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Thursday not really Doors 16/3/23: Capalbio Scalo

Previous week I showed you our train station and once I was there, I took the long way home. It lasted an hour to reach it. I wish to show you my walk, no matter that there were not many doors to speak of.

But first: Take the fibre, they said. It will be fast, they said. And lo, for real. Look at this improvement! The first photo shows our old internet speed, the second photo new.

Downloads will now be 700 times faster! 😮 And uploads almost 300 times. I already noticed it when I uploaded my photos. It was done in the blink of an eye.

Do you know how fast your internet connection is? Take a test at speedtest.net. I just took it again and download is even faster, Mbps 895.79!

Let’s return now to the previous Sunday when I put amore on the train and then walked with bestia out the train station’s back exit through our beautiful green countryside. Doors are where you see them. And look, there are daffodils! And even a lizard.

The panda symbol on the World Wide Fund sign caused a hilarious conversation when I first arrived here and was walking bestia behind the station. A man of unclear origin and language with a map folded out approached me and told me he had just gotten off the train and had no idea where he was. I showed him Capalbio on the map. Then he noticed the WWF panda sign and asked in all seriousness: “Are there bears here?”

  • Bestia is making sure there are no bears near.
  • Good, no bears. Not many doors either.
  • Just the green valley of my surprising new home (well, it’s been ten years).
  • Lake Burano with the sea behind those green bushes and some feathery visitors.
  • A door! I wondered why this tree is so special but then I noticed there was a whole row of them.
  • A train door!
  • Bestia wanted to explore but we weren’t invited.
  • Yes to panda, no to drones.
  • A door for the eyes.
  • This gate doesn’t let us in either. We continued to the right.
  • The sign shows the way to the official entrance to the lake. Last year they started to charge a fee.
  • Many eucalyptus doors. (You need imagination.)
  • A canal door.
  • I have never seen wild daffodils before (at least not here).
  • The under-track door. I need to pretend to be a car. No people lane.
  • There really can be as much water here to prevent passage. The topmost mark shows 1.50 meters (I’m 1.70 m tall).
  • This means we are near home. This property is on sale if you wish to be my neighbour.
  • The Hitachi gate is not very sturdy.
  • The Hitachi was there for this: They decided to enlarge our bridge! How kind.
  • This little fellow decided it was spring.
  • And this is our next door neighbour.

For Thursday Doors challenge hosted by Dan at No Facilities

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March 2022

Happy first poppy day! No photo yet but there it was by the road this morning, tiny, alone and first. Here are twenty glances from last March to see how spring was unfolding last year.

Of course, the first poppy I already noticed at Christmas, but that was the only one, an anomaly, whereas this one will cause the sea of poppies to follow.

Just yesterday, as I was going through the photos from last March for this post, I saw that the first poppy of last spring arrived on the 17th. So we are four days ahead. But I was astonished at the multitudes of blossoms on the trees. This year they are barely there. At night there is still a chill but days are warm, slowly getting hot.

March is the best month, especially this year because it means that Easter is near when I get to visit my people and my country for a week.

Bursting forth.
Another tree.
Bestia as bokeh.
Happy daisies.
Wild violets.
This year this tree’s blossoms are barely there.
First poppy on March 17th, four days later than this year.
But there’s more.
Green carpet with orange blooms.
Down below.
Up on the roof.
Eucalyptus war paint.
Primary school peace flags.
Late afternoon feel.
Sometimes it feels just how it looks: 90.
Inviting.
Cheerful neighbour.
What have we got here?
But of course, it’s the March Hare. And he is late.
And a week later, poppies were three.

Previous months of 2022:

March in previous years:

Thursday Doors 9/3/23: Capalbio train station

When I found myself standing in front of an open door of a train, a thought crossed my mind… Dan = doors + trains! Perfect!

So yes, this is just behind our tiny train station. Capalbio is the name of the medieval town on the hill 15 minutes away by car, so I can imagine people who come by train to visit the old town being a little upset by this fact.

This is a common occurrence. These hilltop towns were not meant for trains. That’s why a newer addition to the town had to be built down below. This part of town around the train station is called Capalbio Scalo.

The train station has a back door that leads to a road with the view of Lake Burano, the salty marshy strip of water parallel to the sea. This area is the first Italian nature reserve. The sea is less than 2 km from the tracks. I suspect it will come closer.

On Sunday, when I accompanied amore to the station and put him on the train for Rome, I was astonished to discover the old house opposite the back exit, which used to be full of pigeons and falling apart, under reconstruction. Italians never fail to surprise. Money changes things.

Here is the Sunday look at our station with a few old photos for comparison and The Mystery of the Moving Gate for the finish. Always welcome.

If you came to visit me, now would be the moment to get off the train.
Where am I? Where is everybody?
To ease orientation. Each bell has a different ring. I haven’t been to Genoa yet. It is far.
The train arrived after a few minutes of bell ringing and amore hopped on.
The train came from that direction.
This is when I realised that I was looking at a door. Double door! Hello, Thursday!
The door closed and the train started to move. Better not cross that yellow line.
Bestia was a little anxious since the train swallowed amore.
The view from the other platform. There are only two. Here is where amore used to return home after work. Now he goes by car.
Three photos from 2017. The view out the back. See that house?
That house was not in a very good shape.
Pigeons and broken windows. I always liked this photo.
On Sunday this view greeted me. Goodness! A crane for Dan as well!!
The gate next to the house in 2017. Can you see the bird in the middle?
Bestia is confused. Compare this view…
…with this one from this Sunday. Where did the olive trees go?
It must be that the gate has been moved to the right. This view is better, bestia agrees.

For Thursday Doors challenge hosted by Dan at No Facilities

Last photos of February

Here are two last photos of last month featuring the usual suspects.

Very quickly: one dog, the last photo taken with my camera…

…and two goofballs, the last one taken with my phone. There was an online carnival again, you see. With good wishes, your Pippi.

Bushboy’s rules are simple:

1. Post the last photo on your SD card or last photo on your phone for the 28th February or whenever your last photo was taken.
2. No editing – who cares if it is out of focus, not framed as you would like or the subject matter didn’t cooperate.
3. You don’t have to have any explanations, just the photo will do.
4. Create a Pingback to this post or link in the comments.
5. Tag “The Last Photo”.

For Last on the card challenge hosted by bushboys world

Thursday Doors 2/3/23: Last of 2022 doors

With this post all my last year’s doors worth showing have been showed. Now I’ll really need to go somewhere new.

I had a quick look through all my last year’s folders (there are not as many any more) and rescued the last doors that I haven’t showed yet. They are all from around here and I pass them regularly. The last one comes with a drabble, i.e. 100-word story (not counting the title).

The first gallery shows the same gate, freshly painted last March, in four stages. As you can see, by October it was already ready for a fresh coat of paint. Did you know that a red bench symbolises fight against violence towards women? Or is this campaign only in Italy?

March.
April.
May.
October. Bestia is not guilty. For Christmas, the red bench was moved to the railway station.

Next, some door finds at an abandoned train station.

Spotted across the tracks.
Every door must be zoomed in.
Maybe not fully abandoned.
Then again… An unexpected door underground.

The next gallery shows a newly-built commercial structure in nearby Borgo Carige. It is still empty and on sale, if you’re interested. It doesn’t look all that bad… I like the arches and the greenery.

Side entrance.
A door neighbour.

And finally, let me conclude with various gates which I pass daily on my dog walks.

Testing the fisheye lens.
The donkey’s gate.
The gate with the cat on the warm tin roof.
The gate with the green frame.
A gate as bokeh.
And finally, this one deserves a real-life story in 100 words. Read it below.
Federico and Paola

“Signora!”
Signorina, actually, but I turn. 
She of the only other couple living in our condominium permanently is looking at me expectantly. 
“Lei è russa, no? You are Russian?” (English is here just for you.)
Nope, no, really not. I’ve only been living here for 10 years. No reason to know such a detail.
“But do you understand it?”
“No, I can read Cyrillic though!”
“Excellent, come with me.”
I follow her and she proudly shows me her gate.
“Federico e Paola,” I read in neat Cyrillic. 
This is how I learn their names. And how they lean in war.

For Thursday Doors challenge hosted by Dan at No Facilities

February 2022

This post has three parts: a funny re-enactment attempt, a song, and twenty photos from last February for my Calendar series.

First, you saw it last year already but I just have to repost this experiment. We had an online carnival last year and bestia had to be the seal.

Found online.
Done from memory (only found the above photo later). I released him soon after.

It’s been a while since I last gave you a song. This one is in Slovenian. She is singing “it’s-all -the-same-all-the-time.” (If the song refuses to play here, watch it on YouTube.)

As you will see in the photos, it really is, all the same. The question is: if beauty is all there is, is it still beautiful?

Even you know it by now, what I see around me daily: bestia, donkey, one field, another field, the town on the hill, blue sky. If the time is right, rosemary and almond trees in bloom. Last year the blossoming was extra rich.

This year spring is a week behind compared to last year (no matter that the first poppy was spotted three months earlier than usually). Only the top branches of this tree have some blossoms, for now. It’s been raining today. I haven’t seen such blue sky in days.

But there is also an airplane going to the moon (no, just missed it). And four photos from another daytrip to Rome. And some faraway piglets. And a personal cloud.

I will always aspire to find something new in the familiar, no matter how hard it is getting. Ten years will do that to you.

  • Why such a long tail?
  • Captain, you missed the moon.
  • Rome’s colours in a photo.
  • More spring in Rome. If the devil is six…
  • Cross and olive.
  • Rome’s trash collectors.
  • Back home. Field one.
  • Field two.
  • A favourite view. It is pretty but I have so many such photos. Similar but not the same.
  • Rose, Mary.
  • Donkey neighbour had new piglets. They didn’t last long.
  • This is how it began, on February 16th. This year it has even less blossoms today, a week later.
  • And this is how it was on February 23rd.
  • Rome bound.
  • Not in the photo but the tree was buzzing with bees.
  • So cheerful.
  • Personal cloud.
  • Community supermarket, for when we don’t go to the lagoon.
  • Capalbio on the hill.
  • Another blooming tree.

Previous months of 2022:

February in previous years:

Thursday Doors 23/2/23: Ostia

Funny how one can completely forget such a pleasant day.

It was the last day of last May when I saw Flavia for the last time (for now). We had lunch in her Ostia by the sea, which is practically still greater Rome, and then strolled a little first in the city where we had gelato, and then in the nearby woods which felt really good in the heat.

Not only I forgot that I had these doors to post but I also forgot what we had for lunch, which is highly atypical for me. And I don’t even have any photos of it.

It must be because I was overwhelmed. I couldn’t believe that after more than half a year of isolation I was finally walking somewhere NEW, with another living soul for company that was not a dog.

I was busy chatting and didn’t click much. These are almost all the photos I took. Except in the woods, I clicked more often there but, alas, I didn’t see any doors. You will see.

So yes, I didn’t need to go somewhere new this week. Again. Still. But I will. Spring is on.

  • Where we had lunch.
  • Ostia is cheerful.
  • A long road by the sea.
  • My friend would say: “I love what nobody else loves.”
  • From the main road. We didn’t approach.
  • More candy colours.
  • Almost like a boat.
  • The green shutters are eye-pleasing.
  • Cheeky balconies.
  • Il Krapfen? Doesn’t sound very Italian.
  • I might have been chatting but doors are always in my view.
  • She caught my glance too.
  • Another door that didn’t let me pass.
  • A bookshop and one piece of Flavia.
  • Double doors and triple half wheels.
  • A look up with bicycles on the wall.
  • I had a feeling to be in a movie throughout.
  • Then we drove to the woods where doors were not to be had.
  • The only house we saw. Not much left.
  • Just street art.

For Thursday Doors challenge hosted by Dan at No Facilities

New moon book on Monday

Yes, it’s Monday, yes, it’s the new moon, and yes, the book with my moon poem is out now!

The Polaris Trilogy: Poems for the Moon with poems selected to travel to the Moon with NASA next year was published by Brick Street Poetry, Inc. and is available through Amazon.com (and regional Amazon websites) here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BSWS61PV

I love the first paragraph of its description on Amazon:

The Polaris Trilogy has been compiled as a gift
to the Moon by its three editors: Joyce Brinkman,
Dr. Joe Heithaus, and Jessica Reed. This anthology
will be available to those who visit the Moon for
millions of years to come. It will arrive on a NASA
flight and become part of the Lunar Codex at the
Moon’s South Pole.

My poem is a gift to the moon. Wow.

Roughly 150 poems by 150 poets from all over the world have been left in original languages and divided into three sections by continent. Europe is in the first section. The only input we got for our poem is to write about either ROCK, AIR, WATER, or all three of them which is what I chose.

Thus, my poem is called Kamen, zrak in voda (“Rock, Air and Water”). The plan is to make a recording of my reading of the poem both in original and in my English translation later this year for the Off the Bricks podcast. Until then you get only this tease.

When all else fails,

rock, air and water

go on a little trip.

Tensions flow.

Most of the poems are in English, including those of my friend Kerfe Roig (here we go, K.!) and Robert Okaji, for example. I recognize Jane Dougherty as well but hers is in French. Yet there are many other languages as well. I’m curious if there is anybody who can read all these poem gifts. This is quite a thing to behold.

The first thing I did was put the book in our olive tree and on our gate to take some photos, which is what I do with everything I love. Here it is next to the remains of the praying mantis egg sack. (Really! To the left of the book. I caught it laying eggs but missed the moment when they were hatched.)

I thought to make a selection of first reactions from family and friends, mostly bloggers, upon learning the news this Christmas. In the name is the link to a fresh blogpost.

My granddaughter Bennett wants to be an astronaut – I am going to share this news with her. She will be as happy for you as I am. ~Melinda

Now I can say, I have a friend whose poem has gone to space. ~Smitha

You are the first of my friends to go to the moon. ~Crystal

Will someone read the poems on the moon? ~Snow

Congratulations, Manja! Now I call you MMMM!!! ~Jem

An interstellar superstar you are! ~Randall

You are a true lunatic! ~Sunra Nina

I’m happy to have you represent Earthlings. ~Dan

See you on the moon!  ~Kerfe

Just like my poem, the comments of my Slovenian family members and one friend remain in the original, too. The Moon doesn’t mind. The Moon understands.

Kle komi verjamejo. Bravo! Nč jasn, čist hudo. ~Sis

Komaj čakamo na objavo – in na izlet posrečene pesmi. ~Dad

Enkrat si rekla, da boš slavna. E V O !!! ~Mum

Naša bližnja sorodnica prva Slovenka na Luni! ~Duša

Tudi mi, ki te poznamo, bomo malo poleteli v vesolje, nasproti večnosti. ~Mateja

And if you visit, remember: it’s the South Pole.

“Does this mean that you are going somewhere too?” No, bestia, I’ll stay right here and we will look at the Moon together.

Thursday Doors 16/2/23: Early spring in Rome

This week I give you spring sights and not as many but at least fresh doors from this weekend in Monteverde, a residential district in western Rome.

This Sunday we went to Rome for lunch to celebrate a couple of family birthdays. As soon as we arrived and bestia greeted everybody (so happy to finally meet other humans beside us), he wanted to take me out. At least somebody, said I and off we went.

Spring is happily bursting forth, the sky is blue, a rose is a rose, and a discarded car door is a door too.

I do hope to take myself out to a new place and its doors by next Thursday. It’s high time.

For Thursday Doors challenge hosted by Dan at No Facilities

What were you doing 30 years ago?

“What were you doing 30 years ago?” was one of my first blog posts ever. Next year it will be 40 years from that February 14th and I will have been blogging for 10 years.

Read the original article in the link below.

Love yourselves and each other and stay awake.

The Mexi Movie I. (closed)

Written on February 14th during the Olympics

Image http://dovla.net/2012/02/olimpijski-cevapi/

On February 14th 1984, quite out of a blue, I told my teacher in school that I had to go to the dentist, and flew out of school as fast as I could. (I was going to something called all-day primary school, its last year, which included lunch and a few classes of independent work per day, very good for doing nothing at all, and lasted from 8am to 3.30pm.)

Instead of going to the dentist I ran straight home. Winter Olympic Games were in process, you see. In Sarajevo, no less, in what was my country at the time, Yugoslavia. True, we had a TV turned on in school hall but we were only allowed to watch it during recess. After watching the promising first run of men’s giant slalom which ended with a couple of our guys close to the top…

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