Moody Monday--Posh

Louis Vuitton in Milan, Italy

See It Sunday--Sun

Tuscan Sunflowers--they really do all orient to the sun! Another place I could stand being in right now.

My Favorite Vacation Spot

I found this photo contest on a blog participating in Wordless Wednesday. The theme is "My Favorite Vacation Spot." I'm always game for a new game that doesn't take up too much time. Thanks to An Island Life for the meme. If you want to join in you have until midnight May 17.
I was torn between photos of the Pacific beaches where my parents hang out and the farm in Tuscany where I spent much of the last two summers. In the end Tuscany won. Actually I don't know if I will ever get back there. The kids find it a bit boring and aren't as close to the family that initially invited us there. I loved it. When I was bored, rarely, I just figured a little boredom is good for the soul or made a day trip to the nearest big town which is Lucca (20 minutes away). Florence was less than an hour away, Siena a bit further and so on. Not exactly dull. So here is my photo of where we stayed. The fenced in yard in front had horses and goats. The horses were available for riding lessons. The house in back is one of the ones we stayed in. We moved around a bit for logistical reasons and the property has several homes.

See It Sunday--Village

Village of Lucchio in the mountains of Italy. Above the town are the remnants of a fortress.

Tuesday Challenge--Reflection

Taken in Florence Italy. The shop window display was inadequately captured due to the reflection but yours truly is there along with other reflected items.

Photo Sharks--Obsession

Two obsessions in one. Taken in Lucca, Italy during the 2006 world cup--display done in chocolate. The soccer ball is made of dark and white chocolate and the shoes of dark chocolate. The display changed depending on who Italy was playing that week.



This photo is poorly focused but you can see the detail the chocolate maker put into his display (another type of obsessiveness).

Moody Monday--Defensive

If I were threatened I would like to have this fortress to defend me. Fortezza di Castiglioni di Garfagnana, Italy.

Natural History Blogs

The Neurophilosophy blog posted a great list of natural history blogs. I thought I'd link to it in case you're interested in checking them out. It's a long list. Would take a few days to visit them all.
The picture is just because there is always room for one more nature picture. Taken in a garden in Tuscany.

Wordless Wednesday

Pharmacy in Abbetone, Italy.

Pink Pig

Don't you just love him? Seen in Colonnata, a small town in Liguria, Italy.
For Thursday Challenge, Pink.

I'm in the mood. . .

To post a photo. This was taken in Lucca, Italy last summer. Wish I could just jaunt over there now.

Sunday Scribblings--Yummy

Yummy
This prompt makes me think of a conversation we had over dinner last night. We were invited to dinner at the home of one of my husband’s colleagues. He and his wife are French and when the main course was served, the wife remarked that at least the dish wasn’t rabbit. Apparently they had discovered in the course of their entertaining Americans that rabbit was not always well received. Americans tend to regard rabbit as a pet, not a food. I’ve never been served rabbit in the United States although I have had it in Paris and in Italy. As meat goes, it is fairly benign in my book.
Of course that led to a number of food stories. We compared notes about challenging foods. We came up with bird’s nest soup, a French dish made of whole songbirds (orlotans)—for an interesting article about this dish click on this link—no one at the table had partaken of this delicacy as the birds are now endangered, some strange ways of preparing shrimp and so on.
My favorite, slightly shameful, food story was shared. A couple of years ago, my family and I traveled to Italy. We wound up eating one night in a delightful little restaurant in the small town of Apricale. It was one of those restaurants that didn’t have a menu—the proprietor discussed the food with you and then served it. The meat course was rabbit.
Younger son declined but older son gamely (pun intended) decided to try it. I think all would have proceeded smoothly except that before the meat dish, we had several rounds of appetizers, served with generous quantities of wine. My husband and I became a bit jovial due to the wine and atmosphere. When the rabbit dish finally arrived, my son started poking at it a bit dubiously. The meat was served in a generous sauce so it could have been from any one of a number of small animals but kids are kids. “Bunny bones,” he declared. Well, my slightly inebriated husband and I couldn’t help but laugh. The coup de grace, however, was when said husband decided to do his Elmer Fudd imitation. His rendition of “Kill the wabbit” definitely put my son off rabbit, maybe for life. Two years later, my son still gets very annoyed if we sing this song. So, being good parents, of course we do. I’m sure he is scarred for life but he has to have something to tell his future therapist.

Thursday photo challenge--People

Perugia--wedding party and tourists overlap.

Photosharks--Famous

What could be more famous than the Roman Colosseum?

Cinque Terre, Italy

In the summer of 2005, my family and I traveled a bit in Italy. One side trip we took was to the Cinque Terre area. Cinque Terre is visually stunning, as in the picture, but was not the highlight of the trip in my mind. It was very touristy and I did not find the people at all friendly. My sense was that the region was dying out and turning to tourism to keep it alive but that the need to do so was resented by the locals.
Cinque Terre is relatively difficult to reach due to limited car access but once you are able to enter one of the small towns, there is boat transportation up and down the coast. There is also a walking trail which we unfortunately did not have time or energy to do. Maybe with more time I would have had a more favorable experience of the region.

Thursday photo challenge--Wealth

A jewelry shop window in Florence.

Photo Hunt-Technology

Clock works--Torre Delle Ore, Lucca, Italy
Not high tech by our standards but I bet it was when it was designed.

Out of words

I find myself not having much to say for myself. Perhaps I posted too much in December or perhaps I just have jet lag. Yesterday, we traveled for 10 hours from Seattle to Chicago (one layover in Minneapolis). I managed to read a bit but didn't arrive home in the mood to blog much.
Tomorrow I have a long work day and I'm dreading the transition back to the routine. My work involves some subtle and some not so subtle stresses that do wear on me. I was reading an article in a medical journal which stated that around 1/3 of all doctors would not encourage their children to pick medicine. Although I love what I do, the joy of the practice of medicine has been eroded by the advent of managed care, increasing costs of malpractice insurance, increasing work loads and pointless paperwork. Someday maybe I'll post a rant about dealing with insurance companies. So much of what they do is intended to waste physician, patient and hospital's time. And every now and then there is just one of those bad days when I doubt myself and what I do.
But see, now you made me depressed. So I am going to change the subject and post a happy photo or two. I'll look for something summery.

This is a fortress in the Tuscan town of Castiglioni di Garfagnana. The light from the setting sun was just beautiful that evening.

Bedtime musings

I am so hooked on this blogging stuff, that I had to put off eating a quick dinner and going to sleep to check my favorite bloggers and write a few quick notes. My younger son had an attack of scary thoughts before bed and is asleep on the couch waiting for me to go upstairs to bed with him. It's just me, my computer and my space heater in a quiet house.
Some of my favorite bloggers sounded kind of low. I hope my posts cheered them up. And who cheers up a tired shrink? A few internet moments, a cuddly, sleepy kid, a cuddly, sleepy cat, a good book before lights out. Life could be worse.
Oh, and I'll try to post a cheery picture.

Check this out

If any of you are still feeling starved for creative fun, check out this site:
teawithmcnair.typepad.com/tea_with_mcnair/
Tea with McNair is starting a "creativity camp" entitled Between Reason and Recess. All you have to do for now is gather up the supplies. If I knew how to do links I would link you up but try this address: teawithmcnair.typepad.com/tea_with_mcnair/2006/11/i_know_a_place.html

Good resolution:
Learn html for links.

By the way the picture is of a Milanese window display of the characters of Ice Age 2 done in marzipan. That's creative enough for me.