Furnace Preparations

mercoledì, 27 settembre

With the arrival of fall comes cooler temperatures.  The mornings and evenings are cool and crisp while the mid day can still be on the warm side - but no humidity.  I know going forward the temperatures will continue to drop but I know it won't come close to the cold and snow of Minnesota.  Hallelujah!!  In December and January it can be colder with a lot of rain.  I know I have told most of you my house does not have a furnace so how will I keep warm in the winter????? I will have to build a fire in my fireplace. Thank goodness I was a girl scout!!

Again, this house is older and no one has lived in it for any length or time and never in the winter.  Angela was unsure about the flue and chimney.  Her concern was there could be construction debris still in the chimney.  So we called on my cousin Antonio (who can fix anything) to come over and help get it ready for winter.

Sure enough on opening the flue all sorts of junk came pouring out and it took a bit of work to get the chimney cleared.  Once cleared he wanted to make sure it was drawing air correctly so he and Angela built a small fire - check out the pictures below.  It was wonderful and now my "furnace" is all ready for winter.  I still need to buy a grate for the wood and a screen for the front of the fireplace.  Another item I will buy is a "treppiedi per camino" - a tripod for the fireplace.  This is put over the fire and then you can cook in your fireplace!!!  I will make sure to post pictures when I take on that adventure.  

I also learned that after the fire is out and you need to clean the ash from the fireplace you don't throw it away.  They told me to take it outside and mix it into the dirt around trees - fig, olive, whatever.  The trees love it.  Plus a lot easier than filling garbage bags. 
 

Fireplace all ready for a fire!!  

Team work by my cousins Angela and Antonio

The man can fix anything!!  

That should keep Oscar and I toasty warm this winter!

Another benefit to cooler temperatures is I can take Oscar on longer walks in the evening.  He did not do well this summer with the heat and I had to be very careful.  Just short walks in the morning and at night so I missed my walks through the village that we were doing when I first moved here.  But Oscar was a pretty sick little dog there for awhile.   Walking through the village is just so cool.  Everyone is out at night, usually after 5 p.m. and before 8 p.m., no matter the temperature.  They are visiting with neighbors and getting a walk in before dinner.  

On a recent walk I took some pics I thought you might enjoy along with a video of the young boys playing soccer after school and before dinner.  There are three young boys who have befriended me - due to Oscar.  They now always greet me by name and ask how I am doing.  They are just the cutest.  They are part of this video playing soccer.    As I was walking home (up the 132 steps) I stops and watched for a bit.  

The "132 Steps"

The soccer field is right along the steps

https://youtu.be/27QPczDWrQM

Pomegranate tree at my cousin Rosalina's house

The main bar in town - along the Main Street.
All the men hang out here in the morning and in the evening

Just like in the movies

A small playground that gets a lot of use

Fino alla prossima volta!

A First for Oscar and More on Life in Southern Italy

martedi, 12 settembre


Oscar had a first for his life in Italy.  I needed to find a groomer for him.  His nails were getting too long and he desperately needed a bath - oh my.   But finding a groomer in southern Italy was not so easy.  What I am finding, not just with groomers, but with many small businesses, is they do not have websites so finding them must be done the old fashion way - through word of mouth.  Once you get a few names of businesses you can then do a web search and many times they have Facebook pages but not knowing the business name can present challenges.  Sooooo, my resourceful cousin asked at the pet food store and of course we find out there are quite a few pet groomers in our area.  Thank goodness - so I made an appointment for Oscar.  I am happy to report I was very impressed with the service and cost.  Oscar came out a happy dog, all clean and ready to go!!!  Thanks to Hobby Pet in Vallo della Lucania!!

The front of the pet groomer in Vallo della Lucania

Oscar all clean and happy

And what would my blog post be without news about ANOTHER festival!  haha!!  Saturday afternoon I was going with Antonio to look for fireplace grates and screens.  With winter approaching and no furnace in my house, I need to prepare.  Again the house has not been lived in during the winter so the fireplace has never been used.  Antonio knows someone who will come and clean the flue first.  But in discussions he also mentioned he knew where we could find fireplace equipment.  Well that is what I thought the discussion was about - my other cousin was discussing as well so the Italian was flowing fast and free (translation - I was only getting about 50% of the conversation - which can be deceiving).  So Saturday afternoon, after Oscar's grooming, Angela and I met Antonio and Anna and off we went.  We ended up at a festival.  More on that in a minute but I realized pretty quick he must know a vendor or two that sold iron works that would be at the festival.  Unfortunately not what I was expecting or looking for (another lost in translation moment).  So the search for fireplace equipment continues - the vendors work was just ok - and not a lot to pick from.  But the festival - another OMG!!

This festival was in Cannalonga and as the poster below shows it was the festival of the goat.

Frecagnola is dialect for Goat.  And just in case you were wondering this isn't necessarily celebrating goat cheese but GOAT!!!  Yes - goat meat - boiled and grilled.  Needless to say I did not taste any.  

Cannalonga is very old - 9th/10th century AD.  Apparently it was know for the large herds of goats that were raised here and then sold.  The village has a great piazza that is central to a Palace.  This festival was the largest I had been to so far.  There were vendors typical for a Saturday morning market but then additional vendors as well, selling crafts as well as food items.  There were numerous eating areas where each had a separate menu but each one for sure had goat.  I even saw some menus with coniglio (rabbit) - :(.    We didn't stay long but I saw enough that said - add this to next year's list of festivals to attend.

Poster for the Festival - the teeshirts were cool too
but none for sale.

Palace in the town square

Town Square

Metal sculpture of the celebrated Goat

On Sunday and Monday we had terrible weather - very bad rain storms.  You may have seen some news footage on flooding in Italy - this was farther north in Tuscany (the city of Livorno) but the bad weather traveled south as well.  It was awful and seemed to go on forever - windy and rainy.  Being high up in the mountain made it worse I am sure.  So Oscar and I just hunkered down and streamed coverage of Hurricane Irma.  That is oh so sad.  But here I even lost power.  On Monday morning I awoke to no electricity.  Apparently water got into one of the exterior light fixtures and shorted everything out.  Instead of sitting and waiting at the house for the "tecnico" - technician, Angela invited me to her house to learn how to make Melanzane RIpiene (stuffed eggplant).  But her recipe is really different than those online.  These are little circles of eggplant stuffed with a cheese mixture, then fried (no batter) and then cooked in a tomato sauce.  It is one of my favorite dishes that she makes and I had wanted to watch how she makes it.  The cool thing is all the ingredients she used were local - nothing was bought from a grocery store - how sweet is that!!!  So now it will be my turn to try - later this week.  

All I can say is YUM!!!

Time for dinner and leftovers from Angela! Buon appetito!

And now onto Fall.....

lunedi, 4 settembre - giovedi, 7 settembre

Thank goodness it is September.  All the vacationers have left and life is returning to normal here in southern Italy.  Along with the tourists leaving so has the hot and humid weather.  Today is a beautiful clear day and here is my view from my office as I type this blog.  Not too bad - right?

Over the weekend I went to the Sagra in Pioppi.  This Sagra is one of the oldest if not THE oldest in the Cilento area which started in 1969.  The famous "Mediterranean diet" was discovered in Pioppi by Angel Keys.  And an interesting fact about Mr. Keys - he has a tie to Minnesota as he spent a short amount of time at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester and then taught at the University of Minnesota.  In Pioppi there is a small museum for the Mediterranean diet.  He spent 28 years in Pioppi and returned to Minnesota one year before he died at the age of 100.  

The Sagra in Pioppi is Sagra del Pesce (Festival of fish).  Most of you that know me know I am not fond of fish but I do eat some types - just not alot.  Living in southern Italy I am trying to have an open mind and try more fish as I do know it is healthy.   So to the Sagra I would go.  Friday night I went with Angela and Luigi.  I ate Polpo (octopus).  It was served in a salad with potatoes.  It really wasn't that bad - no fishy taste which is the worst for me - but the texture was a bit challenging.  A bit like calamari - but I do like calamari - so go figure.  And thank goodness it was dark so I couldn't really see what I was eating - haha!!!

The second night I was able to spend the evening with a cousin I had not seen yet since my move in May.  

My cousin Rosanna (former teacher and artist)
I have a few pieces of her art in my home.

She and her husband spend the summers in Pioppi but live in Salerno.  Due to some family issues they have not been in Pioppi much this summer so I was thrilled when we were able to make plans to spend time together.  Rosanna's husband, Pasquale was working at the Sagra so she and I were able to catch up.  Also we were able to get a behind the scenes view of the main food station (Fried Anchovies) - OMG!  For 6 euros you got a cone full of fish with some bread and either a water or glass of wine.  Check out the process.

The fish are put in a large strainer and flowered.
The motion in the picture didn't turn out real well.

Then the fish as put in the fryer

The basket of fish is pulled out of the fryer and
the fish are drained on a large paper lined grate

The finished product ready to be loaded into
the paper cones shown on the right side of the picture

Needless to say I was not brave enough to try these - a bit too fishy and they still have the heads - oh ick!!!

Another sign of fall is the different fruits and vegetables I will get at the market.  I was so excited to see Pomegranates (melograno) last time I went.  I love them and again a very healthy fruit.  I will eat the seeds with yogurt and honey.  The good things is they are so inexpensive.  In the states you could pay over a $1 for one.  My total purchase at the market which included a pomegranate was 3 euros!!!  I will be buying lots of pomegranates.  In fact I may plant a tree next spring in my front yard!  

Stay safe if you live in the path of "Irma" and will write more soon.