Oh dear, no other blog since the last bonfire! Still, perhaps it works well to have the two next to one another. This time it was the turn of the San Geminiano boys to try to outdo the San Nicolo crew. In the last blog post I had tried to give an impression of the way the fire blazes up, so this time just a small extract.
Maybe we were just unlucky, but the first noticeable difference was the absence of the utterly delicious nibble and drink given out before the San Nicolo fire. We got there early:
We were close to the fire, and had a better view of the medieval flaggery. As far as I know, it is not obligatory to perform over a puddle:
Fireworks were again a feature:
At last the firelighters were ready:
And away we go:
I should mention that I took these pictures using an SLR, so at the start of the blaze I had the camera in front of my face. When I took it away and felt the heat, I realized why everybody else had already moved to the far side of the road!
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Tuesday February 1st, 2011. Posted by Alex:
Wednesday January 19th, 2011. Posted by Alex:
In January of each year there are two huge rival bonfires in Pontremoli. You can read more details at the Ciao Lunigiana blog, so I’ll mainly give a few pictures from Monday night. First, the flavour:
(That isn’t Voldemort at the top is it, by any chance?) It’s preceded by drinks and nibbles:
Finally a view of the houses in the firelight:
Tuesday January 4th, 2011. Posted by Alex:
Oh dear, late again! Other local bloggers have informed the world about the cold, the snow, and then the mighty rains – I’ll have to try and catch up briefly later. But first I wanted to report on our visit to the Questura (Police Headquarters) in Massa in pursuit of the documents proving Sarah’s right to stay here. We had heard worrying stories about this place, but I have to say that in fact it all went reasonably smoothly. Having read others’ accounts, we did at least realise that while it is necessary to go on the morning of your appointment, the time of your appointment is – what’s the word? – merely notional. Basically, you turn up early and you stand in the queue. It’s also true that there is nothing that resembles a (naively hoped-for) waiting room. You stand on the steps and wait your turn:  Hopeful queue Again, having been warned that things could be difficult, we were given some extremely kind help by the bilingual Giorgio. So while a visit like this is not my favourite way of passing a cold morning, it must also be said that once we got to the top of the stairs we were seen, papers were examined and stamped, no strange or unexpected further queries were raised, there were no unexpected problems and we were able to leave with a reasonable hope that the application will be processed. So take heart – they are not monsters! Tuesday December 7th, 2010. Posted by Alex:
When Cyndi Lauper sang those lyrics it sounded like such a good idea. But the song did not have the politicians’ coda: “… but mine are a matter of National Security”. The Guardian is currently carrying a piece by John Naughton, and I’d like to encourage anybody to read it. Here are a few lines that I found particularly to-the-point:
You would do better, of course, to read the whole article. But before I go, I’d also like to repeat one of the comments (yes, mine):
Sunday December 5th, 2010. Posted by Alex:
Look, after several years in Australia I got to know several people from New Zealand, and jolly nice they all are! This is not about them. It’s about the bush, vine, tree, call-it-what-you-will, two of which were flourishing in the garden here in the Lunigiana when we moved in. If ”flourishing” is really the word – they are large. They get bigger at a speed that makes them invasive and hard work to control. They produced a lot of fruit, and a lot of leaves that I have scraped together to make compost. That all sounds quite a lot like flourishing. Here is a picture I took this morning:
The problem is that even now, as the fruit hangs unappetisingly amongst the grey branches and withered leaves, they are still as hard as potatoes. I’m starting to think the whole thing is a waste of space. Friday December 3rd, 2010. Posted by Alex:
You might think that I’m talking about the jig, “Apples in Winter”. Here is somebody playing it quite nicely. But no, it’s not even a tune that I can play. It’s just that I couldn’t resist showing you this picture:
On a more prosaic level, we have been clearing the slope below what we, with laughing confidence, call the “meadow”, revealing some nice terracing and some very difficult areas.
If you are interested, “A” is the common path, which takes a bend just off the bottom left of this picture and goes down to the river. “B” is the lowest of our terraces, fit for growing something, and larger than it looks here. “C” is the second terrace, quite wide and promising at the far end but at the near end (bottom left) it peters out into a slope “D” that would be difficult to cultivate. Now that it is clear we have discovered – as you have no doubt noticed – plenty of junk that had been thrown down from above, including, yes, a cast iron bath. “E” is the highest of these three “lower” terraces. At the far end it is pleasant and flat, passes under the kiwi tree. A kiwi tree might sound cute, but it is not necessarily a good idea in this area. Then again, this terrace meets the difficult slope, “F”, where at the moment we are thinking of putting rhododendrons to cover it tidily and keep the soil from crumbling away. Summary: a lot to do yet. Wednesday December 1st, 2010. Posted by Alex:
I think I may have guessed why the police – the Metropolitan, for instance – appear to be so stupid. From the Birmingham 6 through to the killing of Ian Tomlinson last year, we have long been aware that police forces contain some vicious thugs. The same incidents have shown us that only too often the response of police forces to charges of violence, intimidation and so on is simply to lie. Now in the days of the Birmingham 6 things were different. The case of Ian Tomlinson is probably the best known example of how their first reaction was to deny everything, only to be forced further and further into retreat because, hey – there were a video recordings! The world is now awash with mobile phones that can take video recordings. Whereas what goes on in a police cell may be more difficult to establish, any fool knows that what happens out in the open, at a demonstration for instance, is likely to have been recorded on video. The police rode their horses at speed into a crowd of demonstrators in London other day. If you like, you can read at the Guardian how Paul Stephenson, the Met’s commissioner, first denied that horses had been used at all, only to be forced further and further into retreat because, hey – there were a video recordings! (Also to be seen at the Guardian article.) But my point is not that the police were using the dangerous, unnecessary and confrontational force on which Paul Stephenson does seem quite keen. It’s happened before, only too often. My point, rather is – how can they be so stupid? How can they not know that there is an extremely high probability that their actions have been recorded on video? Are they really that stupid? My guess is this. It is not impossible that in some cases the PC Plod on the ground really is that stupid, and thinks that you can simply get away with denying it. The superior officers probably do have some brain cells to rub together, but they believe the word of PC Plod because the police still have a culture of believing that they can get away with it. A culture of believing that a policeman’s word is worth more than that of an ordinary citizen. A culture of closing ranks and turning a blind eye. A culture of stonewalling complaints. My guess is that it is this culture, rather than sheer stupidity, that blinds them to the truth. And the truth is that, for better or worse, video cameras are all around. Monday November 29th, 2010. Posted by Alex:
A neighbour of ours, here near Pontremoli, was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. She has lived here for many years. The story went that breast cancer is unusually common in the Lunigiana, and it was said that this was confirmed by her specialist. The reason put forward is that (forgive me if the following is a bit blurred) these high valleys are close to aircraft routes, and do not give an opportunity for the pollution from the jet engines to escape – I’m not clear whether this explanation was supposed to have originated with the doctor, or whether it is “common knowledge”. A cluster of cancers at a particular place and time is of course a long way from a demonstration there is some particular danger associated with that place and time – a great deal of statistical work has to be done to get a clear answer, and many cases, unless the samples of very large and the correlations very clear, opinions can remain divided for a long time. We know, for a simple fact, that clusters will necessarily occur for reasons of pure chance. Obviously I am not qualified to join the debate as to whether there is a particular danger here in the Lunigiana, but it did seem that there is a real question mark. Let’s be honest, the” explanation” above is not exactly convincing, especially to those of us who have lived close to the flight path to a major airport airplanes go over at 1000 feet every two or 3 minutes. But searching around a bit, I did find something of interest. It is, apparently, well known that the Lunigiana has soil that is very low in iodine. I believe that the area has even been used in studies on the effects of low iodine. And guess what? One of the accepted effects of a diet that is low in iodine is an increased susceptibility to breast cancer! Iodine deficiency is a long-term problem, and it is unlikely to affect you if you eat food from many different areas, or if you are only a temporary visitor. One of the nice things about this place, however, is that a lot of the food really is local. People eat vegetables out of their ortos, while the fresh food in the shops and supermarkets, as well as the food cooked in restaurants, is often of local origin. So the message seems clear: if you actually live here, and if you eat the good local food, you really should try to make sure that you buy iodised salt. As Aurelia said in “Love Actually” (my favourite line in the whole sweet movie): Just in cases! Saturday November 27th, 2010. Posted by Alex:
The last few days have seen some very different weather, and given the place a different look, as the temperature hovered a couple of foggy degrees above zero:
Ideal for some of that Tibetan yoga practice! But since I do that wearing basically only my underpants, there are strictly no pictures of that little exercise! A few terraces further down, the misty riverbank is also good for reciting some yidam mantras. (An activity performed with more clothing on, I should add):
I tried to catch a picture of the splashing water sparkling in the low shafts of sunlight, but I’d need a much faster lens to catch that. All the same, I think the picture does show some of the sense of mystery and peace:
The banks are a bit rocky, so you need to give a little careful thought to the matter of what you are going to sit on. This morning the temperature was properly below zero, giving us whitened hills around and ice on the ground:
A good way to start the day, for sure! Saturday November 27th, 2010. Posted by Alex:
Our new cat, or “rescue kitten”, generally known as Gillie (after Julia Gillard), but sometimes as Shadowflit, is now spending most of her time living with the rest of us. This does mean that toes (ours) can be attacked in the middle of the night, but generally is much nicer than having her living in the “office”. At about seven months old she has of course a different character from the nearly 11 year-old “Tashi-of-the-Upper-Terraces-formerly-de-Leichhardt-O’Barry-as-she-was”. G adores T, T’s attitude to G is, I would venture, a smidge warmer than mere toleration. Just a smidge. As evidence, I adduce a picture of them eating together:
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