Italy once again

Last summer I was on vacation in Italy - for the umpteenth time. I normally don't spend much time at the coast, I use to stay in the rural areas where I find it even more beautiful. There are fewer tourists, better food (= not only pizza and pasta) and great landscapes to discover! And you might even meet some original Italians.

Like this one:


The lonely cow on a hill. Well, not really lonely, there were much more. But this one has found a great place to look around.

Or you might see this one:


Near our appartment is a river where you can go swimming in the summer. Lizards like it there, too.

I am not sure if I like the next Italian I'm going to show you:


Found on our back porch.

You always have to be careful when you go somewhere:


Wild horses might show up right in front of you car.

Sunset

The picture below was taken just five minutes ago. It's the view out of my bedroom window. I took it with my oldest (and worst) digital camera and though it is far from perfect it is much better than I expected!

Spring weather

There were a lot of thunderstorms accompanied by heavy rain today and the way home was quite difficult - so much water on the streets! Glad I arrived home safe.

Now the weather has calmed down and the air is fresh and clear again. I like the smell right after a spring or early summer rain. Don't know how to describe it, but the ones of you who live in the country (I still doubt that someone is actually reading this stuff) probably know what I mean.

There are days

when everything goes right. And then there are days when everything goes wrong and nothing can save the day. Today belongs to the last category. At least that was what I thought when I got home from work. There had been so much trouble, especially for a Friday, that everyone was already stressed by noon.

But a few minutes after I had arrived home something happened that totally saved me from falling into deep despair: my best friend from university whom I hadn't met or even spoken to since March called! I really really like her, she's one of the people I share so many memories with that I can't imagine what life would be without her. We lived in different parts of Germany for more than one year, until I moved back here some weeks ago, so stopping by for a short visit was impossible for a long time. I am so glad about having the opportunity to see her more often again!

Now I'm editing some photos taken in the last months.

This one is from Italy (once again), taken in the beautiful area of Cinqueterre.

Look what I've found today

I was on call again last night. It was a quiet night, there was not much to do. So when I got home this morning, I felt really relaxed and not tired at all.

After a quick early lunch - leftovers from Sunday - I decided to go biking. There were a lot of things in the house that needed (and still need) to be done, but biking felt just right. The weather is great at the moment and free afternoons during the week are so rare in my life that I had to use this opportunity. Had my camera with me, so some of the time wasn't spent on the bike but off the bike ;)

As I've told you before, I live near fields and forests. Here are some of the photos I took this afternoon:

Seems like the farmer has already been busy this year.

One of the many, many horses in this area. When I was younger, I used to go horseback riding at least 3-4 days each week.

On the way back home.


Well, this was taken in front of my door. More flower pictures following soon!

Every time I think things have settled down and every time I've made up my mind, something happens that makes me reconsider my decisions. I don't like that. Maybe it's just a sign that I don't know what I really want ;)

Badlands, South Dakota

Taken during a stay in South Dakota some years ago. You won't find anything like this in Europe... I really hope to have the opportunity to go there again!

Being on call

One of the disadvantages of my job (which I generally like very much) is being on call at least 4-5 days – let’s better call it nights - a month. You never know what’s going to happen. You might have a really quiet night where you can sleep 7 or 8 hours. You might have a night where you are awakened by radio every time you’ve just fallen asleep (like the terrible night I had last week). Or you might have a night where there’s no chance to go to bed and try to sleep at all. I don’t mind being alone, being the only one responsible, you get used to that. But what I mind is not being able to get a good night’s rest.

Where would I like to live?

That’s a question I keep asking myself. I don’t know the answer to it (yet), maybe I never will. But I know of some places where I definetively do NOT want to live. Take big cities, for example. Or flat landscapes. Or a place with no river or lake nearby.
I could never imagine living in a huge city with millions of people. I like to see the sky when I look out of the window. Another thing that I find important is to have at least some hills around me. Mountains would be better, of course, but you can’t have everything.
I grew up in a town with not more than 100,000 people. The suburb where I lived as a child (and where I am living again now) has only a few thousand people, is some km away from the „city“, is more like a village and is vey close to fields, forests and a lake. Some might call it boring, but I really like it here. But I am not sure if I want to stay here for the rest of my life.