Stocking up for those deep winter Tucson nights

We've just less than a month left. It seems unreal. I went to a few stores today and asked when they'd be closed...this Monday until the 20th, the 23rd, the 27th, until September. So I stocked up. You know, on the important stuff, cotton,alpaca,worsted wool and merino. Food, schmood. Then we got home and pulled out the rest of the stash I've accumulated since we arrived...

Oh dear.



And to think, this is how it started.

In my defense, some of it is a gift for an avid knitter. The rest...I only have this to say:

Dear Family,

For the next few seasons all gifts from our household on the occasion of your birthday or various Winter holiday will resemble a knit or crochet hat, scarf or bag. I say resemble because I don't have a very good reputation for finishing my projects. Still, something to look forward to?

All my love,

Your wife/mother/daughter/daughter in-law/sister in-law/cousin/niece/aunt (Delete as appropriate)

ps. Dear mother in-law I will finish that hedgehog for you before this December. Honest.


I fear, however, that I may have imparted some of my less desirable traits to my daughter. This is how I found her after leaving her alone for just a few seconds in the living room with the yarn stash:

Puritanical Modesty Meets Eric Carle

or...
No br*asts please, we're British (or American) . Asterisks placed just to stop weird Google searches not because the human form should not be discussed or is in some way a shameful thing.

It isn't quite done, but this is the result of all that tissue paper mania the other day. Rather than using glue, we stuck the tissue paper to contact paper. Ila, her aunt and I had a grand old time sticking tissue, pants, fingers, and food to the contact paper . Enough of a good time that we may yet stick tissue paper to contact paper again.

Once we'd wrecked havoc on the contact paper, and pretty much covered it with tissue paper, we put another piece of contact paper on top. Sealed in contact paper, hopefully the tissue paper won't bleed. We cut contact/tissue paper up into strips and curves and placed it on the window. Quite a successful family project, I think and all for less than four Euros.


And now for something a little different.

This week, here in Firenze, something changed. We're still getting rain, but the temperatures rose a touch, the mink coats disappeared, babes and toddlers were no longer dressed for 20 below (even though it was probably 60 degrees), and it just felt different, like Spring had arrived. The trattatorias and cafes started to dress the outside tables AND people began to sit outside. I think I'm going to enjoy this.

ps. M, I think I found the type of gnocchi I want to emulate, but I've only signed up for a Indian cooking class so far. Hey, I'll be able to make paneer. 
pps. The Italian language class was a great success, but now I have homework.

Yarn is a beautiful thing

On this, my fortieth birthday I present you with unadulterated yarn p*rn. Picked up at Santo Spirito's Organic Market (held every third Sunday of the month) for a ridiculously cheap price. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it yet. Suggestions accepted. For right now, I'm happy to just pet the yarn and know it is here.

I know I'm supposed to bemoan this point as I pass, without doubt, into middle age, but I'm really excited to be here. In the past decade I have met the most wonderful man and married him, been lucky enough have and parent my lovely child, shared my life and home with two dogs and two cats, have fabulous and rewarding friendships, found a job that I truly love and moved to a different country. Twelve years ago at this time I was still off work following a cardiac arrest that I was extremely lucky to survive. I do not take this day lightly, nor any day. I look forward to fifty, sixty and seventy as long as health and sanity serve me well. After a full, wonderful day my parting shot is this, Doug, Ila and I blowing out the candles on my birthday cake. May your birthday this year and every be filled with much joy too.




ps. Remember that picture and the olive trees that I had posted under the Arcetri post? I was asked by a complete stranger whether they could use it on their First Daffodils blog. Both flattering and wacky. Check it out. the photos is Friday, March 13th Daff of the Day:

Sweet

Today's highlights:

1. Being recognized on the street by someone almost as if we lived here
The wonderful chef, Nola, from the restaurant we were at last night recognized us and came over and said hi. Nola then proceeded to gush all over Ila. Someone knows us in Florence.

2. Remembering last night's meal cooked by Nola
Primo - First course (for all of us, not just me)
-Crespelle alla Fiorentina (Spinach, ricotta pancakes/crepes in a tomato sauce - yum)
-Ravioli di ricotta e spinaci (in a butter sauce & sage)
I love the use of sage leaves in food. We had this tremendous butternut squash tortellini while we were in Marin this summer that had a butter sage component. This dish reminds me a little of that. I obviously need to include sage in cooking at home.
Secondo
-Filetto di maiale in crosta - Pork filet in bread crust. It sounds so plain and maybe a little bizarre, but it is a sinful plate of salt, carbohydrate and meat. Delicious.
-Swiss Chard sauteed
We need a little green

3. Avoiding lines and saving money
Walked into the correct office at the Uffizi at opening time (10am) and bought a family pass (100 Euros for the calendar year) with no fuss and no wait. This pass will get us into a bunch of places and I estimate will pay for itself in the next 3 weeks. If you're planning on visiting and want to see a bunch of places over a few days this maybe the way to go.

4. Finishing the beret
I made some errors in gauge. It is a little top heavy, but so soft AND purple.

Brought to you by the letter V and the color purple

This post goes out to my cousin Nikki and my colleagues and friends Olivia and Cheryl. The first two, because they luuuuuuuuuuuuuv shoes, the third for her love of purple. 

One of Ila's first words was purple. Certainly, it was one of her first multiple syllable words, and Viola was a top contender for her name, so I'm a little partial to the color. Here, in Firenze, purple is everywhere. I'm not interested in fashion, but the difference in dress here as compared to Tucson is not completely lost on me. I saw a little purple in Tucson. I knew it was one of this season's colors, but nothing like here. Everyone, men, women, old and young is wearing some shade, violet, indigo, lavender, orchid....

Just down the street from our apartment is this fabulous shoe display, a shrine to purple and insane shoe prices.  You can't quite see it here, but the shoes in the center have some sort of metallic wedge heel. I can't imagine wearing any of them for more than a few steps, but they're cool to look at. While I'm not so sure about shoes that can double as torture devices, actually I am sure I don't like them, I'm not sure that I think fashion is all bad. As long as it doesn't hurt, confine, restrict, but allow creativity and expression in some format, I hope Ila will appreciate fashion as something to be playful with rather than a set of rules. I'm afraid I see it too much as a set of rules, so I  just shut down and ignore fashion all together.

Despite my aversion to fashion, I do love the color purple and so in honor of the color purple, of my almost named Viola, and in an attempt to use up some of the yarn stash I brought with me, I've started knitting a beret.   Yes, I did bring some yarn stash with me. Yes, to one of the global capitals of yarn, a place where it was the Wool Guild (Arte della Lana) that commissioned Brunelleschi to build one of the most famous domes (Duomo) and the cupola of the Duomo, I brought yarn. I guess, at this point, I should share a picture of the Duomo, but mine came out terribly today. Will have to try again, another time.   The yarn, Frog Tree Alpaca worsted weight, like the Duomo, is beautiful, the picture doesn't do it justice. It is incredibly soft (knitting should be confined to working with the softest yarns and only small projects) and the purple deeper and more vibrant than represented here.   I got the yarn on sale at Kiwi Knitting (my LYS in Tucson). I'm working on a beret from Baby Beanies by Amanda Keeys.  The pattern has some issues, but I'll subject you to those when the beret is done.

So the fascination with purple didn't occupy the whole day.  We started off visiting the San Lorenzo Central Market. Downstairs are fruits, veggies, meats, and cheeses, upstairs leather goods. I didn't actually go upstairs. It was more like the markets I grew up, except with better (and more expensive) food.  We bought some very pricey, but amazing tortellini from this place and just across the way was this amazing dedication to cheese. Who couldn't be moved by that? Don't think about the last sentence for too long.

While getting to know where to buy everything is going to take a while, I love being able to go to a market like this again; to have specific stores for bread, veggies, meat etc. It seems so much more respectful of food. Thanks to my dear friend M, I have some cooking classes to explore too.  As for the lack of 24 hour supermarkets, Doug went out tonight and found a place that was open until midnight where he bought a bottle of not bad Chianti, chocolate and some milk for Ila. What more do we need?


With that, I leave you with my almost Viola, in true to form fuzzy mode and her dad. She is really into giving hugs right now. It is wonderful.