A celebration

When we were in Italy we celebrated the fifty-second wedding anniversary of one of my husband's sisters. (You may remember that about this time last year I wrote about how I met my husband at his sister's wedding when she lived in England and we remain good friends).  

This is the hotel we went to near Casamari Abbey. It's named after Caius Marius, the Roman whose villa and estate was on the site where the small settlement of Casamari  (the house of Marius) developed and the Abbey was built. Opposite the hotel stand the remains of the Roman acqua duct and there's a bridge that spans the River Amaseno, which in places is often dried up.

 A mid 20th century image of the abbey and the remains of the Roman acqua duct

There was a display in the restaurant of the local red wines such as the Cesanese del Piglio and typical regional varieties of hand made pasta.

Below are some of the dishes we enjoyed - antipasti, 'fini fini' pasta with porcini mushrooms, lasagne al forno, asparagus, pineapple soaked in maraschino liqueur and sambuca with coffee beans floating in it.

Since arriving back in England my husband has been working on the vegetable plot - more about that another time - and we've been making plans to convert an existing space into a downstairs cloakroom. In the meantime I shall be writing some more about last month's trip to Italy.

Italy in March

Whether we're in Italy or England much of our time is spent doing things around the house and garden or going out to places near home.

I'm looking back to our time in Italy in March and remembering some of what we did during that month.

I did a little more of my cross stitching

picture and some reading.

We did some entertaining...

and shopping in one of the local towns.

This is the view from the supermarket car park.

There was a Saturday market.

On the way we went to the local flour mill where as well as grinding and selling different varieties of flour one can buy all sorts of animal feed, seeds and plants.  It's where we used to take my mother-in-law to get her maize and wheat grain ground into flour and where some of my sisters-in-law now come to buy the flour for bread, sweet pastry and pasta dough making.

Some more good views of the mountains on the way home.

A good day out

I'm taking a break from writing about our recent time in Italy to share about the lovely day out we had yesterday with our local daughter.  It was Mothering Sunday, a day in the Christian calendar (traditionally the 4th Sunday of Lent) and now more commonly known and celebrated as Mother's Day here.

I had lots of lovely presents of flowers and chocolates, some pretty cards and several phone calls from the children and grandchildren and our local daughter cooked lunch before taking us out for a drive in the countryside.  We headed for Monsal Dale and Monsal Head, a popular beauty spot in Derbyshire stopping for a wander around the interesting village of Tideswell with a church which is known as 'The Cathedral of the Peaks'.

The day was cloudy with some mist over the hills so not good for photography, but the views from high up on Monsal Head looking down Monsal Dale and up the Wye Valley with the river and viaduct below were still spectacular.

The old route of the Midland Railway formerly crossed the river over the viaduct and then carried on by way of a tunnel through Monsal Head and is now part of the Monsal Trail.

                   
       Some of my presents - tulips, a shrub (skimmia japonica), pots of jam and chocolates.

                                             Tideswell Parish Church, Derbyshire

                             An angel and rose bush on one of the stalls in the chancel

I've wanted to visit Tideswell for quite a while.  St. John the Baptist Church, the parish church of Tideswell was very interesting with many beautiful wood carvings especially on the choir stalls and we shall go back and spend more time there when we have the opportunity.

We enjoyed a tea-time treat of tea or coffee with cake (slices of orange spice cake, chocolate cake and scones with strawberry jam and cream) in the tea rooms and craft shop with picture gallery on Monsal Head.....

....and then a last look at the view before heading back home.