a little bit of earth

I laid awake for hours last night planning the garden at via Broccaindosso. It isn't my apartment, but they've given me free reign to play in the dirt. No one else is as excited about the work and they find it amusing that I am. Last fall I raked up all the fallen leaves and gathered the assorted trash and old furniture lying around, uncovered the ancient rosemary that was still straggling along on its own, composted the rotting pomegranates... It's ready for some spring planting.

At the end of the garden is a shed full of antique beams and a wood-burning stove constructed from enormous slabs of stone. I don't think the stove has functioned for a century, but it's really tempting to try. Water buckets and fire extinguishers at hand of course. The weather has been relentlessly grey and damp so the idea of a fire is heavenly. What to do with such a shed! I've imagined raising doves or other fowl, brewing beer or distilling spirits, growing mushrooms, building a wood-fired sauna. Of course, in reality it will remain storage. But it's a great daydream.

A proposito dreams, I awoke everyone this morning screaming, "LISTEN!". weird.

dog blog 3.0

Groucho in a rare moment of tranquil cohabitation with Dora. and me.

So here I am, squatting in my friends' apartment in Bologna. Bolognese student-style: coop meals, bunkbeds, dogs, heating set at 50 degrees. Despite all this, and a recent bout of the flu that we all shared, it is great to be back. And it's great to have friends who put me up. I owe them a nice out-of-your-hair-finally present.

Soon I get my own place! As soon as A. moves out.

Bologna is mostly as I remember it. And I as it remembers me. This morning I passed by my parucchiere to fix an appointment for a haircut; he greeted me with, "See, your hair is still shiny from the conditioning treatment we gave you."

Still damp, cool, grey. It's still a place to come inside and have a bowl of tortellini in brodo. Still a place to sleep in on weekends and to have plush slippers by your bed; to ignore the rules when the puppies want to climb in bed with you.

ben tornata

I'm back. In Bologna!!!

dog blog 2

days til departure: 16

dogsitting again, this time at my aunt's house in CT, a charming but depressed Bandit. she's not into antics, just sleeping on the furniture and begging for tablescraps.

my cousin Hannah on the other hand, who I'm also, um, -sitting (teensitting? sitting for? on?) is lively and entertaining.

I'm commuting, telecommuting, and otherwise feeling displaced. it does leave me some leisure reading time -- currently loving The Accidental Connoisseur: an irreverent journey through the wine world by Lawrence Osborne. yes, I'm a foodie right down to the buttery marrow of my bones.