An Italian Weekend - our mountain home

SIMPLE LIFE

Living on Mountain Time

‘ The greatest gift of life on the mountain is time.
Time to think or not think, read or not read, — to sleep and cook and walk in the woods, to sit and stare at the shapes of the hills.’

Philip Connors

We went with Claudio to let the cows out and because one is a fairly new baby we stayed to supervise. Paulo’s miniature goats have had a baby and the three of them were on the roof of the shed playing. The mountains are covered in wildflowers, the cows are out so the bells are ringing….and new life is everywhere. Soon our little mountain paradise will be busy with people coming up to visit the mountains for the weekend.

We have this glorious valley to ourselves the rest of the year……

Apologies for posting on a Sunday, the week just got away from me, still it’s nice to be able to share our weekend with you.

Hoping your weekend was filled with plenty of time to relax and enjoy nature, oh and if you have goats even better.

This huge trunk of the tree is to be chopped up for firewood, it looks like rock and seems timeless. Another tree is already growing from the stump, everything here is so green and bright. The air is crisp and clean, cow bells ring, and with so many flowers it’s almost impossible to keep from walking on them.

I felt like a bit of an idiot being so nervous of Rosie the cow, I’ve been a city girl most of my life and certainly not often up this close and personal. Who knew cows were so soft to touch, I expected them to be bristly like a dog. Rosie is very gentle and her baby just gorgeous.

Hope you had a great week, our Italian weekend was very relaxing. This week coming up I’ll get back to my usual posting time and share more photos. Anyone else take hundreds of photos like I do….how on earth do you manage them all? I’ve been told my site is too image heavy and I’ve been reducing the size of my images with batch converting. Now I have to go through and start replacing the larger ones with the smaller ones. Still the same size here on the blog but it makes a difference to loading times so I’m told.

It’s all a work in progress….

and the gang x

24 replies

Margaret | Destination Here&Now says:
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Lovely Lisa. You’re turning green and we’re turning red. The gingko is electric yellow and about to dump the lot 🙂 If you’re not doing something like this already, try testing your site on http://www.webpagetest.org Try and get it under 10 seconds, that’s the aim. Set the test to the country where most of your readers live. x
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- Lisa Chiodo says:
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  The Gingko is electric yellow??
  I’ll test it out and see what happens I know the whole site is out of whack right now. So frustrating but I keep working though a bit at a time.
  We have to catch up for a chat xx
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Lisa Wood says:
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So beautiful, love seeing your Italian life 🙂
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- Lisa Chiodo says:
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  Oh you’d love it here Lisa, always something happening.
  Hope all is well with you and sending love x
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La Contessa says:
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I adore the goats on the shed the one with the hair-do and the ruffled shirt is my favorite!Which one is he?Cows,I have always wanted to own a cow…….my time is running out for that but yes they are soft and so adorable………..I can hardly wait for your birthday and the PARIS PHOTO SHOOT!!!!!!!!!!!BOCA LUPO as they say in ITALIA!
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- Lisa Chiodo says:
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  La Contessa I just love your visits, you bring such a sense of excitement xxx
  We get our animal fix from all the animals around the valley, and now we have five cats coming to our place for a feed. The cows are so gentle and soft, I am gaining my confidence around them. One day I’ll have a try at milking.
  Oh I am so excited about Paris in June, it still seems a dream. Can’t wait to show everyone the images and share the experience xx
  sending kisses on both cheeks lol xx
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Nell says:
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I love the videos and musings and tour photos of your renovations.
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- Lisa Chiodo says:
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  Grazie Nell, it’s all a work in progress x
  what have you been up to?
  ciao lisa x
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Margaret says:
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Did you know that cows and horses have hair and not fur? I do so enjoy your posts and pictures. Keep it up.
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- Lisa Chiodo says:
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  I do now Margaret lol, I’ve stoked cows before maybe Rosie has been using conditioner…..how’s that Italian Dream going…..we didn’t need to rent first because we bought the campervan but we did stay a month in a hotel the first time we came. Big mistake it just ate our money, renting seems a better idea x
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Caterina B says:
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Lisa, what a lovely post. You are funny with the cow. I love the short video of the goat family on the roof. I am almost ready to get some goats. The prospect of milking them twice a day is daunting, though. My hubby is skeptical. I think he fears he would be the one who ends up doing all the work.

He probably has good reason to think that! We did just get two little piggies. So cute. We raise two pigs every summer and process them in October. Next year we will get four pigs. Hubby raises them with the help of a friend and then we each get one. We have found that with giving pork to our children, neighbors and friends, one pig does not last us for a full year, thus the planned increase in number.

Also 22 baby chicks arrived by mail two weeks ago. We give eggs to friends and neighbors, too.
Are you planning on raising some animals for food and fun?
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- Lisa Chiodo says:
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  Caterina you should have seen me I was so nervous walking up to Rosie the cow. How did the goats go, did your hubby end up milking them? We are getting a pig at some stage, and will have plenty of help here to process. I didn’t know chicks could arrive by mail?? How funny .
  
  sending love and we have chickens and rabbits for food and Sam wants to raise trout arghhh x
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Michele says:
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I love the life in an Italian village posts and pictures… they are motivating a move. I also really like to share in your musings about topics that come and go. I would follow your natural inclinations. I, for one, will follow!

Thanks so much for sharing.
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- Lisa Chiodo says:
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  Life here is just fascinating to me, and I hope to everyone else. So many unwritten stories and rules of life here that are understood by the locals and explained to us as we move into our second year here in the valley. Musings …..what a lovely way to describe these posts of mine. Thanks so much for all your support and sending love Michele,
  
  ciao ciao lisa x
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jann says:
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Darling goats grazing on the roof! (Like in a storybook!) I’m actually a little scared of goats–not cows, though. (PS I process photos in Lightroom–still a huge pain, and I can never ever keep up with keywording, and all that stuff. Oh well, la vita e questa, as they say. xxxx
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- Lisa Chiodo says:
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  I’m a bit nervous of the whole lot of them lol, the locals laugh at me. I’ll have to take a look at light room, at the moment I’m playing with them in picmonkey, then using a batch converter to shrink them. I keep the original large pics and trying to sort them all takes ages. xx
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Krista says:
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Ohhh, those goats are SO gorgeous!! I keep checking our girls every day to see if there are any babies. Not yet, but I cannot wait. 🙂 So glad you had such a beautiful time with your friends. You look so relaxed and happy. 🙂 XO
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- Lisa Chiodo says:
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  Krista aren’t they gorgeous, and miniature as well. I think next year we will keep some goats, can’t wait to see your photos of the babies. Relaxed and happy that’s us….lol
  well not all the time but I’m working on it my very dear Krista xxx
  PS loved your medieval site, you would most likely know what all the machines are about the place here.
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Jackie Stenhouse says:
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Love all the photos of your beautiful new home. It looks so peaceful and time has stood still. The goats are gorgeous, especially the daddy.
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- Lisa Chiodo says:
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  Those goats are so cute, and the baby is just tiny. Time really stands still here. x
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Wynne says:
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Oh how I wish I were there! I would so love being with all the animals…such joy. Sounds like an idyllic weekend!
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- Lisa Chiodo says:
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  Spring is the perfect time for your next visit Wynne xxx
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Charmain Giuliani says:
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your face shows your love
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- Lisa Chiodo says:
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  Ohhh what a lovely thing to say Charmain xx
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