our harvest

Yesterday we had our "harvest"! Well, harvest is a little too much , let' say we decided our one and only grape was ready to be tasted. Yes, exactly our one and only grape. I took the grapevine with me from Italy last year to have a little bit of italia in our garden here in Austria. The grapewine itself it's called "uva italia"! and this summer we got our first grape. Tasty! And the girls enjoyed one grape berry after the other...

... and it lasted long.

Zoo

Within one week it was today our second afternoon at the zoo in Vienna. Her favorites animals....

and it's amazing how much fun she has then just listing the names of the animals she knows ...

we will be there again soon!

outside

Another wonderful summer day to spend outside.... we are enjoying so much the time outside in the garden. playing, eating, sleeping, observing...

Wild orchid in our garden

Today during a walk to look for some fresh flowers, we had a nice surprise: wild orchids under the hazel trees!! Wild orchids in our garden! I do not know how widespread and common this specific kind of wild orchid is here in the region, but it's the first one we see here... and we are all excited that such a beautiful and exotic flower , grow in our garden!

Festa della Barbera

This last weekend we had in Castagnole the " Festa della Barbera".

Barbera is the wine that dominates our local production here in the area. We had dances and music

and markets with lot of colors, typical food products and a lot of people all around us...

Our guests left.

It was a beautiful, international, sunny, crowed, tasty, sleepless, colorful weekend! thank you.

Gardening

The view from Farineris today was amazingly beautiful. Finally after so much rain, we woke up with sun and all around us the Alps in snow. Beautiful.

And we did a lot of gardening. Flowers, flowers , flowers and long , long mowing.

And we had a lot of fun all together. And learned new interesting/funny tasks.

Our guests arrive tomorrow afternoon and stay over the weekend.

We have fine tuning to be done to the menus, and then we are done with the preparation.

Rain

Rain, rain ...rain

It has now been raining for days , weeks here in Piemonte.

The forecast says tomorrow should be nice again. I really hope so.

We will have some guests here in Farineris on the weekend, and we are stuck with the preparation. So many plans... A full program is available, just the weather must support.

Friciula di Polenta

We often have Polenta here. And we always have some leftover. And I love when I can find the best use of it.There is one recipe I am really proud of – Friciula di Polenta. I would translate it as Polenta fritters. This specific version of the recipe was passed from generation to generation in my family. I remember my grand father teaching it to my mother and my mother to me! Here we go :

Combine the polenta leftover with some pizza dough prepared in advanced. Then add some baking powder, and salt.

Knead and knead and knead

....till the right consistency is achieved

Form the fritters and put them to fry for 3 to 4 minutes per side in abundant olive oil .

Transfer to serving plate, and keep warm until all fritters are done.

Salt, pepper and .....

BUON APPETITO !!

Farineris .......we are coming !!

Ten hours driving from Vienna to Castagnole.

- on the road -

... and we arrived on Friday evening.

I will stay here in Farineris with my 2 kids for one month!

Long walks, relaxing days ... and a lot of planning for my next projects.

Sweet dreams.

Osterhase

Even if we are an Italian family, this year the "Osterhase" (Easter Bunny) stopped at our place with a basket full of painted eggs! He hided them in our garden on Saturday evening.....and on the Easter morning L. began to look for them. Smile on her face, each egg found was real happiness. ...yellow , green , blue , red ...colors we have all around in this beautiful springtime - renewal of life. This is one of the Austrian tradition I love and of course as Italian mother living in this country I try to follow it the best I can - for our family , for my kids.

Sisters

Today I found and bought something I really like.

I got the card "Schwestern" (Sisters) .

In a shop , I was looking for a present to give a friend , when I saw it.

I read it and decided to buy it immeditely for my little ones.

I love it.

As I came home , I decided to hang it in their room.

Schwestern

bleiben

für immer und ewig

verbunden

Sie sind nah oder weit entfernt

voneinander, Schwestern gehen

zusammen durchs Leben. Sie

sind für immer füreinander da...egal,

was geschieht ~ sie haben keine

Geheimnisse voreinander.

Schwestern sind ein Herz und eine

Seele, und sie sind sich immer treu.

Keiner kann dieses Band je trennen.

Nie geben sie einander mit Fein~

und Mitgefühl, denn sie sind aus

derselben Familie.

Schwester scheuen sich nicht,

sich füreinander über Regeln

hinwegzusetzen. Sie verteidigen

sich gegenseitig und gehen Risiken

füreinander ein. Sie lachen zusammen

und sie wienen zusammen. Sie

kennen ihre Geheimnisse. Sie vergeben

sich gegenseitig ihre Fehler, und sie

können beinahe ihre Gedanke lesen.

Sie lernen voneinander fürs Leben

und sind immer füreinander da und

gehen füreinander durch dick und dünn.

Kein anderer kann je denn Platz eneir

Schwester einnehmen. Danke, dass

du die meine bist. Ich trage dich für

immer und ewig in meinem Herzen.

~~ Donna Fargo

Heart

Hidden heart in the Farineris garden.

I have been living in Austria for years now , but I am strongly "attached" to Farineris, where I grew up with my family. Italy.

Spring is really coming.

We enjoy the sun under the hazel trees and get to try the last year hazels we find now that the snow is completely gone.

...

Thank you to the friend I met yesterday. Today I really felt like writing this post.

26 gennaio 2009

Ecco ho creato il mio blog. Farineris.