Ducklings

Young ducklings in a small canal in the centre of Portogruaro, always swimming in a perfect straight queue and gathering in a circle when they stop.

June garden (II)

After yesterday's tomatoes, here are the zucchini growing fast (we already ate them: delicious!).

June garden (I)

Here we are, at his point. Grandpa's garden has a lot of vegetables growing, not yet ripe, but hopefully with some sun these tomatoes will turn red.

Family biking

Biking in the countryside: one of our favourite pastime during the weekend!

A nice spot

A nice spot along the river Lèmene, on one side a tree full of spring blossoms, on the other side of the waterway an old farm house.

Sitting in the olive tree

Some years ago a famous song said

I'm turning my head up and down
I'm turning turning turning turning turning around
And all that I can see is just a yellow lemon-tree

...it came back in my mind when I saw Miki - my neighbor's cat - sitting in the olive tree...

Spring has come!

A wonderful camelia tree I saw taking a walk in the mild spring sun!

Winter seaside

The seaside is very beautiful in winter, maybe even more than in summer. You walk, lonely, on the packed cold sand and see nothing around you, except seagulls and branches the sea brings on the beach.

Reaching the sky

We finally had some sunny cold days, it has been a big relief after all the fog. Ok, the sunny days are already over and we're back into the fog...but I take a look at my sunny pictures and feel better!

Countryside

Winter is slowly rolling by and we experience daylight longer and longer. Pawns are now starting to prepare the fields for seeds. In the background, the Monte Cavallo, full of snow.

Ice, ice

We live in the countryside. Along every road, before the grass fields waiting for the next season, runs a ditch, that fills up with water when it rains preventing flooding. Now all the water is frozen.

A frozen drop

This winter hasn't been very cold up to now. The coldest days never went under -3°C (26°F) and we did have some snow, but it melted away pretty fast. Anyway, in some places ice doesn't melt away...as the drop falling from this faucet in the garden.

It's cold...for everyone

It's cold. Looking out of the window, I see a robin hopping closer and closer to the house...till it stops on some cable that lies there outside. I can almost seeing him (or her?) smiling to me!

In Italian, this bird is called pettirosso, that literally means red chest...nice name, don't you think?

The sky, now

The sky right now. Not a special picture, but at least you know why I'm at home instead of taking a walk for new pictures!

At the zoo (III)

Again a picture of the
Punta Verde Parco Zoo. The zoo is settled on a group of small islands in the lagoon and small bridges connect the islands.

Flamingos at the zoo

At the Punta Verde Parco Zoo it's time for new babies: at the fence closeing the flamingos' pond there are about 10 ribbons, some blue, some pink, to celebrate the birth of the baby flamingos. In the pond, you immediatly recognize which are the babies: not yet pink, they will remain grey until about 14-months age.

Meerkat at the zoo

Yesterday we spent the day at the
Parco Zoo PUnta Verde in Lignano, about 25 km from Concordia. It is a very nice place, very clean and neat; the animals aren't held in cages but are free on small islands in the lagoon or in fenced areas. I already wrote about it here: we spend a day there almost every year and children enjoy it very much.

A tree for every newborn

A regional law says that every town must plant a tree for each newborn baby. So my daughter, born in 2003, has her tree and now and then we go to pay a visit and see how it is growing (well!). We are now waiting for my son's tree, he is born in 2005 but his tree has not been planted yet (the town council waits to have a good number of trees to plant and organizes a very nice feast for everyone when this gest done).

The picture shows how many trees have been planted and in which streets/fields for the children born from year 1992 to year 2003: almost a thousand.

Pumpkins on their way!

Again a picture taken in the vegetable garden. Today a pumpkin preparing to get ripe .. and growing growing ...

Figs are ripe

Figs are ripe: briliant green, very sweet, soft. Wonderful. We have so many that Nonna (grandma) is starting to make figs' jam!