Christmas shops in Santa Croce later walkabout. For now, lazing about enjoying the views. Description of what I see out the kitchen and bathroom windows whilst I laundry and clean, cook on this Sunday as I laze about this morning.
About noon now, Sunday Dec 2. Blogging in Kitchen, making Tuscan bean soup on the first, larger w 6, gas burner stovetop, the one that lights without matches. I couldn´t find any matches to light the second smaller, with 4, gas stovetop burners.
Beautiful warm, slightly overcast or sunny morning so far. Washing up and cleaned smallest blue bathroom, enjoying sitting in the windowseat, enjoying the views of both nearby below and further and furthest out:
Green wood shutters open, black wrought iron balcony surrounded with copper guttering, attached wrought iron and rope laundry lines; balcony furniture. Other balconies similar but all slightly different. Similar yet slightly different red tile rooftops. These same green wood shutters against the pumpkin of the house, typical Tuscan colors.
The sand and pebble courtyard garden below, with the vignettes of smaller gardens within the larger. The lemon tree and orange tree water garden, surrounded with tiny perfectly trimmed box shrubs in squared off edges, each with one lemon or orange tree centered within, surrounded again with flowers, enclosing a tiny water feature with lion´s head centered on a brick wall where the water flows out back into the tiny pool of water below.
The birds, seagulls of various sorts, smaller and larger ones including the large Raven sized black and dark grey crows. Pretty bronze, brown and tawny tri-color pigeons.
Various cobbles, stones, sizes, colors, patterns of sidewalks and streets and alleyways, garden paths and such below. The various rounded tile roofs in reds, and similar shapes different patterns and ways of roofing them all slightly different. The differences in the mosses, green yet black, covering the red Italian tile roofs, also making and changing the patterns and colors of the rooftops.
Huge and small, windy, Ponderosa like pine trees, acorn trees etc all around. Smaller plantings, of lavenders, rosemary, tropical flowers still in bloom, aloe veras grown huge in the climate, and other large dessert plants which thrive here. Stone seats, made of large slabs of stone and smaller pebbles and filled in stones, til it all forms a stone seat. Stone tables. Tiny wrought iron tables topped with white or pink marble, with matching wrought iron chairs in different patterns from different sets.
Someone left their espresso cup and saucer on the marble table top, outside.
Clouds drift slowly, yet quickly across the sky, getting darker now.
Green copper rounded rooftops, triangular rooftiles, red tile rooftops with more building atop that with more red tile roofs atop that; ditto with different colors of buildings, in usually pumpkins, oranges, creams, white creamy yellows, pale browns, palest pink, cream sage, sage, peach and palest peach.
Wood shutters. Greens, dark loden greens. Some shutters open out, some slide out, some slide down and out, some slide up. The ones that open up or down are hinged and held with tiny black wrought iron hooks or metal hooks, or rotting rope ties. The ones that open out are held open with rotting rope ties, or new rope ties, or metal hooks. Those that stay open are pale and weathered on the side which is most to the sun. Ours are more weathered to the inside, as that is the side usually at the sun and weather most.
Some shutters are other colors. Our house is pumpkin, with deep dark loden shutters, with black details. The building across is a creamy color, with slightly lighter loden green shutters. Another building is pale pumpkin with cream details, black marble surrounding windows, grey marble edged details along the building corners from top to bottom, with shutters that open out. Another building is cream, with darker red tiles, more black green mosses on the roof, with a different tile pattern that has a wide flat gap between the rounded tiles, lighter green shutters, that open up and are held with black hooks on either side of the top of the shutter.
Our windows have a tiny length of awning over the windows, the awning in wide swaths of white alternated with dark loden. The other buildings do also, with a slightly different color green, more to do with the weathering than actual color which was probably the same if they were all the same age awning.
Green acorn trees full of leaves, beside trees full of yellow leaves, against yellowy peach and pumpkin buildings with dark loden green shutters.
All this multiplied as far as the eye can see. Lots of details I´ve left out. Such as the next door across the street neighbor´s dog liking to walk by itself in the morning, and the owner happily chiding said dog, then quickly hugging it before setting dog down again to happily continue his alone walk,). Or the cat sitting on the highest bit of wrought iron fencing or marble work, to see everything and observe. Or the fashions that walk past, beautiful boots, scarves, coats even on warmer day which really needn´t bother, but technically it is winter, even if it feels mostly like warm spring day or cooler summer day in hot climates.
Rome was cold, and warm, and rainy and sunny. My down parka is still on the heater drying.
My soup is steaming up the windows in the kitchen. The windows go almost from the floor to the ceiling. Room is about 25-30 feet tall. Windows are about 20 feet tall handwith or so apart. Outer wood shutter, middle is the glass bit, then an inside solid wood shutter. Just like all the windows are.
Lunch time. Then blogging, shower, and off to Santa Croce to see the Christmas markets, then have a walkabout for few hours, to enjoy the day, lazy Sunday:) Probably stop at one of the churches, to give thanks:) And to enjoy the beautiful architecture both inside and out! Again, one is not allowed to take photos or videos, and it is imho extremely disrespectful to do so, so I wouldn´t. And well, no photo or video would do them justice--they really just must be experienced irl yourself. Absolutely spectacular, beauty in both the artworks inside and the quiet inside, usually you can hear soft singing from inner rooms closed off to the public.
