My mother's day

Friday I spent the morning on base and got to go to the thrift store which is only open for about 2 hours a day, 4 days a week. I got a few books for Cale (not shown) and these are for myself. They're from the 60s and 70s. You cannot imagine my happiness over them. We just don't find old stuff here!
The vase I got a few weeks ago. I absolutely love it although I have yet to find a permanent home for it around my house.

Saturday was spent at the zoo which is actually quite impressive. On the way home, we stopped by a nursery and bought some plants. I had been so intimidated about going there, but the owners were so nice. They kept giving Cale fruit. So on Sunday when my husband told me that I could spend the day doing whatever I wanted, I knew I wanted to get the yard done. He expected a day of crafting and not having to help.

This is my front garden, which I may have posted before. I started with a complete blank slate and here it is now. It makes me so happy!! I love coming home to this! I have chives and basil growing in the windowsill, easy to access from the kitchen. The statue of the lady is a little busted up. We got it on the side of the road for 10 euro (about $13.) I had had plans on gluing it back together (she's missing an arm) and putting copper patina all over it, but she has grown on me. I even like that she's broken. I have jasmine on the trellis, petunias, gladiolus, hibiscus and lilac (I think). The lilac is struggling a little.
This garden has actually been done for a while, but we added mulch to it and it looks a lot more finished.

This is also in the front yard. Its all that I have left. Its the area between my house and the house next to us (they're set up kind of like townhouses). I currently have no neighbor, so I'm taking it and planting this plant in it. You can also see my wheelbarrow which will become a planter. Yay!! I had one at my house in Virginia and I loved it! This was it:



I really like how this turned out.


My backyard. This is the view from my dining table. It used to be a dead tree that my husband removed for me. Now its our food garden. I love that we're able to have an orange tree. And we have strawberries, zucchini and tomatoes. I was hoping this was a cherry tomato plant but no such luck.

The dirt where I live is very thick clay mud. Its gooky and icky and filled with slugs. In the front, it already had a pretty thick layer of nice dirt on top. In the back we had to add compost and more dirt. Its not what I'm used to at all. Its no wonder that Caltagirone, a nearby city, is famous for its ceramics with clay so prevalent. Honestly I don't know if they use this gunk for pottery or something else.

I live in Italy, but my neighborhood is American. Its almost like they cut out a piece of America (circa 1950) and plopped it down in rural Sicily. I have never lived anywhere like this. Neighbors wave and smile. Kids are always out playing. Its lovely here. We're located about 30 minutes from base so we have our own grocery store in the neighborhood, as well as our own bar, movie store and gym. Twice a month, vendors come in from nearby markets and sell their goods. Its all very nice. It makes it easier to be here, I think. All of the scariness is gone out here. We have none of the normal complaints that Americans living overseas have. We have normal power and its constant too. Where we used to live, the power went out at least once a week, which really sucks when you have multiple computers. Even our tap water is drinkable. I think we have the best of both worlds here.

Hope everyone had a great mother's day and weekend.