It seems as if it should already be summer. But, after our hyper-Spring the last two weeks - very warm - it looks as if this next week will be glorious. The pink and white dogwoods on the street are blooming as are the lush purple irises in my neighbor's yard. And I cut some lilacs today to add fragrance in the house.
As immersed as I am in Italy - its food, flowers, and festivals - I am already thinking about spending long summer evenings on the front porch with a book. That is until the mosquitoes arrive. And the humidity. Bah.
Headed to the local fruit and vegetable market to stock up for the week: broccoli, potatoes, red pepper, cabbage, mushrooms, onion, and garlic. Also small tender carrots with their feathery green tops still on. No plastic wrap here. I laughed as I set them on the counter and said, "I feel just like Peter Rabbit."
Frances Mayes is really inspiring me to think about my garden and my dinner plate. I don't know why her second book, Bella Tuscany which I am reading now, got such tepid reviews. She writes about other towns in Italy and a trip to Sicily. And then Venice. One of the reviewers said he wished just once Mayes would have a bad fave bean. I don't think there is one to be found in Italy.
Mayes writes about her longing to travel since her first solo trip at the age of 6. Her mother sent her off on the train to visit her grandmother. Looking at the farmhouses along the way she wondered what the inhabitants' lives were like. She is still wondering today. That is what impels her journeys.
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