"She did as she felt, and she felt a great deal." The Forgotten Garden, Kate Morton.

every day, my ideas for what to do over our 6 week summer holiday change. i think i will start keeping track. the latest one was inspired from a bike ride around the outskirts of colorno, on my own, on a gorgeous blue skied warm spring day.  the thought of cycling all around italy at my own pace and on my own time, surrounded by the scenery of vast italian landscape, passing through quaint villages, on little roads only taken up by occasional speeding cars, fat tractors, and every so often a shirtless leathery-skinned man who smiles as he goes by and then the cowy-farm/hay/floral smell suddenly catches a whiff of sweaty BO...sounds extremely pleasant. rod stewart, scissor sisters, fleetwood mac were my trip's soundtrack today as well as a new song introduced to me by arina which made the trip that much more exhilarating. it was a little challenging at times with occasional "steep" hills (emilia romagna is so flat, i don't think i'd make it around the mountains of calabria), keeping up when the wind was blowing the opposite direction, competing for space and not swerving into the ditch on gravely one lane roads, and not always knowing whether left, right or straight will bring you closer to home or not, but for those 3 hours, i was perfectly content, smiling "ciao" at the farmers, and loved the freedom, the beauty and the peace of it all.

other summer ideas so far:
1. arina suggested biking to santiago de compostela - our own pilgrimage
2. diana invited me to travel around the south of italy with her and her friends
3. visit kim in shanghai  - would be a definite yes to take advantage if the flight wasn't so expensive
4. live in our house in donegal and work there
5. take some culinary courses somewhere - county cork, england?
6. hang out on the porsmouth decks.
7. get a job in the hospitality industry at some summer resort - south of italy?
8. woof-ing on a farm somewhere.
9. greece: open up a healthy/organic food stand on the beach or work on ari's goat farm.
10. today's latest not necessarily greatest: biking around italy. c'mon nora, let's go!