The Sun is Shining and the Birds are Singing

After a very rainy day yesterday, I woke up to the birds singing and a beautiful sunny day. I was glad that we would be busy with picking oranges and the vegetable garden today. Nyla came back yesterday and it really changed the environment. She is definitely in charge and has tasks for everyone to do.

I was a little late to the 8:16am meeting because I stopped to see the dogs. It is so interesting that puppies only 3 weeks only are barking and growling. Apparently they come from a line of Abruzzo dogs; they were bred to guard against wolves. I guess I will not be bringing a puppy home!!

After so much rain, everything was so clean and fresh and the colors were vibrant. While we were picking oranges this morning, you could see Mt. Etna clearly. It is so breathtaking and I am looking forward to going up there next week.

We only needed 10 boxes of oranges, so the remainder of the morning was spent in the vegetable garden. It is a small, well planned garden. Although they put straw down to stop the weeds, apparently not enough and we had to do some major weeding. There is a major compost to fertilize the garden. It is purely organic but everything looks very healthy. I am definitely planting a garden back home.

This afternoon we carried the olive branches out of the field. I definitely got my 10000 steps. I told Martin that we should use a rope and tie the branches in a bundle and carry it out rather than going back and forth with a small bundle. Wow, was I wrong. I got some rope and tied a large bundle. I tried to drag it out but it was so heavy and you had to go over the waterfalls. By the time I finally got the bundle to the truck I was exhausted. Back to carrying the small bundles.

Dinners are definitely an event at Casa Della Acque. Everyone takes turns and the meals are so creative. Today we had couscous with herbs and we put broccoli with chick peas and garlic and etc. on top. As a sauce we had two types of yogurt dishes (one with cilantro and one with parsley, garlic, sesame, etc.). There isn’t a recipe and it would be difficult to recreate the dish as with all the other dishes I have been eating. We typically do not eat traditional Italian food, given that our group consists of Italian, German, French, and American.

Before dinner I usually get in 45 minutes of yoga. I am really trying to keep in shape with all the eating. It is so nice to be in the large yoga room and I get to do only the yoga moves I like. I am playing some of Nirav’s CDs. They are really great. I am really looking forward to meeting Nirav.

Ciao for now