Monkey Zoey

.
Baby Monkey Zoey is her full name, but now that's she's a year old I'm trying to wean her off 'baby". I just can't seem to lose the monkey though. She stands on her hind legs and reaches up to be held still, like a little monkey. This is my willful child. That's a nice way of saying 'brat'. My beloved dog Sydney and I found her on one of our walks, alone and crying, eyes crusted shut, tiny little thing in some weeds outside a church in Tuscany. She had me at "meow".

Fabulous Figs

.

Fig trees are everywhere in this region of Italy and it's harvest time! I'm a huge fan of the fig and my fig trees are full. Life is good. I've been surfing the net for recipes. Some of my favorites I found are fig and banana smoothie, fig-lemon jam, fig ricotta pie, fig almond bundt cake, balsamic fig sauce, and how about fig tart with black olive ice cream! Then there's always my absolute favorite, fig with goat cheese and prosciutto. I can feel my pants shrinking already -- again...

Lemon-Lime Squeezer

..
Look, it's a spremi limone, a lemon-lime squeezer! It only cost 1 euro AND it works! Put in your orders now before we run out of stock. Supplies are limited.

Baby Bird

can

Look what I found! A mass of down and pink parts. I discovered him hunkered down in the grass beside the house frightened to death. Too young to try flying yet, I think someone pushed him out of the nest. Okay, it could've been accidental. Either way, It's a good thing I didn't step on him or worse yet that one of my two cats didn't find him first! Everyone assured me that he wouldn't make it more than a few hours, but I put him in a cozy bed and covered him to make him comfortable. Every couple of hours I checked to see if he was still breathing and finally around 10pm I gave him some water mashed with canned dog food (I'd done some online research). We were sitting watching TV together, the bird cupped in my hand, when I heard the faintest 'peep'. At first, I thought it was something on the television, but I put him close to my ear and the little dear was actually periodically peeping. Hope! I went to sleep and woke the next morning, somewhat hesitant yet anxious to check on my patient. I slowly pulled back the cover and he was still alive! I already had an appointment by the vet at 4pm for my cat, but living here in Italy where animals serve a purpose -- you either eat them or they work for you -- I was sure they would snap his tiny little neck and throw him in the bin without a moment's hesitation. I had resigned myself to having to rear him myself, but not looking forward to trying to keep the cats away from him. I was soooooo pleased to learn that in fact there was a woman who lives in Magione who takes care of orphaned birds! Although I had already formed an attachment, I drove to Magione and handed him over. He's now in the good care of Ivania. God bless Ivania, and a shout-out to my peep!

Iced Coffee

...This is SO delicious! I know it's nothing new to you Starbuck's, Peet's, Deaf Dog and other coffee boutique frequenters, but it's a revelation to me. I'm not a huge coffee drinker, but I am a coffee drinker. In the morning I like my latte. By the way, if you want to order it in a cafe in Italy it's called a latte macchiato, which literally means stained coffee. If you order a latte you'll get a glass of milk. I've seen it happen. Anyway, the temperature here has been hovering around 100 degrees for over two weeks. Although the air is fresh outside in the morning, it's still warm inside the house. Almost too warm to drink my daily morning latte. I only make it halfway through. This is what I'm doing with the other half! YUM!!!