The Swallows Return to the South of Italy

One of the fond memories I have from my childhood in Southern California was the annual return of the swallows to the mission San Juan Capistrano. There was much anticipation and large crowds of birdwatchers would gather with their binoculars to witness this event every year. I was always amazed that somehow the birds knew what day they were expected to arrive. This did not seem to depend on the weather... but the calendar. There was always much pointing and cheering when the first bird appeared and the television news always had the story and featured the birds. It was very similar to my amazement regarding the salmon and their struggle home to the very stream of their birth.

During my visit to Italy last year i could not help but notice the swallows with the massive numbers and cacophony of sound that accompanied them. Every photo i took of the towns and landscapes included them lol. It was very obvious to me that they had not yet arrived from their wintering grounds in South Africa, when i got here to Otranto this spring.

Yesterday I noticed for the first time that groups of 20-30 birds had begun to arrive. They are not the little brown species that come to southern California. They are a little bit bigger, black with a little white on belly and open wing and a long sharply forked tail. They fly feed and sing day and night. but are especially active in the morning and evening when they ring the church bells. So i imagined that they nest pretty regularly in the bell towers of the churches. Welcome back little friends. Maybe some day i will follow your path of migration to Southern Africa. Or at least follow your habit of migration from northern California in the summer and fall to southern italy in the winter and spring.

speaking of Africa...some new friends from Brindisi, said they were going on a trip to Morocco. They said that it was a very inexpensive excursion from southern Italy. Just a short flight over the Mediterranean (middle-earth) Sea. They said that accomodations were good and inexpensive and the only thing they needed was to find a driver to tour them around.

Blessings:
- Not only have the cooking classes been awesome beyond belief, but the resulting foods keep finding their way back to our apartment where my roomates and I have been taking to the habit of having little dinner parties. We have added cheeses, breads, wines and pastries to the mix as well. HEAVENLY! Forget the diets damnit. Ill drop the kg's later lol lol.

- The local supermercato! where the nice people and personal service is beyond the call of duty and makes our own supermarkets seem impersonal and overly commercial. They managed to get for me the incredible mushrooms i wanted!

- Fughi Grifola frondosa and Enzo's sister Teresa who showed me how to prepare them (and eat them lol). They look like a giant brown rose and i think may be related to the Chanterelle.



i have never seen mushrooms like this offered for sale in the USA. I will look for them or maybe some day... try to grow them myself. Maybe they are available4 through "Fungi Perfecti."

Curses:
- Agnes (France) left for home this morning. I will miss her so much because she is such beautiful, intelligent, kind and sweet woman. she has made this experience so much richer and more fun. We have exchanged contact information and I VOW I will stay in touch and even visit with Agnes in Brive, France the future. Besides she lives very near the incredible caves with the ancient cave paintings that inspired the "Clan of the Cave Bears" series of books by Jean Auel. A must see!

- La Mia Tre Figlie Senza Ricci! One of my assignments this week was to write a description of my 3 daughters. This is always a pleasure but after we read our descriptions aloud to the class we were expected to answer questions! "BOH!" lol lol. The classes and all of my fellow students seemed surprised and very sad for me that all three of my children were "senza ricci" or without curly hair. I always thought this was strange too since both of my parents have curly hair.

okay enough for now.. i have the next next two Blog updates outlined already... but... i need to spend more time studying. so i may have to update every three days or four instead of every other day.

Have fun in British Columbia my friend Georje! The Great Bear Rainforest has been on my list of dream vacations for many many years.

love you all. later on.....