HAPPY EASTER TO ALL!

 Today finally the sun was shining. We came for the weekend to the house we used to share with friends in a national park a towards the southwest end of Tuscany: El Parco dell-Uccellina. Most of the same group of friends still share the house (and have for 18 years!) and very generously invited us to spend the weekend with them... and a few of the "kids" (now adults in their late '20s early '30s!)... each day there are a few more. Today we are ... I think about 17!

As you can see, this morning was gorgeous ... so a few of us went for a llloooonnnngggg walk!

We arrived back just in time for an apperitivo...

followed by Easter lunch!

Now on to serious things... partly by popular request, and partly because we do so much of it, the rest of this post has mostly to do with food.

Memmo was up at the crack of dawn to light the wood stove:

To roast the lamb and the roast beef that Roberto and Memmo prepared  to roast with potatoes and artichokes to eat...

 oops, no! that is not the Easter lamb...

... after the pesto lasagne...

All of which we ate after a blessed, hand-colored hard-boiled egg.

Dani and Stefania did most of the coloring on Saturday to take to church today for the priest to bless...

Of course, we ended with the traditional "colomba" (or Easter cake)

 It is amazing that within 20 minutes of finishing all is cleared away!

When we finished eating the sun was actually hot and the day even more gorgeous. Most of the group headed for the beach. Dani, Kate, Memmo and Giovanna stayed home to shower, rest and generally enjoy the quiet of the afternoon

Followed by another long walk...

who was that guy???

Going back in time... We arrived Friday at midday and Dani and Giovanna went right to work

to feed us poor hungry souls a "simple" ravioli with a sauce of fresh florentine tomatoes, fresh basil and garlic, two "tortillas" that dani and I brought and a fresh artichoke salad...

All accompanied by quantities of red or white wine and procecco... later a digestivo...  oh! They are calling me for dinner again...

If you are thinking that basically what we do here is eat...

Your are right!

Now even further back....

march  29

allora....

negli ultimi giorni tanto Kate quanto io ci siamo dedicati a lavoraresui corsi di UMass e a continuare la mia istruzione sull uso della cibernetica nell' arte e printing da Maestro  Raffaele. Ecco un risultato di questi corsi che ha gia riscosso un discreto successo, misura 1.50 cm x 20 cm, per apprezzarlo, dovete ingrandire.

Over the past few days, both Dani and I have been working...me in my UMass courses, Dani has continued his instruction in digital creation with Master Raffaele. Below is the discrete successful result of the "courses": "Pablo Digital" (to appreciate it, you should enlarge it):

"PABLO DIGITAL"

In realta' non e' stata tutto lavoro la settimana: mercoledi, approfittando del bel tempo, siamo passati da Firenze, abbiamo visitato la Galleria Tornabuoni, una Galleria d'arte in Borgo San Jacopo, siamo poi andati a visitare i nuovi uffici di Stefania,  e successivamente siamo andati ad una deliziosa cena da Camilla e Francescocomposta da:

Antipasto di salamino toscano

tagliatelle al sugo di cinghiale

melanzane alla parmigiana ala Camilla

tiramisu fatto in casa...

tutto annaffiato da un delizioso Morellino di Scansano.

Actually, we have not actually been working all week... Wednesday we went to Florence to visit a friend's art gallery (Galleria Tornabuoni) in Borgo San Jacaoi and then visited Stefania's new office and finally took the new (to us) tram to dinner with Camilla and Francesco. Camilla is a fantastic cook and it was wonderful to be invited to one of the "kids" homes (are we getting old or what?!).

(Sorry, no fotos... you can take our word for it that it was a special dinner... thank you Camilla and Francesco!

Ancora facciamo fatica a renderci conto che nelle case italiane questa e' una cena "normale". / It is still hard for us the realize that in an Italian home these dinners are "normal"

Now seriously... we are about to eat... again! Leftovers tonight. They'll have to drag me... that's a lie!

As they say... molto volentieri! (with much pleasure!)