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@brittarnhild
Friday night, and cabin night.......again.
We were at the cabin last weekend also, Terje and I, and brought with us a new fire for the terrace.
And here we are again. This time with Ingrid, Marius and Leander. We get reports from Trondheim. A heavy thunderstorm with hails, huge and many, has reached the city. Here I enjoy a lovely night in front of the outdoor fire, while Leander is asleep and the others play cards.
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@brittarnhild
It is already a month already, since we came home from Italy, and I have still not finished my Italian travel tales. I miss my day to day blogging, so I have now decided to do the rest of the Italian tales over in Caffe Avec. I might even move the ones I have already written, over there.
When I started Caffe Avec back in November 2009, I actually meant it to be a travel blog. Over the years it has been used for different themes, but now it is back to my first love again - travel tales.
The Pinocchio Tale is up there now. Click on the picture of Pinocchio and you will get there. You can also "like" the facebook site Caffe Avec, which you find here, updates when I post will be shared there.
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@brittarnhild
My knitting blog today:
The tag reads - knitted with love and care by grandmother.
One of the lions has got a little braided tale. A detail which was not in the original pattern.
I went back to work today, after a wonderful summer. Autumn is approaching, and then also time for more knitting. I am on the hook.
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@brittarnhild
The beautiful walled town of Lucca is situated less then 20 kms from where we spent our family week. I had read about the botanical garden, and when we drove in to explore the town one afternoon, I left the others for an hour. I couldn´t just pass the garden, could I?
The garden was a small one, and not especially amazing, but still I fell for it. You see, the garden has her own legend. The legend of Lucida Mani.
Here is the information I found:
Lucida Mansi was born in Lucca on March 7th 1606, into one of the richest and most powerful families in the Lucca area: the Saminiati. When she was still very young, she married Vincenzo Diversi, but soon she was widowed and then married the old and rich Gaspare di Nicolao Mansi.
Fully devoted to luxury and to an exciting life, she was adored, courted, and extremely proud of her looks; people said she was even hiding a mirror in her prayerbook.
So time went by thoughtless among parties ands lovers, till one morning, admiring herself in the mirror as usual, she noticed a light wrinkle on her extremely beautiful face. Lucida was desperate and wept bitter tears, till a handsome young man appeared in front of her. He was the Devil. He promised her thirty more years of youth, but after this time he would come back again to get his payment for this privilege: her soul. Lucida accepted with no hesitation, and the bonus years ran without any apparent ageing. But one summer afternoon, at the end of thirty years, the Devil came back to her. Lucinda turned desperate and prayed him to save her soul, but the Devil lugged her on his flaming carriage and, after a full tour on the City Walls to allow Lucca´s inhabitants to hear her harrowing screams, he sank with the chariot into this pond, the wonderful gem of the Botanical Garden.
The legend says that, if we dive in the pond, it is possible to see the face of Lucida Mansi sleeping in its depths. Besides, the same legend says that, just before midnight on every October 31st, in an absolute silence, a strong wind arises, a noise of horses´hooves resounds in the air and it is possible to glimpse the burning carriage sinking in the pond, launched in an unbriddled run towards the hell.
A lovely legend, isn´t it :-)
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Lucca is a walled medieval town. Well worth a visit, even without a tour in the garden.
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@brittarnhild
The main reason for our weeks in Italy this summer was me turning 60. As a gift to myself I invited Terje, our four children, a son in law, a daughter in law and a grandson to spend a week with me in Tuscany. A long dream coming true.
We stayed in Massarosa, a small village not far from Pisa. Nine of us, a week which felt like a dream.
And a million memories to keep in my heart for the rest of my life.
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@brittarnhild
In Arezzo you find great many churches. One of them The Basilica of St.Frances, where you find the Legen of the True Cross, a series of absolutely stunning frescos which is supposed to tell the story of the wooden cross where Jesus died.
The story starts with Adam, who is ill, and his son Seth who goes to the gates of Paradise to ask for the seed of the tree of knowledge, which he wants to use to restore his father´s health. From here the story unfolds, and bending our neck so that we could look high up on the wall, we could follow the tale.
The image above shows the Queen of Sheba arriving to the bridge built by King Solomon. One of the beams which he has used comes from the tree which grew up from the seed which was planted on Adam´s tomb. When the Queen comes to the bridge she senses that there is something sacred about the wood and foretells its future use as the wood of Christ´s cross.
As always, I am mesmerized by the tale of the annunciation, which comes later out in the fresco series.
As I was standing there, looking up, up, up, one of the guards in the church came over to tell me that I was free to take all the pictures I wanted, as long as I did not use the flash.
YES!
This basilica, these frescos..........I have saved them in my heart.
St. Francis, St. Mary.......two of my heroes.
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Here is the official website of the church.
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Blogs updated:
dagens lille grønne - daily green ideas
Britt-Arnhild´s naturdagbok, my nature journal
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@brittarnhild
Yesterday was the last day of this year´s St.Olav´s Festival. as always a week filled with so much wonderful program. Every night there has been a concert in the courtyard of the Archbishop´s Palace, the huge scene just outside my office window. When I open my window I could almost touch it. The theme of the festival this year has been "body", on a wide range of layers, and in the beginning of this week a small competition was posted by the festival on facebook - post a picture with a body theme, the best image would win two tickets for last night´s concert.......with no one else than....... Dionne Warwick.
In July 2010 I posted a picture of Terje here in Britt-Arnhild´s House in the Woods, with the words:" Let me look close at you pappa. Your face is suntanned, the wrinkles around your eyes are not. It is like your eyes are the sun, your wrinkles the sun rays" I posted the above picture, and I WON!
We had a wonderful night with this amazing singer.
The highlight when she sang with her granddaughter Cheyenne Elliott.
By the way, my office window is just behind the green lit tree climbing the wall.
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Thanks for your nice comments on yesterday´s post. I still have a basket full of Italian tales.......almost, and will continue to post them, from time to time.
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@brittarnhild
As so often before, when we came back from our Italian weeks and I started daily blogging again, I told myself that this time, finally, I was back on the track. Back on the a blog post a day track.
As so often before, life intruded.
The weather was too hot, the garden too nice. Work and the St.Olav Festival. Dinners. Our grandson. And as always, the days were filled to the brim with "la vita è bella" and there was no time left for blogging.
Today is the last day of the festival. Temperatures are back to normal Norwegian summer temperatures and next week I have a week off.
So here I am, again. The blog lady.
With a series of pictures from the main piazza in Arezzo, a piazza we all know, from the film La Vita è Bella, and also from The English Patient
And I am crossing my fingers that I have not lost all my readers this summer :-)
So, tell me, are you still there?
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