Lo Vedo Life

In love

Street art in Siena, by one of my favorite artists. “Love Balloon Siena”

I have fallen in love. His name is Ruchè (roo-KEH). He lives in the northwest of Italy, in the area known as Piemonte (Piedmont in English).

But before I divulge the details, let’s go first to the beginning of the day when it all happened, when I was awakened in the early morning by a crashing storm that brought loud thunder and pounding rain. I had thought I might arise early, and go for a walk to explore the little hilltop town of Castagnole Monferrato before breakfast. But the dark skies and the pouring rain helped me make the decision to stay in bed and sleep a little longer. Thunder gets my pulses going, but steady rain lulls me to sleep.

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Explorations

Happy summer solstice! We’ve progressed from a long, wet spring to a somewhat less wet, warmer season. The summer solstice is days away, and I’ve been out exploring a few corners of the region.

A trip to the beach
First stop: Gruissan, on the Mediterranean coast south of Narbonne. This area is all about life next to the sea. There’s an ancient fishing village, with small picturesque cabanes de pêcheurs (fishermen’s huts), some now used for holiday rentals, plus tantalizing fresh fish stands. Just around the bend are the salt flats where salt is still produced in the old way, by hand. There are long, beautiful beaches with cabins on stilts (1,300 of them!). All along the water’s edge you can find places to pick up fresh oysters and other seafood. And if all that isn’t enough, there’s a round medieval tower named for the pirate Barbarossa.

We strolled around the site of the old fishermen’s huts at Étang de l’Ayrolle:

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Welcome to Lo Vedo Life!

For a number of years, I’ve been writing a mostly-monthly newsletter and sending it via email to my private list of photography customers, friends, family, and other good folk who are interested in art and creativity. That newsletter was named Lo Vedo Art News, for my Etsy-based photography business, Lo Vedo Art. “Lo Vedo” is Italian for “I see it,” which pretty much covers how I approach photography.

But a while back, I decided to expand the focus (pun intended). While I will continue to write about art and my own photography, I’m also expanding the definition of creativity to cover my own experience living a creative lifestyle in the South of France. You will now see posts about food (with occasional recipes), hiking and the natural world, history, and stories about living a new life in a very old place with old customs that are new to me.

Bienvenue, and welcome to Lo Vedo Life!*

*Should you wish to bid us adieu, simply click on the “Unsubscribe” link at the bottom of the page.

Spring Update: A Tale of Two Colors

It has taken longer than I imagined it would to get this blog going, but ta da! Here we are!

SEEING RED. I wrote the last post a month ago, and I’m happy to report that the poppies have been eye-popping this spring. I’ve never seen anything like this show they’ve been giving us, and it just keeps going. We have had a rainy and cool spring, and the poppies appear to be quite pleased about that. A short distance from Bize, there’s a field that I drive past nearly every day. It has looked like this for about three weeks:

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Flowers and showers

The flowers around here are bursting forth in an ecstatic springtime dance.

It began quietly enough in January, when tiny blooms began to appear on the wild rosemary bushes that dot the hillsides near where I live. This was good timing: I’ve learned that an infusion made with sprigs of rosemary—especially when there are flowers—is beneficial for the respiratory system, and about half the town had the flu this winter. And beyond that useful tidbit, the lovely periwinkle flowers brightened the landscape through the grey, windy days of winter.

Photo Set 5 — *Late March saw wild iris and some tiny pink plants on my walks.*

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Bingo night

I grew up in Reno, Nevada, home to deep blue skies, over 300 mountain ranges, and legal gambling. My childhood was dotted with the special family dinners when my grandparents would take us out to eat in casinos. This was back in a time when casino owners were local businessmen, usually well-known in the community, and my grandparents knew a few of them.

We played Keno during dinner. (I don’t even know if this still goes on; maybe someone from Reno can tell me.) Every table had a centerpiece holding blank Keno tickets and thick black crayons. Each of us would take a ticket and mark our numbers, then we’d watch the electronic Keno boards that were mounted throughout the dining room, and compare the official numbers with those on our tickets.

I never saw anyone actually place a bet. We did it for entertainment, and probably to keep us kids busy; during the course of one dinner, there were several rounds of the game. And that was Keno, in Reno, in the olden days.