Wet and Windy Easter memories

I am slowly catching up with my blog as the last few months have been overloaded with work stresses and various illnesses, not a whole heap of fun.  That said, I strongly believe that you have to squeeze in the good stuff and at Easter one of our clients let us use there cottage up in the hills north of Lucca, our plan was to work in their garden in the day, have bbq's in the evening, do lots of walking and have picnics etc.  The reality was very different, howling gales, flash floods, non-stop driving rain, dense fog all meant our plans changed and instead included:

• Kids first skiing mission at Abetone (so proud I cried) - thought this maybe a promise that would never be fulfilled but we did it, yeah
• Walking in the rain
• Hot Tea
• Cooked Breakfasts
• Open Fires
• Damp Dogs
• Cycling the walls of Lucca
• Rustic Osteria Lunches
• Downtown Abbey DVD's
• Homemade vegi curries
• Hot Chocolate and Biscuits
• Baileys
• Mittens and Hats
• Egg Hunts and Chocolate Smiles

Finding the little pockets of happiness on the long dark days keeps us going, in my little family at least.

Light of heart

I am feeling brighter lately. We seem to be putting the sadness of loss, illness and stress behind us, at least I hope we are. Following a spring and winter full of hospital visits and money worries I do strongly feel that things are shifting. Things moved on very literally last Friday when we had a little tremor which scared the pants off me, earthquakes do nothing for my sense of calm but the do make me re-align and decide what things are most important.

Now we are rolling into the weekend after a work laden week and I have spent most of my waking hours working on my computer so I thought I would finish off with a little personal blogging.  Some pics of a little trip to Umbria and thanks to Villia Pia for a wonderful weekend, I am writing a feature on this gorgeous family friendly holiday for work, will post more about it later.

We seem to have an awful lot of fun things in the wings, Grandma is visiting soon, friends arrive in June and the children finish school on the 10th for 3 months - hooray! Today the roses are throwing their perfume into the spring breeze, the grass is cut and the bulbs growing, my veg patch is getting there and the alpine strawberries are going crazy. Life in Tuscany is good, crostini for lunch, dinner al fresco at Siena Rugby Club marking the end of the season, birthday parties for school friends and Rugby matches in Florence, making chocolate brownies and planting up geraniums to ward of the mosquitoes. Thunder rumbling through the mountains might make for an interesting picnic supper but all in all we seem to have a sense of wellbeing in the home, I hope to continue letting go of life's little frustrations and focus on the bigger story, happiness, health and togetherness.  Could we be entering a phase in our lives where we can just enjoy being here?  I am trying to be gentle on those around me and the response is amazing the kids are less confrontational and the man is less grouchy, even the dog is less needy.  When I am up tight it alters the whole mood in the house, so I am going to try to remain being kind to myself and others.