California From the Air

From the Sierra Nevadas
to rivers and windmills
and the coastal hills,
this was a pretty flight home.
The last photo is probably Nevada.
It looked a bit like a crater,
but the light was getting dim,
and the photo has a rather mysterious blue quality.

FitzJerald!

Oh how I LOVE my "new" 2007 Toyota FJ Cruiser--
FitzJerald!
He is so fun to drive.
Emily & the kids & I went up the canyon yesterday
to enjoy driving him.
Thanks, Emily, for taking lots of pictures with me and my new baby!

Houston Christmas

When I was visiting my cousin in Houston,
she took me to see this house near her neighborhood.
No snow, but one has to admire the Christmas spirit!

My Buddy Bertram

This is Bertram the Bison,
at the wheel of my car.
He is a National Parks Bison.
In fact, here he is at Palo Alto National Battlefield:

And also at the top of Port Isabel lighthouse:

I met Bertram in a national parks gift store.
He had a tag on him saying "I am Buddy the Bison and I like to go to parks!"
I LOVE to go to National Parks and so he is a terrific companion.
But Buddy just wasn't his name.
He definitely is a Bertram.
And I intend to take him to a lot of national parks!

Rhinoceros hunt

The contrada of the Selva means "woodland" or "wild",
but the rhinoceros is the animal associated with it.
I found the Selva contrada territory today--
and a lot of rhinoceroses!

Boboli Gardens

I spent a peaceful late fall afternoon in Florence's Boboli Gardens
(they are behind the Pitti palace.)
Normally entrance is fairly expensive,
but I got in free with my museums pass.
I LOVE my museums pass!

Tuscany Color

Why Study Abroad is Worth It

Right now I have a cold,
and I'm tired and feeling a bit discouraged.
However, when I look at photos
of the students in museums,
giving presentations,
and engaged in on-site discovery,
I remember why I'm doing this.

Vegetarian Four Course Meal

To start: a salad of arugula and tomatoes
stuffed with ricotta cheese and herbs

first course: crepes stuffed with spinach and mixed cheeses

second course, eggplant parmigiana

dessert: chocolate souffle with orange and mint sauces

This was just heavenly.
I want to recreate this menu for an Italian dinner for my family
when I get home!!

Piedmont Fall Color

I expected I would miss all canyoning fall color this year
(there's not so much in Tuscany!)
but I spent a weekend in the Piedmont
in mid-October,
and it was gorgeous...

San Giovanni dell'Autostrada

I actually really like ultra-modern churches,
and San Giovanni dell'Autostrada,
near Florence,
was a real treat to visit.

Enchanted Evening in Monteriggioni

Monteriggioni is an utterly charming village
about 20 kilometers or less from Siena.
It is thoroughly touristy
but has good restaurants
and cute shops
and a really nicely preserved town piazza
with a small church,
and best of all,
a completely preserved circuit
of medieval walls with towers.
I was lucky enough to visit on an evening
when I had a rental car at my disposal
(the bus service finishes up much earlier)
so I could linger for late-evening light glow
and full moon rise.
It was gorgeous!

October rose

This was blooming in the warm shade this early October afternoon...

Church and Flag

There was even a giraffa flag at the gateway
to the basilica of San Francesco--
the contrada was really leaving their mark today.

Giraffe Territory

The contrada Giraffa won the palio this last August.
Their flags are still flying all over their neighborhood.
As I walked through these streets this afternoon
(on my way to my own church services)
they were preparing for some kind of neighborhood party--
they were setting up DJs and decorations
and lots of tables in the piazza in front of the big church.
The flags looked gorgeous in the afternoon sun.

Making Fresh Pasta

Making fresh pasta is not hard,
but it does take some time.
After mixing the dough and dividing it into balls
it is left to rest and rise for 10 minutes,
and then it is flattened into sheets.
First it is patted into a flattish square,
and then fed through the rollers of the pasta machine:

It has to go through ten times.
Each time the rollers are re-set from 10 to 9 to 8 and so on down to 1,
making the distance between the rollers smaller,
and the pasta is rolled out in thinner and thinner sheets.

After that, the pasta can be cut--
in rounds with filling in between, for ravioli,
or in long strips for fettucine.
We folded the pasta sheets and then cut them.

Here are the fresh pasta 'heaps' of linguine
ready to go into the boiling salted water.
It cooks for 3 minutes, and then gets taken out and put in the sauce.

Nando, our chef instructor,
says to always put the pasta in the sauce
(not the sauce on the pasta)
because this way the pasta absorbs the sauce flavors better.
Today's pasta was green with pureed parsley,
and the sauce was a clam and sauteed vegetable sauce....
YUM!