Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Dust ... Yes It Is Everywhere

No new volcano news today ... thank goodness, but tons of stranded travellers are here waiting to get out. Marco Polo Airport is supposed to re-open today but the haze here is terrible. We shall see. I thought of going down to Venice today for lunch but stayed home as I expect the crowds are pretty thick ... and unhappy.
We went to Venice a week or so ago and it was amazing. I was in the middle of reading a book called "The City of Falling Angels" by John Berendt (of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil fame) which is about the burning of the famous opera house in Venice called "The Fenice". So, as we were wandering around Venice looking at things like:
while trying to decide if we should ride in the orange crushed velvet with pompoms and fringe pimped out gondola
or the more taditional but also more subdued type:
My husband, who never thinks of these things, says "Hey! Let's go look at that building you are reading about." And so we did. I wish now that I had finished the book first and so I will have to go back because they have rebuilt it and when you stand in the street, 6 feet from the building next to it, you see why, at the beginning of the book, the fear was that all of Venice would burn. It was incredible there!
In other news, I recieved a shipment of wool yarn from Stone Hedge Mills. It is gorgeous and I will try to take pictures and get them up. They did a fabulous job and I have already started a shawl in the black/silver. What will I do now that I have no fleeces of my own to send them ... yikes!
I can see the trees
Through the window ... blossoms fly
Following the wind.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Geek Needed ...

I know I have an Italian IP address now ... and that I live here and all ... but I really need to find a way to make Google and Yahoo  and every other thing on my computer stay in English. Really. My Italian is bad at best and while I am trying to improve it this is not helping ... it's like that version of Word that used to guess what you wanted to write while you were typing and then didn't want to admit it was wrong. I need less help that way.
But Italy is every bit as amazing as I thought it would be. A few weeks ago I toured the castle town of Valvasone. They have been renovating the castle for twelve years and today they were able to allow people in to see the "Gaming Room".  Here is what it looked like in the town while I was there:
And then we toured the two Churches there which are famous for their frescos:

And then we had an amazing lunch ... for about 2 1/2 hours. LOL

The internet here is hellish ... but if I can, I will write again tomorrow about my trip to Venice. I will say that I am finding some amazing inspiration for new yarn colours and can hardly wait for my things to get here. In about 2 weeks I should be able to get back up and running ... I'll keep you posted.

I hear the door lock ...
Then the rattling of paper
The scratching of lead.