blossoming in Italy

In Zia Morena's gardenIt is. And so are the girls. Lola and Neve have spent the last two weeks counting down the days to the Easter holidays and, more importantly, our trip to Ponzano Veneto. They are so utterly happy to be here–and who can blame them.
Today is Dedi’s birthday and we’re busy preparing a little afternoon party: fruit kebabs, crispy, olivey snacks, and a huge tiramisu we made last night. It’s a lovely warm sunny day, so we’ll have it outside in the garden.
Neve in Ponzano
The girls are even more happy as this gives them an excuse to put their party dresses on.

Dedi has had a hard time recently with three months of extreme discomfort and pain due to two herniated lumbar discs and simultaneous DVTs. She had to be operated on, which was not straightforward as she was on anticoagulants…
It’s great to see her up and about.

I made a thing (again)

P1150032Quite pleased with my bookcase-y thing in the sitting room–particularly the way that the finished piece looked quite like the original plan. Next time, though, I’d not build to such tight tolerance — had to resort to a club hammer to get it seated on the brackets and I was a little worried for the ceiling. Just got to make the doors now; including bi-fold doors for the TV bit.

If you’re bored, you can click through to Flickr and see the whole project in various stages…