This is the best I could do (now with new good photo not taken by me. It's the big one.

  

Good, but short time in Milano

The Duomo is incredible, La Scalla,  museum only, but it lets us into a peek at the theater,  coming out of our last dinner in Italy, just a few minutes ago.... wake up call at 3:30 tomorrow for the trip home..

I get to meet Obama!

I know, right! He's coming to Senegal with his family, and 20 volunteers get to go to this event at a hotel where the first family will be. I'm not totally sure what the event entails, but I'm pretty sure Sasha and Malia will be there. Our country director put everyone's name in a hat and picked 20, and somehow mine was one of them. I'm very excited. I have to go shopping, though, as I have literally nothing to wear that would be appropriate there. I have no closed toed shoes other than sneakers.

A really nice Verona day. The travelog cont.

Today has been a great day in Verona,  we went to the Arena and missed taking the props down from NABUKO,  but watched for awhile putting the props for LA TRAVIATA.    It was a grand opera, last night,  and a grand ancient theater.  Then we went to the Castle Museum expecting rooms of a castle.  It was that and much more.  A wonderful art collection 13th and 14th Century.  Many Madonna and Child paintings.  I loved  the variety of expression and poses of the mother and child.  The one below I really liked, the mother happy and so is the child.  The museum itself is in a 14th C. castle, that has been tastefully made accessible with views of Verona.  The Adage River is very high.

To help the comfort level, the temp. has dropped into the 80's,

Verona

 Are you sleeping later than Rosie wishes you to sleep?  Is she chasing the Robins?  I am thrilled that the pooping and peeing is going well.

 

From top
*St. Paul de Vence,  Fr.
*Sea food salad with rocket, last night,  the octopus was a surprise.  
*Grappa, etc. , a late night celebration of the 54th.
*Flat floor in the Duomo.  The old marble floors -so beautiful.
*The photography museum has a show of Renee Burri photographs.  Good photojournalist that we liked a lot. Amazing thing- they were in  under street level rooms,  among excavated ruins.  Two museums in one.

M&D, have you arrived safely in Verona?

And happy anniversary. To C&S also.

Father's Day card from Nicky

"Dear Dad I am sorry about my temper tantrum on Wednesday June 12. I hope you like the card.
Happy Father's Day"

We have returned from Clearwater. All dogs and ladies are fine.

 Still going strong.

 Sunset with 'Delhi 2 Dublin' which we all loved.

Very sunny.

More Delhi 2 Dublin. More on flickr.

Happy Father's Day, Dad! And to you too, Jim (you and Chris are on the other side of that picnic table, but this copy of the photo was cut in half, sorry).

Nice,cont.

Chagall Museum, small beautiful.  The Statue is at Place Messena.

The weather is good for us,  not too hot.  We saw the M. Sea yesterday,  briefly.  The beach has small cobble sized rocks.  We will probably not go into it.  Choral concert last night, in a beautiful church,  They sang  John Rutter,  and Brhams.

Think we will get good  cell phones.  We needed one yesterday, Sherrill, or the 3 of us, were lost for several hours yesterday.  Maybe we should find our walkie talkies.  It was scarry.

NICE

Hello everyone!

The Milan Central Train Station and our apartment.

Yesterday, we arrived in MilNice an, taxi to Train station,  lovely compartment on the train to border of France where we found the French trains are on strike.  Mob scene, and questions.  Talking to people we got on a train, not the one our tickets were for, and got to Nice.   People were standing in the isles, the bathrooms were closed, no one took our tickets.  By the time we found our apt. and then ate it was midnight.   A long day.

Our apartment is very nice, except only one toilet in a closet.  There are 2 baathrooms, however.  On the street below us there is a grocery store on one side and a bakery on the other.

So how are you?  Jo did you find your way home from the air port all right?  How is the Rose?  chickens?

Hommel House

Hommel House
Originally uploaded by sarapicassa

more photos on flickr

We own it!

the Garden

 Today we went up for the closing. It was very nice. We arrived early and had lunch in Saugerties, a lovely town with lots of restaurants, book stores and antique shops. We then had the walk through. Elise, the former owner left us a lovely dining table that belonged to the original owner of the land, Charles Hommel. After that we had the closing, a  friendly and happy proceeding. We then came home. Tomorrow we go up for the weekend.

the stream

the falls

Cecropia, caterpillar and moth!

 Caterpillar, Aug. 2, 2012
Moth emerged June 2, 2013.  I called Kalyani and had time while she and Jo came down to see the amazing moth before it flew away.





Then, Rosie had her first bath.  At the lake she rolled in dead fish  (they were on the beach as well as in the grass, birds eating them?)  We hosed her, but did not get the smell completely out.  This morning I was pulling grasses and weeds and she started digging.   Her head, feet and underside, muddy.  We had a terrific rain storm last evening, the weeds came out easy leaving mud.