Discover beautiful Tuscany

Tuscany it is really an incredible place with a lot of towns and villages to discover like Sorano

The Masso Leopoldino represents one of the most striking features of this incredible town.



The Rocca - as it is called in italian - has been appreciated for its strategical qualities since the Middle Ages and was probably fotified by additional structures before the 9th century.




Taking a drive in the south of Tuscany during your vacation, you will find a special little town. Park your car in the outside parking space and prepare to walk up hill into a fantasy world. You will first follow the path up to the fortress which has stood here for years - get a ticket and visit the underground museum.






The buildings both historic and the modern day rental vacation villas are made from the particular type of material called tuff. It is unique in color, and malability. The Tuscan vacation rentals farmhouses in the southern part of Italy are made of tuff.




Visit the incredible fortress, which is without cars and intervention of modern day activity. You will feel as if you have walked back in time. The large sandy colored blocks are testaments to the local activity.

Reaching for Paradise at the Island of Elba

I reached this paradise by ferry in just one hour from the city of Piombino near follonica in the province of Grosseto, just one hour from Siena and two from Florence.
The Mediterranean breeze was already talking of great promises that were all kept by the great hospitality and warmth of the Elba people.
The entire island is a natural reservation, and here you will find spectacular natural sights, wonderful landscapes, preserved fauna, and cozy seaside villas and apartments.
Sunsets have been unforgettable.
The Elba Island has a moltitude of small beaches and little gulfs that are almost unknown to the majority of people and that you can reach only by private boat. We rented a small boat and loved to spend the whole day at "our private beach".

Each town is a lovely step to simple life, and nightlife is truly enjoyed at towns such as Marina di Campo, Procchio, Porto Azzurro, Capoliveri, Riomarina and many others wichoffer clubbing, dancing, live music, lovely strolls along the beach and plenty of fun for the wee ones.

truck shopping today

Tonights sunset, yes i love sunsets.


Today we decided to look for another truck or car, i got on Craig's list and found this older truck that already had a tow bar on it, they had used it for towing, but it was already sold, darn. So we got to thinking we might just go look for an older vehicle that we can just tow and not be as heavy as the envoy. Wow one thing led to many other ones. Nothing old . We did find a nice 1999 Jeep Cherokee. nothing fancy in that, they wanted $10,000 for it, didn't even have a CD player.Guess what they wanted to give us for our Envoy that is fully loaded, with a butt warmer. Ours has everything, even less miles than the jeep. Well they wanted to give us what we owed on it, which is $8200 which we just bought the thing last yr.for $16,000 Well i guess you know what we told them. Stuff it!
So we decided that we would look on the internet and see what we could find, wow lots out there which had more things and much nicer for even less. Then we also looked in the paper, guess what the same jeep at the same dealer was advertising that jeep for $3,000 less than what they were offering it to us. what was up with that? Sure made us mad, going to call them back tomorrow and ask them whats with that.Well i had to laugh at Princess this morning as she wanted out so bad, she gets her collar and wants me to put it on, the other day she almost put it on herself, it was so cute. She just loves to be out there and play ball.Tonights sillyness is Oliver with his new hair doooo. isn't he handsome?

someone had a great imagination

Oh i didn't want to forget the fish jumping up, got some good shots of them, funny to watch them as they are trying to jump over. They are so small.
Ok so we went the back road back home, and here we came across this masterpiece, someone really had a good imagination as to what to add to this tree stump, so if you want a better look at this you will have to click on the photo to get a better view. But don't do it if you don't want to be embarrassed. LOLThe we came across another place that would be great for dry camping this is called Jack Creek and it has a lot of nice space there by the stream to camp, looks like a lot of people use this for horses.Will have to come check this area out again specially when its more in the summer to see how much water is in the creek.

Heading to the fish hatchery

We headed off to the Wizard Fish Hatchery which several yrs ago we had stopped there, but the water was very low, so here are a few photos of the Metolius River

And Here is Nevada, Princess, and yup that is me walking up from the riverThis fish is the only one that was in with the others some say its a Coi and some say its a carp what do you think?

Metolius River

Today we went to the Metolius River, this is a part of an area that we had not been too so it was great being able to go there. The walk to it was nice, with a nice paved walk way.
Here is Nevada, Ken and Bonnie walking down the paved walkway, i think they were looking at the differant kinds of trees .

Here is the beginning of under water spring that becomes the Metolius River, amazing to see this area and to see what this produces along the way with so much water. Were the dark green is were the water is coming out.You can't walk to it , so couldn't get a real good shot of it.

Here is the shot of the start of the river, again not all that a good as not a good enough camera ugh!And another shot of the walkway going back up to the car. Heading now to Camp Sherman so

adding lights to the yard

Tonights sunset was really pretty and mysterious.The colors are so bright.

Well today i finally got Nevada to add some more lights to the yard, we bought these string lights a few yrs ago and never got them up, so now he finally got it done. Well not really done, as we have more to put up, boy what a job that is. But at least we have them up now, so if we don't sell they will be up for x-mas and won't have to deal with doing that when its cold and yuckky out.













Here is part of the gasebo with the swing, you can see part of the lights on the inside wall. I think tomorrow i will go get more plants, there is so much planting left to do.














here is the outside wall, i hope tomorrow we can get the rest of the lights up on the outside wall, yup sure can use more lights looks dark in the back ground.

While we were sitting outside today, a hawk flew over us and he of course i had no camera in hand. Anyway he had a bird in his claws, about the time we saw it, Princess also saw it, and started barking like crazy, next thing we seen the hawk drop the bird, Nevada went to look, but i was sure that i saw the bird fly off. At least i hope he did. But then the hawk came flying over our head again for several minutes. I was thinking he was going to come down and try to get Princess. But he finally flew off and hopefully the bird was ok. Nevada didn't find anything so must be safe.

Beautiful sky

Took this photo thought it was pretty cool, there must of been several planes going thru as each of those lines was a plane line.
Still working on hubby to get me a better camera.

Not much was going on today, went to town early this morning and got some more plants, Costco was out of a lot of them, guess there almost done with not carrying them, but did pick up some Geraniums, half price for 6 tubs of the big containers. $9.50 for each container of 6, so got 2. Not bad, altho they were not looking all that good, so i hope after having water and taking off the dead leaves, they all will survive. But then there is not much hope for me and plants, no green thumb here. Got them all planted this afternoon, so crossing fingers that they will survive.

Decided to make some more doggie treats for Princess, so far i have not found one that she is really crazy about so i keep making new ones, in hopes that she will like them. This is

Wheat-Free Tuna Biscuits

• 1 cup yellow cornmeal or 1/14 cup corn flour
• 1 cup oatmeal
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 small can tuna in oil -- undrained
• 1/3 cup water

Grind oatmeal in processor to make a coarse flour. Set aside in small bowl. In food processor, whirr tuna with the oil, and water then add all the rest of ingredient. Pulse till mixture forms a ball, Pulse to knead for 2-3 minutes. Knead on floured surface till it forms a soft ball of dough. Roll out to a 1/8"-1/4" thickness. Cut into shapes. Bake on lightly greased cookie sheet , at 350 for 20-25 minutes. Cool completely

She seems to like this one pretty good.
Well tomorrow is suppose to be a nice day again, not sure how warm it got today, but sure was nice.

Happy Fathers Day

Today is Fathers Day,
Sure hope that all you fathers out there are having a good day.
Not having a father for several yrs i miss that part, my father died of a heart attack at the age of 47, and even at that i didn't know him, last i seen him was when i was 3, so don't even remember much of him.
I have always wondered what it would of been like to have had one. Not saying that i havn't had step fathers, yup 3 of them, can't say i ever considered them too much of a dad, more like a very distant friend , there all dead now.The last two had some good points, but the first wasn't worth a hoot, made life real hard for mom and myself.But she did what she had too i guess, he was a mean and drunken evil man. May the fires of hell burn his rotten soul to eternity. Ok i know that is really harsh, but he don't deserve anything better.

Today my stepdaughter Kim called Nevada to wish him a Happy Fathers Day, that was nice, as they don't keep in touch much. Life is so short. Altho he loves his daughter with every fiber in him, he just hates that dam phone. Its like its going to bite his ear off to use it. One day he is going to have to learn to use it.
Well anyway they had a nice chat, and her and i had a nice chat as well. Kim if you ever get to read this i enjoyed our visit.
Kim lives in Livermore Ca. and has 2 beautiful grown up kids. Time flies when you don't get to see them, so when she sent us photos of the kids, we relized that they are no longer kids, but beautiful adults with lives of there own now. Oh my were has the time gone?
This is Shirl
Isn't she beautiful?




And this is Joe, an artist in the makeing here,
would love to see some of his art.He takes after his grandfathers talent to art, those that don't know Nevada is very good with pen& ink art work. Altho he hasn't done it for a long time. Shame when people have talent and don't use it. Me i have zero talent.


So hope that you all have a great day and enjoyed yourself, and had all your loved ones around you.

Waging war and tasting food in Angiari

During the middle Ages, Anghiari was under the dominion of the Lords of Galbino subsequently passing into the Camaldolesi’s power.

Florentine’s State army was conducted by Giampaolo Orsini and Micheletto Attendolo and Milan’s army by Niccolò Piccinino.
The victory of the Florence State was such as decisive as to consent them to stay over the control of central Italy.
According to Machiavelli’s writes, the battle was held in about 20 hours and, nevertheless the hard combating, only one soldier died, felling off his horse, as faithfully represented in the mural “The Battle of Anghiari” which Florence, many years later, entrusted to Leonardo da Vinci to commemorate the epic achievement.
Leonardo started the work on cartoons transferring them to an internal wall of Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. While he was working on the mural several main artists were coming to the capital to watch the painting and to learn about Leonardo’s innovative technique.
Peter Paul Rubens made a copy of “The Battle of Anghiari” hosts in the Louvre and Biagio di Antonio, from Paolo Uccello’s school, made another one kept in Dublin, in the National Art Gallery of Ireland.
The mural was unfinished and definitively lost during the drying process in Florence. However, it was substituted in Palazzo Vecchio by a same object Giorgio Vasari’s mural.

What to visit in Anghiano:

- The Fortress: an imposing defensive structure completed in the 14th century, further destroyed and rebuilt in different periods. Together with the ancient castle the fortress is keeping the clock tower coming back from the 17th century.
- Palazzo Marzocco: built up in the 15th century, it was the residence of the aristocratic Angelieri family. Nowadays is hosting “The Battle of Anghiari Documentation Centre”.
- Palazzo Taglieschi: a beautiful Renaissance building with an elaborated façade, houses the National Museum of Arts and Popular Tradition hosting an interesting collection of paintings, frescoes, terracotta, statues, sacred furnishing and instruments coming back from different artistic periods. Its masterpiece is the wooden sculpture by Jacopo della Quercia representing “The Madonna and Child”.
- The Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie: it was built up between the 17th and the 18th century and hosts a wonderful glazed terracotta named “Madonna delle Grazie” by Della Robbia’s family.

My sore bodies

If you wake up breathing, it's a good day - so make the most if it.





Today i decided that i was not doing much of anything, my bones and muscles are so sore. Thought i would work it all out by now. So vegging in the recliner more today.
Did go to Costco today to pick up my meds and another container of plants, that will have to wait till tomorrow tho.
Tittertat stayed at the vets till 1:30 pm he still had not gone pee, they told me that they were going to send him home at that time. so we went and picked him up and they told me that i have to collect the urine. So they said to take saran wrap and put it over his litter box, or get what they use, these plastic balls that won't absorb the urine, well that is what they were using, no wonder he wasn't going in that.
We brought some home , $4 bucks for a cup of the stuff, well we get home and cleaned out the litter box, put him and the box in the bathroom. No way was he having anything to do with those plastic balls. So i told Nevada to get the litter and we would try putting the saran wrap over the litter, Well Titters decided that he was not waiting any longer, he was home and he was busting to take a leak. so on the floor he went, said with loud moans "i have waited long enough"! I yelled at Nevada to get the syringe so i can scoop it up. Hurray!!!!!!! at long last PEEEEEEEEE! has come out of him.
So we rushed it back to the vets, now all we have to do is wait for the results.
Another $50 bucks. Nice thing is they didn't charge us for the over night stay.
Well that is the excitement of our day.

Planting Day

Today we did some planting,the weather was perfect, not too hot, just a nice cool breeze which i like because i don't do hot, or too cold. Yesterday we went to Costco and bought 4 big trays of plants. Around here you have to be careful to not plant too early, as the weather can change in a heart beat. Like yesterday morning here it was 33 degrees, in LaPine it was 28 so i am sure they had to do some coverings of plants there.
It has been a couple of yrs since we did much planting around here. With Nevada not in good health the last couple of springs. So this time we decided that we better do something as i really do miss my flowers.

My waterfall sort of got the lip broke so Nevada put a rock under it, also found that it has a leak in the bottom of the top pond, so he is waiting for it to dry out so he can patch it. We used to have another waterfall, that had a stream coming down were the rocks are but it got to be too much to take care of, the outside wall were the motel sign shows, also was a waterfall and that too came to an end, had to fill it about 3 times a day, the winds were not very kind to having a water fall.
The other waterfall with the lattice is right by my door to the house, I love to listen to it in the summer time when i have the screen door open.
Tomorrow we will go get more plants. But i have to rest my sore body, didn't know i had so many places that hurt.
Around the wall we are going to put some lights on to show up more at night, hopefully they all still work.

Today we also had to take Tittertat back to the vet so that they could check his urine, dropped him off this morning, by closing time they called and said that he still has not peed, so they were going to keep him over night and hopefully by morning he would pee. Boy i just can't believe he went all day without peeing.

The heart of Chianti is Montefioralle

The town was originally called Monteficalle. It is situated on a hilltop facing the Greve valley, surrounded by vineyards, olive groves and cypresses. Parts of the ancient walls are still visible, while the small streets are marked by old homes, a donjon, and several towers.



The ancient village and castle of Montefioralle were an important stronghold during the wars between Florence and Siena. A house in the circular main street of Montefioralle is pointed out as the birth-place of Amerigo Vespucci. The doorway is identified by the wasp ("vespa") and V of the Vespucci family.




In 1250 it became the headquarters of the League of the Greve Valley. The town was once endowed with two sets of walls. It had an octagonal shape with four gates. With the fall of the Sienese Republic, Montefioralle lost its prior importance and most of its inhabitants moved to Greve. We advise you to visit the church of Santo Stefano and the parish church of Montefioralle.




It is an easy 20 minute up-hill walk from Greve and provides you with lots of picture spots, silence and landscape typical of this area. From Montefioralle, there is an interesting hike along the back roads to Panzano. Situated in the hills above Greve in Chianti, it is noted for the one street that completely encircles the church of S. Stefano (inside an interesting 13th century Madonna and 14th and 16th century Florentine paintings): a simple building is traditionally indicated as the house of Amerigo Vespucci. The church of S. Cresci can also be visited close by.

Montefioralle, which originally belonged to the Buondelmonti and Ricasoli families, began life as a fortification that could have hosted a sizable garrison (as well as refugees from the surrounding countryside in times of war), with a central keep and thick walls that now contain houses.

after the Funny Farm

After we left the Funny Farm we then went to Peterson's Rock Garden. Please read the history of this place, too long for me to write it all down.