the world outside

I've escaped upstairs to my room as the day is ending and as the music from Horse In the Sea plays, the hustle and bustle of the outside world seems a million miles away. I stood outside earlier tonight in my socks on the side terrace, the red tiles still warm from the day's sun, and watched the procession of colors and light commandeer the sky. Yellow streaks of light, traces of blue and warm peach hues gracing the edges of cloud; this was the sunset. Thunder rumbled and a flash of lightning lit the sky over the hill down to Lago Trasimeno; somewhere it was raining...

It really is nice to take the time to enjoy the small things in life. More than anything else that has been my goal on this trip. It's always a difficult thing; to savour the small precious moments in life. People are always in such a hurry or don't have the time or the ability, when in actuality, beauty can be found anywhere at any given moment. I worked in the orto again today. I've been given the task of creating a secondary, much smaller and narrower stone path for the lower terrace. I have been shying away from it; after completing the upper path, I didn't want to have to create another and well, here we are. I spent 2 hours this morning struggling, thinking, and expending copious amounts of brain power trying to fit the puzzle pieces of this smaller path together to no avail. I gave up quite frustrated and went for the normal coffee break with Patrick. And as usual, with so many other things in life all you need is a step back and refocus of your thoughts to think clearly. Frustration can cloud the mind and when I returned after coffee it all fell into place and an hour later I'd found a home for all three wheelbarrow loads of stone I'd taken down there. It was quite a nice feeling, especially since I was dreading it for so long.

I made an attempt to get rid of my farmers tan today (don't worry raccoon eyes are still there). I wore a tanktop and worked under the sun and in the heat (there is little wind in the orto) and despite putting on SPF 30 sunscreen (I may have missed a few spots) my shoulder blades are quite red. I'll wear a real shirt tomorrow ;] Anyhow after working the stone path, I pulled the last bit of the weeds and got to work strimming the rest of the areas. I love it actually. It feels good to clear a hillside or embankment. It really does look nice. I really am proud of the work I am doing here. I hope it shows and that Patrick and Ro are happy with the effort I have put out for them. I've just photographed downstairs for them. Ro wants to put some photos of their house on the website she is working on. I'm quite happy to make a contribution. In any case, we'll see how the weather goes for the next few days. Supposed to rain at some point in the near future. I might go to Citta della Pieve on Saturday and do a little brewery tour of the birrificio there. They have a beer containing basil, and also one that contains truffles so I'm quite curious to see how that would be. We'll see how it goes. I've been photographing lots. I'm happy. Until next time...

Zach