Golden light

It’s hot and the woods are golden in the summer light. Every evening we make our way up the mountain on the old vespa delighting in the verdant cool archway of trees over the narrow road. Pieve dei Monti di Villa is a haven, its deep mountain quiet, a complete rest after full on days

The Artist

We left Australia two days ago.  Today we are sitting on the verandah of a little bamboo hut, wind sifting through the leaves of the giant banyan tree in whose elegant web of roots we nestle.  The waves are lapping insistently on the sand and children are running and laughing, in the distance some awful

A visit to Melbourne

Melbourne has become such a hip city.  It makes one of the best coffees in the world.  It has great social areas, tons of cool cafes, fantastic restaurants with really on the edge cuisine, music everywhere, lots of city squares and nature throughout, in the grand old parklands.  It has its share of violence on

A visit to Castlemaine, Australia

We are back in Australia to see our families.  Arrival this time was spectacular, water in the dams and the grass green, an enormous blessing after so many years of drought and devastation.  The wonderful thing about arriving back here is the sky.  An enormous luminous sky that spans your vision two thirds, the earth

Cycladic Art – truth to the spirit

Life is a cool thing. Its funny, not everything is meant to be known to you as you go about life’s lessons, maybe if they were, we would be too cerebral about learning, maybe you have to take things in through the osmosis of the emotions, the brain, the body, so that you really know

A celebration of life on the river bank

Overhead, on the verandah, Sollai is cementing the patch work of canals made for recent wires and plumbing, cheerful and gung ho, cement is flying from his flailing spatula. The garden is water ridden and the river is swollen and brown, but today the sun is shining and we pull the geraniums back out onto