Thoughts in Random Patterns

Tuscan Roses

 

And some Tuscan thorns, of the Feld variety - 

Changing of the Guard in Tuscany

Everything looks beautiful when bathed in the rosy late afternoon light of Italy:

  

  

We are having such a wonderful time on our Tuscan retreat, and feeling so grateful to have such wonderful friends with whom to share our time.  We've spent the past week with David and Jil Cohen who are departing tomorrow.  Jil completely dominated our daily tennis matches

6-3, 6-4, 

7-6 (3), 6-4

6-4, 5-7, 6-1 

but we've agreed to be tennis friends for the next 30 years at least, so I'm hoping to get another set next time.

Here we are before tonight's dinner: 

Brad is wearing his tuxedo t-shirt in honor of the occasion. 

 

 

And though we are truly sorry that David and Jil are returning to the mountain time zone tomorrow, we have been joined today by Brad's parents, Stanley and Cecelia.   

 

Here we are practicing our VC hand sign: 

 

 

The moonrise photos are from the nights that the nearly full and then full moon rose, in case you couldn't figure that out -  

   

 

Tuscany is Still Beautiful

At the end of another work week here in Tuscany, I'm accomplishing less and less writing and doing more and more relaxing.  Here are photos of the tomatoes in the gardens of Casetta, which we are enjoying every day: 

 

 

Here is Brad after a long run, coming up the drive like Maximus in Gladiator.  You'll have to play your own Rocky theme music to complete the image: 

 

The most exciting thing this week was capturing a harmless grass snake in the house and transporting it to a safe place outside where it belongs.  

 

From Casetta we can see the San Michele a Torri vineyards (pictured below) which produce the organic wine which we are enjoying nightly with our dinner.  Or, to be accurate, all of the other lucky folks who aren't allergic to wine are enjoying while I drink frizzante water. 

 

A panoramic view, using the magic of Occipital

 

 

My big goal for the weekend is to win at least a set of tennis, although my record for the week is 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (3), 6-4.  

Our Revels

Our first week in Tuscany has been glorious in every way; accomodations, weather, food, clay court tennis, and especially hilarity and laughter with friends Mark and Pam Solon from Boise, Idaho, and Howard and Ellen Lindzon from San Diego, California.

Mark has kindly offered some of his photos for me to share:

 

The happy group before dining out on Saturday evening, including our hostess, and Kelly Collins of Foundry Group, who joined us earlier that day.

 Howard in a relaxed state of mind - 

Howard and Ellen - 

 

Brad and me - 

 

Mark and Pam -  

 

 

 

Italian Cooking

The bounty and beauty of the Tuscan countryside:

Our welcome dinner at Casetta, our home away from home for the month: 

 

 

 

Here we see an important meeting of serious guys: Howard, Mark, and Brad, hard at work:

Last night, arranged through the kindess of the owner of Casseta, we all attended a cooking demonstration class and dinner by Jeff Thickman, which was truly amazing.  I didn't take many photographs, but I will post again in the future with a full description of the experience.  

 

 

 
 

  

 

Another Tuscan sunset:

 

 

Under the Tuscan Sun

Now we've moved from a spectacularly beautiful urban environment to a spectacularly beautiful pastoral environment in the Tuscan countryside outside of Florence.  Here's a panoramic view that Brad took last night.

 

And some photos of the place:

  

 We played tennis this morning on clay courts with visiting friends Mark and Pam Solon.  The clay shouldn't have surprised us since most European courts are clay surface, but it did.  We'll probably play every day, and have other tennis playing friends arriving next week.  It is definitely hot, and we're shifting into the Italian pacing of getting up early while it's cool, then a nice long afternoon siesta, then later dinner.  

And the wireless is obviously working quite well -  

Final Fine Dining - Taillevent

We've eaten so much incredible French food that we almost decided not to have a final celebratory Parisian dinner with Jason, but then we got a last minute reservation at Taillevent and just had to go. 

Jason, not looking a day over 40, and me sporting my La Vie du Grande Norde scarf as I zoom toward my 45th birthday in September:

And the beautiful French food - 

Soup for Jason:

 

Risotto with mushrooms and white almonds, without the optional frog's legs:

 

 

Lamb for Jason:

 

 

Langoustine with apricot and parsley for Brad and me - the Before photo:

And After:

 

We had a lovely cheese course which wasn't photographed, but was surely enjoyed.  

We were really quite full of food after a month of fine dining, so we kept dessert small. 

One scoop of sorbet for Brad: 

 Two scoops of sorbet for Jason:

 And a perfect strawberry tart for me, with flecks of gold foil as accents:

 

 At some point we'll need to return for the full degustation experience when we haven't already been eating ourselves silly for an entire month.

 

 

 

Posting some random photos that weren't included in previous food posts:

The wines at Le Cinq:  

 

Lobster at Le Cinq for both Brad and me: 

Before our Le Cinq dinner in our fun French apartment: 

And still my favorite Paris photo, courtesy of Brad: