). The fortress on the top of the hill was built about a millenium ago. The old town piazza, around the well, dates from the 12th century:



Our hotel, San Simeone, was just below the fortress.





Elements of the hotel were built right into the hillside. Here's Eliza's bathroom:



We ate both nights at the town's only restaurant, Il Borgo (the hamlet), a lovely restaurant whose proprietess, Marta, spoke English and French fluently, in addition to Italian. (Apologies for the fuzzy photo--Eliza had the camera settings all wrong.) Marta was a lovely hostess and was incredibly patient in explaining the menu:



Here you can see the view across the rooftops of Rocca, towards Bagno Vignoni and San Quirico, the hike for the 2nd day:

Making a Difference

I thought you would enjoy seeing pictures of one of the families you have helped with your donations to the Botswana project. Look at the smiles on these beautiful faces:



You put those smiles there! Your generous gifts of time and knitting have made a positive difference in the lives of this family. Thank you. Thank you.

Our next collection deadline is June 19th. I hope you'll join me, again.

Montalcino to Castelnuovo dell'Abate

Hi Knittah.

We stayed 2 nights in Montalcino. On the 2nd day, Good Friday day [I know, I posted the evening scene on the last post...sorry, bad planning], we hiked from Montalcino to Castelnuovo dell'Abate. This hike included instructions like:

"You arrive at a driveway lined with cypresses (the tall skinny trees). Just past the second cypress on the left..."

and

"Stay with the main road where it turns left at the farmhouse on your right. There is usually a chained barking dog here."

The countryside is practically littered with agriturismos--farms of various types that offer a twist on the bed-and-breakfast model. Here's an intersection outside of Montalcino with signs to all the local attractions and agriturismos. [The recycling bins are positioned there so that the residents in the area can deposit their recyclables there--no curbside collection.]



Just outside of Montalcino are the ruins of an Etruscan settlement:



(Yeah, I'm not sure what all it says, but basically there was like a fortress part of the settlement for defensive purposes. And the image that came to mind was of Legolas and Gimli...)



Probably about a mile and a half before reaching Castelnuovo, up in the hills, Eliza and I came upon a large group of what appeared to be an Italian version of boy/girl scouts (there were both), in uniform, aged in the mid-teens maybe (Eliza can't tell any more), sitting in a circle on a hilltop around a crucifix and a priest (monk? Eliza can't tell that either) wearing full length white robes. Eliza didn't take photos, obviously. Anyway, proceeding on past the group and down the other side of the hill, we saw yet another group sitting in the shade off the trail, holding a service of sorts. And they were being passed by yet another group coming up the trail. This group was curious: there was a strict looking teacher in front, with a boy in civilian clothing, a girl in civilian clothing with a head scarf over her head (sort of like a hijab), and another girl wearing a super tight white t-shirt and a little black mini skirt. A boy right behind them bore a crucifix. They were followed by maybe 50 more scouts in uniform. Eliza was puzzled by the civilian clothing, especially the seemingly inappropriate mini skirt. And then she realized: the 3 in front were Mary, Joseph, and Mary Magdalene (the mini skirt).

Anyway, it turns out that there's a big Catholic student/scout center just outside of Castelnuovo because of the abbey there. But it was quite a display--all those students schlepping crucifixes up a rugged farm track up steep hills for Good Friday services of sorts.

The Abbey of Sant Antimo apparently was initiated under Charlemagne in the 9th century. The abbey became really powerful over the next couple of centuries until Pope Pius II "reorganized." The abbey was unoccupied for over 500 years until it was re-populated in 1993 with a small community of French Cistercian monks.



In Castelnuovo, I spied a monk loose from the Abbey. Is that allowed?!



And then back in Montalcino, for dinner...Eliza ordered pasta. There's a hand-rolled pasta from that area called "pici." Because it's hand-rolled, it's thick-thin (Knittah perhaps would compare it to a hand-spun) and in this case it was prepared very simply with tomatoes, garlic, and a bit of basil. Eliza says that it was heavenly. And is it not beautiful?!