As the school term draws to a close in Queensland, so does it here at Cotter College. Amongst all the activity of packing up a years worth of living in Italia, visitors, museo/galleria visits etc, the cherubs have tried to complete a terms school work (from QLD distance education) in 4 weeks instead of 10 so that they can enjoy their last few weeks at Casa San Gabriel AND not do school work when they get back to Australia. They worked very hard (i.e. school on Saturday morning as well) and have slowly got there!
The class presented their maestro (teacher) with a car!!! Their generosity was overwhelming!!!
The dog at Casa San Gabriel (Cuba) survived the love, attention and dress-ups from cherubs and has been probably ready to drive us to the airport herself! After we leave she can go back to lying by the fire…guarding the house!
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We went for passeggiata…Casa San Gabriel style the other weekend. It was over ‘hill and dale’ (although I don’t think that’s the Italiano way of saying it) and a great way to walk off pranzo (lunch). On one hill we passed a small farm where there are always a geese wandering across the road. The elderly lady came out and as we had bambini in tow she was in for a chat. She grabbed some pollo (chicken) for the kids to pet and a baby tacchino (turkey) for them to stroke. She also brought out a GRANDE (LARGE) turkey. It was half her size! She then told us how she would prepare and cook it for their Natale (Christmas) feast! I hope that turkey doesn’t understand Italiano!!!
And of course…we ended up going home with an armful of duck eggs. She is a lovely lady!
Below are some photos from our walk waddle and some others from the past days…
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The tabacco plants, sunflower and wheat in the area have now been harvested and the fields are being turned, ready for the winter. Anything above ground would need to be hardy to survive the winter in these hills! We planted cipolla (onion) in Chrissie’s vege patch with the huge assistance of Eli and Cuba (the dog). Well, not so much Cuba as she sat and rolled on the freshly dug soil AND CIPOLLA!!! We were going to have Ragu con Carne that night!!!
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Grace took on the cooking duties the other night after getting some inspiration from watching Jamie Oliver vidcasts from the ABC and adapting it to a southern Italian recipe, Orecchiette alla carbonara. The name of the pasta comes from its shape, which is like a small ear. You can see in one of the photos below…no cookbook but an iPod playing the vidcast as she goes along! She did a great job. It was buonissimo!!! Her/his ricetta is here
Grace and Patrick went off to Magione last Saturday and had a morning of horse riding. It was better to call it horse riding rather than ‘pony’ riding as this had connotations for Patrick of a merry-go-round! One horse thought it was a camel and sat down when it felt like it in the middle of lessons. They had a riding lesson for a few hours and loved every bit of it. Their big poppy would be thrilled to see that they have been riding, although no bets were apparently put on the red rug…next race time.
The night after they watched The Man From Snowy River. It now seems that they talk of his exploits and their ride in the same ‘breath’. One story is fictitious and the other…???
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In Queensland until November 5 1967 Cracker Night or Guy Fawkes Night (a celebration inherited from Ingleterra) was happening in most back yards. It was the date on which Captain Fawkes, for various reasons, tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London in 1605 in what became known as the Gunpowder Plot. He was later executed with his co-conspirators.
Well, at
Casa San Gabriel we got to see
another way of celebrating Cracker Night. One of the paddocks needed clearing prior to it being used for a couple of Alpacas (‘the boys’). So, much of the cuttings were heaped into a pile ready for a bonfire. An effigy of Guy Fawkes was earlier put together with some straw and old clothes and ‘he’ was thrown onto the heap and the pile was set alight. Poor guy! I guess his night was over and done with a little faster than the toads around Brisbane on Cracker Night!!
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We’ve arrived here at Casa San Gabriel and all is beautiful…as usual!
We starting picking olives just after we arrived while the sun was out. It seems like the olive harvest is in everybody’s thoughts as most people we chat to (in Firenze and Umbria) have something to do with it at the moment such as picking, supervising or helping out to pick olives. If anything, it a great excuse to be outside on these gorgeous autumn days. After a couple of days of picking (stretching/reaching up and bending down), however, we were certainly starting to realise how sedentary we’d been in Firenze!
We made a bargain with Patrick and Grace that they were to help pick for 1/2hr sessions, 3 times during the day (it’s not very exciting for a 9 and 11 year old). Well, because time is a ‘fluid’ thing in their world, their interpretation of this timeframe was not quite what we had in mind. They seemed to have been within sight of an olive tree 3 times during the day and picked up 1/2 an olive each time, but that was about it! However, in relating to others their contribution to the harvesting they seem to chat a lot about how exhausting it was and how many crates of olives they collected!!! I wonder what colour the sky is in their world!!!
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Anna believes in a Birth Season NOT a Birthday! Cosi (So), in keeping with this traaaadition Patrick’s birthday (which is Agosto 12) started Agosto 5…when we began our stay at Casa San Gabriel! Surrounded by the Umbrian hills with a pool and a dog, according to him…life was good!
He had an early birthday cake (from Dana), early birthday presents from Clare and Gary (Swiss Army knife) and on the day…presents from the guests, a Florentine quill from Chrissie and David, a birthday BBQ and the usual presents from the family (Wii game, clothes etc).
Oggi (today) we ended (I hope) with another Birthday wish…to eat Fiorentine Waffles! Buona!
