Old Friend 1

 

Another old friend returns,

The Trelawnyd Flower Show is reborn on August 5th.

And the schedules are out.

I’ve got much to do today. 

Jackson’s Nurseries ( which lies a stone’s throw from the village) donated several planters to the TCA and I’ve picked three up this morning and have placed two either side of the Church gate and put the last one by the noticeboard.

I will personally deliver flower show schedules to the old flower show committee and to people who have already requested them. 

I love the fact that inside the programme the TCA has honoured Auntie Glad

The Moment I Fell In Love With Venice

The view of the Grand Canal from the Museum

 Ok this will be my last Venice post for a while.

I wanted to write this yesterday but the post deserved time, emotion and thought and effort 

To me it’s an important post for an important day 

all I can tell you is that I have been captivated by Venice from the get-go, captivated , entranced, impressed from the first time I saw it properly the moment we approached it from the North East causeway but I truly fell in love with the city when we had a break inside the subtle Guggenheim museum and walked on an almost deserted museum terrace which over looked the Grand Canal at midday.

From the calm, beauty of the deserted museum on Sunday morning , we left the mutedly lit  Pollock’s and Picasso’s for the bright, blue beauty of a thoroughfare packed with boats and people and movement. 

And It was joyous 

My friend Colin giggled as I waved without any embarrassment to anyone in the boats on the canal  who would wave back, and I guessed understood just why I did it.

And wave they did, almost as if they could feel my excitement and pleasure of that one moment pure moment .

A big black guy , showing off to his girlfriend in a motorboat, a group of schoolgirls on a vaparetto and a family of women in hijabs in a water taxi they all waved to me as I waved to them from one of the most impressive and beautiful museums in the world, on a sunny hot day , when the water looked duck egg blue and Sun shone so happily .

It was a glorious wonderful moment that I will never forget

The terrace at the museum

Home Today

As you all can probably tell, I have totally fallen for Italy

Just as Tom Stephenson probably did over a busty Sophia Loren when he was a teenager.

Always late to the party, this quick jaunt has seriously healed a little hole in my psychi, one I never knew was still there and even after a few days I feel lighter and brighter and eager to move on to Barcelona next month and Rome in the autumn.

A four star hotel, lovely service,plush surroundings, cracking food and long easy conversations over sunny views all help to lift the spirits.

Last night we had to laugh, as a young couple who had sat silently next to me on the plane in to Venice despite my welcome saw me sat in our favourite cafe/bar.

Both smiled broadly and waved just as I had waved so energetically at the passengers in the water taxies and Vaparettos on the Grand Canal from the veranda of the Guggenheim .

Caught under the Venice spell, too, I thought…

Just like me

 

Ciao Bella

 We went to the Guggenheim which was small and quiet and rather chic and I fell in love with 

Jackson Pollock’s Eyes In The Heat

I couldn’t work out what was better the Pollock or the view 

Of the Grand Canal

They had a few items displayed on the museum veranda which overlooked the Grand Canal 

And we sat there for an age waving at the boats

It’s now heading for dusk on my final night

And I don’t want to come home 

CIÁO XXX

Last Full Day

 

I’ve not been away with my friend Colin before and so needed to suss out his way of holidaying.

It will surprise no one to learn that I’m a wash face and go person

Colin is a gently gently face the day person, so I get up wash my face and take a short early walk.

He’s great company when he surfaces, yesterday we spent four and a half hours in a delightful cafe wedged by a canal,  drinking Apirol Spritz and talking and watching the world amble buy

Venice is truly magical. 

I’m quite captivated by it.

Blending in with the tourist places, the cafes and the church’s, almost faceless, ancient building brood and blend just as they did in the scenes of Don’t Look Now and the canal water glows a blue of the sky and looks clean and smells fresh.

I will come again ,I am sure.

I’m presently eating breakfast on the hotel terrace 

It’s still early 

I’m the only Brit in the restaurant, as far as I can tell the others, with an exception of a chic Greek family and one German lady are all Americans who banter between tables like old jolly friends. 

In my experience, they have little knowledge of the difference between an Englishman and being from the UK, so I’ve told everyone who asked that I’m Welsh.

Without realising, I even sound more Welsh as I told them

The iPad is now protecting me from further questions.

I need to be a little still in the early mornings

We are off to the Guggenheim a little later this morning

The weather is the same her as it is in the Uk

All of the Italians I have met, have been charming and friendly, quite unlike what I was told to expect.

Venice Day 2

 

Not a mistake , one photo of us in the mirror of a vapretto

 

It’s been a lovely day. 

In the end we missed the Murano trip so leapt on the first vaparetto and braved the sights in Venice’s centre.

It was glorious but quite hot and yes I did wear my hat.

We arrived back in out quiet North West corner of Venice at 4pm and spent 4.5 hours in the same cafe, eating wafer thin pizza, drinking spritzers, talking and people watching 

The Guggenheim tomorrow 

Hey ho 

 

Breakfast

 Never not a man of habit , I’m sitting with my coffee at a table.

The hotel Papadopolis overlooks the small pretty gardens with the same name and I feel rather cosmopolitan as I seem to be surrounded by guests from all nations 

It’s a glorious day, I have my hat ready and I think we are off to Murano

Venice Film Set

 It feels like a gigantic film set

The view from my hotel bedroom 1 minute after arriving