A Misty Morning 9.15.05

The other morning we got up early to go to the garden. Rita had told me on Monday that they were ready to begin harvesting the grapes and I imagined a huge operation of gathering and talked Bob into getting up early to come with me to see what they were doing. Around 7am we made coffee and gathered cameras and art supplies and went down to watch. There was no one in the garden but us and, it seemed there would be no major harvest that day. What we did have the pleasure to see was an incredibly beautiful scene. The day before there had been a storm. Great claps of lightning and thunder and torrential downpour at times. We had the pleasure of spending a few hours with Art and Shea, American friends who live in Italy near Lago Bolzeno who had come to see us in Perugia to have lunch and to shop for some bicycle clothes that Art needed and couldn't find where they live. We had lunch at a wonderful little restaurant near our house (in fact, the one that our friends John and Sally had enjoyed when they were in Perugia). We had a fun time getting to know them better and they headed home around 6pm.

Back to the Garden: When we got down in the garden there was a large layer of fog in the valley to the east, with Assisi completely shrouded in it and only a few cypress trees on the hills in between sticking up through the low lying clouds. The light reflecting off the clouds created some rainbow effects beautiful to see. It was not very cold but still I was wearing a turtleneck and sweater and the sun felt warm after the heavy rains and the chilly day it had turned into the day before. Bob spent the longest time taking photos and I did a sketch in my journal. After a while Rita came down and snipped a few bunches of grapes for us and said that some of the grapes were ready and of course some were not. It was not to be a dramatic and large harvest, but a slow and steady collecting of the ripe ones, as they needed to be taken. I realize now that some of the grapes are purple and some green. The ones that were to be purple turned colors early on. Most of the grapes are green. I have a nice big bowl of them sitting next to me as I write and plan to try a recipe that uses grapes with sausages that we had at lunch the other day and enjoyed very much. The fog continued to roll in and out of the valley below for some time that morning and we enjoyed the view, feeling very fortunate to have been there to watch this incredible show of nature at its most dramatic.

We hope you like the photos Bob took that morning.

Buona giornata,
Rosemary e Robert