Birdfeeders and Italian Birds

The Avian Learning Curve 

British blue tits, already wise to feeders

At Le Ripe we have always been keen to feed our birds. In winter, when it is frosty and cold, the small migratory birds which stop at Le Ripe, as well as those which are resident,  can generally be assured of a square meal each day.

It's Springing

Another Early Spring  

Should we be worried?
Or just accept it, together with Emily Dickinson?

The Big Kitchen at the Pitti Palace

A Kitchen for Kings

Before the guided tour to the newly-renovated Medicean Cucinone or Big Kitchen started, there was time to explore the Royal Apartments of the Pitti Palace.

the divine right to luxury

The Royal Apartments are perfect examples of the much-money-little-taste syndrome: magnificent workmanship and raw materials, to be sure, in the brocades, the gilt mouldings around doors and windows, the damask wall coverings, the tassels and fringes and folderols, but the final effect is heavy and ostentatious in the extreme. Buone cose di pessimo gusto as the poet Guido Gozzano wrote.

Coming Home

 Back to Le Ripe in Winter

We have been absent, in the southern hemisphere, for some weeks. In the meantime winter has set in and changes have taken place.

Autumn Great and Small

Zoom out and zoom in on those once-in-a-year colours

 

Food of the Month: Remarkable Cavolo Nero or Tuscan Kale

 A Rustic Vegetable, Rediscovered

other names for this brassica are dinosaur kale, black kale, flat back cabbage, palm tree kale

It appears that a local peasant staple is currently the healthfood of choice in much of the western world. Brassica oleracea Lacinato is a tough plant which requires little attention and enjoys a long growing season, from one spring to another. It is particularly crunchy and tasty following winter frost. 

Piero della Francesca and the Fall of Light on Solid Bodies

The Dream of Constantine 

in The Legend of the True Cross, Basilica of San Francesco, Arezzo

overview of entire choir and its glorious frescoes

The Legend of the True Cross, Piero della Francesca's masterpiece in Arezzo, narrates how, over the centuries, the wood of the apple tree in the Garden of Eden became the cross on which Christ was crucified, through the interventions of the Queen of Sheba, Solomon and the Romans. Later in the story the cross's pedigree is verified and the cross itself plays a role in battles where Christians triumph over pagans. The Annunciation completes the cycle.
For a 3D virtual tour, have a look here.

A Happy Ending for Mister Fox

The Fox has Fled

Regarding our posts The Downside of a Fence  and Mystery Solved

we are delighted to announce that in all probability, Mr Renard has escaped the confines of our garden where he was inadvertently imprisoned during the installation of our perimeter fence.

Ordinary Lives

The Diary Museum of Pieve Santo Stefano

'The famous river bathes the small plain..' a homage to Pieve Santo Stefano and its river by the poet Carducci

As you waltz between Arezzo, Anghiari, San Sepolcro and other delights, you might take a detour to a little town called Pieve Santo Stefano which, thanks to the efforts of the journalist and writer, Saverio Tutino, has become home to and promotor of an archive dedicated to diaries, the diaries of ordinary people collected since 1984. The writings come from all over Italy and span two hundred years of the country's history. 
The archive now holds 7,000 diaries.

Mystery Solved

The Downside of a Fence part 2

We are now pretty sure of our mystery guest's identity because there have been several signs and, last night, a sighting, plus a convincing confirmation from the internet - to do with smell.

We first thought it might have been a fox. This was partly wishful thinking, because the possibility that a porcupine was enclosed in our garden with all its juicy bulbs, corms and tubers just waiting to be foraged, was just too scary.

Figgy Pudding

What to do with all the booty

 This year, with its hottest summer on record, seems to have worked wonders in the field. I am told that the grapes are promising, the olives are abundant and I can certainly attest to the incredible fig harvest of 2015, which is petering out only now. 

The Downside of a Fence

On the Inside Looking Out
(The Downside of a Fence part 1)

 When our fence was installed, over days and weeks, the noise of the men and machines ought to have scared off any residual larger inhabitants left in our garden.
But it seems it didn't.