al mare

july update

Between a very busy summer, lot of time outside, and Ben needing the majority of our limited internet for work purposes I am not sure how frequent the posts will be but keep checking!

We have had a great month, punctuated by a visit from Gwen Adams who has brought us music, laughter, and lots of great stories. Also Ben's friends from the studio came up for the weekend and Angelica had her first modeling job sitting on the bench out in the courtyard. Julia is now crawling and learning that Gravagna is a very stony and rocky place for a small baby. Her favorite thing to do is sit at our little kitchen step and pull herself up to a standing and watch the wind blow the bead curtains that we have to keep the flies out. We were getting wonderful raw milk from a lady in the village but the cow just got pregnant and dried up so we are back on the regular stuff again. The raspberries have been really plentiful this year and the girls and I raided a couple abandoned bushes and they were so great.

Ben discovered another swimming hole even deeper than the waterfall down by the abandoned mill and we took the girls there today. Afterwards we explored down the creek and of all things found a wonderful deposit of clay. The girls had fun smearing it all over each other and i put some on my face and afterwards it made our skin so smooth! I brought back a bag to use at night after I wash my face. What a find!

Wowl I am feeling wonderfully mellow after five hours out in the sun and water.

Oh and the man in the photo is our neighbor Giuseppe who hurt his wrist up in a tree (he's 81) and had us help him make his dinner the other day.