December 2020

Before we run out of this December, here is my last year’s in twenty images for my Calendar 2020. At the very end of the year I shall post the final calendar with one photo for each month.

I’ve been doing this for five years now. Every month I go through all my photos from the same month one year ago, see what there was to see, and pick the creamiest of the crops. Usually I end up with something between 50 and 100 post-worthy photos, post 20 immediately and save the rest for future posts.

This month I ended up with 21 photos. Everything that deserves to be posted fits in one post, this one. Let’s just say that last December was not the most eventful month of my life. We didn’t even go to Rome for Christmas to spend it with amore’s father and family like every year since 2013 when I moved to Tuscany. But you know all about that.

This year it’s much better. Amore is on holidays until next year. We are going to Rome at least for the Christmas Eve. Four other noteworthy happenings:

• The bird from my “I choose” post is still around. I saw it three more times. Crystal sent me a link to the site (by chance owned by my friend Donna Stiles) with lots of birds to choose from. I choose Montagu’s Harrier. It’s got the right look to it.
• Whatever you do, do NOT watch “Don’t Look Up”. It will leave you feeling mad, bad and sad.
• However, do watch “The Beatles: Get Back”, all eight glorious hours of it. I felt like being in a room with them. The times were so different, so casual, so polite. I wasn’t even born yet. They were certainly hiding Billy Preston well from me all these years. No wonder it sounds as groovy.
• Another project that was long in the making, for 40 years, is the Kurt Vonnegut documentary “Unstuck in Time”. The filmmaker Robert Weide got to become his friend and the film was put on the back track. And then Kurt died and Robert grieved, and now it’s finally here, messy and all, just like a life really is.

Whereas this was my December last year. So much nothing that food gets 5 shots, donkey gets two and bestia gets two as well. But first, a package from Slovenia that made me feel like a soldier: overjoyed and grateful. And another one is coming over right about now.

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  David Vračko is one of the top Slovenian chefs and his pâté led the way. The green stuff is mint.

• 

  Last year there were still two Geese of the Apocalypse, our neighbours. Down to the last one now. Hm… maybe that’s why the harrier hangs around. Plus one wet donkey.

• 

  Hey there. You’re cheerful for being so wet.

• 

  This prickly pear growth had to go. A bulldozer came and just flattened them out.

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  Lake Burano and a nice green carpet.

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  Another murky shot.

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  A rare ship on the horizon. This is not their corridor. You can see that the lake is actually lower than the sea.

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  An abandoned house between the train station and the lake.

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  Our train station. Not as visited since May 2020 when amore started going to work by company car and no longer by train.

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  I wonder if they actually eat them or they are just for show.

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  Our happy acquisition which I put on my New Year’s greeting card: bathroom door mat!

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  So it goes. Limoncello cake in the making.

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  Plus Almost Italian Christmas biscuits.

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  This was my second attempt and they were indeed round, after a flatter first-time edition.

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  Amore likes to surprise meat with apples.

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  Our post-Christmas lunch.

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  The end of the year is coming.

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  We are ready.

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  Bestia is worried because of the noise. No matter how remote our location, there is always a stronzo around to break our balls with pyrotechnics.

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  But then he thinks, ahh, shuck it. Life is too short to worry.

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Previous months of my Calendar 2020:

• January
• February
• March
• April
• May
• June
• July
• August
• September
• October, part 1
• October, part 2
• November

December in previous years:

• 2016
• 2017
• 2018
• 2019

This day in my blogging history

• 

  2015: A spotted and a regular leopard

• 

  2015: Thursday Doors and windows, this one from Croatia

• 

  2020: Best of Thursday Doors 2020