Did anyone notice that my last blog post was very repetitive? Not within itself, but with the previous blog. At least I had some great pictures to go with each!
Last weekend we did the hiking thing again. This time in Valle Stura. It's pretty important around here to not know the different valleys and the main cities in each of them. You can't be a real Piemontese without knowing the valleys and the mountain peaks. I'm proud to say I'm doing pretty well! Below is Pietraporzio from above. We began our day down by that lake and ended it with some gelato from a restaurant/bar down there.
There was a river at the very beginning of the trail and Olney went CRAZY over it. The water was really cold, but he liked wading in and eventually went swimming. The current was strong, but he did well swimming from side to side. I want to get him some floating pool/river toys to play with. Maybe we can train him to be a good retrieving dog. Not that we do a lot of duck hunting these days...
So Olney is going through a stage. Besides being adorable and sweet and a great swimmer, he also has been chewing on our couch and barking a lot. I guess he's going through his rebellious adolescent stage. I just sewed up the couch as best I could and we're going to try to keep it protected from the pup.
Oh, I got distracted, I was going to say that while Olney was going crazy over the river, I was going crazy over all the moths and butterflies. There were a bunch puddling (getting salt from drying puddles) by the river. As we hiked up, we found 2 fields full of wild flowers and butterflies including the endangered Apollo butterfly. I collected what I could, but I don't hike with my net because it's so cumbersome. I did get a couple cool beetles and a bunch of butterflies and a couple moths. Fabri said he knows a field we can drive all the way up to so that I can bring all my collecting gear. Next time I'll take some photos of the pretty bugs before I catch them so I can post them on here too! Also I collected some wild lavender from the mountain and that's currently hanging up and drying on the balcony. The above photo is Olney in the lavender.
5 comments:
Another lovely day! Love Olney in the lavendar. Bad doggy needs to stop chewing the sofa!!
Hi Jessie,
You should not worry about being repetative. I enjoying hearing about your very glamourus life in the Italian Alps. We also have some very beautiful mountains in the USA, I have not been to all our mountain ranges but of the several that I have visited the Rocky Mountains are my favorites.
love you, Aunt Pam
Jess, I second your Aunt Pam. Be repetitive! I love to hear your stories (though hate them at the same time because I'm green with envy...and the skirt I'm wearing). It really sounds like you're living it up and getting to spend great, quality time with Fabri and Olney. Not to mention that your hikes surround you with insects! What could be better than that? ;) Your blog just put me in a great mood...so now I'm going to go do some accounting homework to counteract that, I guess. :P Miss you!
OH! Did I tell you that a friend in my program has YOUR laugh? Almost exactly! I think of you every time she laughs (which is a lot).
Olney looks so happy in that last pic!
Hey Jess, the pictures show how much fun we had and all the beer we enjoyed! love mom
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