Thursday, 12 March 2015

Wednesday, 11 March 2015

Enjoying some lovely walks all around the world

Queen of Sheeba sent me a link to some fantastic photos of places where you shouldn't really take the car... There were too many pictures on the site, so I selected a few to post here. Thank you, QoS!

1. Molyvos, Lesvos, Greece

2. Valencia. Spain

3. Bonn, Germany

4. Cullinan, South Africa

5. Porto Alegre, Brazil

6. Washington DC, USA

7. Brisbane, Australia

8. Savannah, Georgia, USA

9. Kaluszyn, Poland

10. Nafplio, Greece

11. Lisbon, Portugal

12. Live Oaks, Charleston, SC, USA

13. Wisteria Tunnel, Japan

14. Spello, Italy

Tuesday, 10 March 2015

... now we do it every night

This woman is very funny, we always enjoy it when she's on the telly.

Monday, 9 March 2015

Would you like a cup of tea?

Ewww!







Hold on! Take a closer look at the porcelain. The ants are not real!

Crazy, eh?

They are hand-painted ants crawling on vintage porcelain dishes by German artist Evelyn Bracket.

http://the-design-ark.com/2014/01/hand-painted-ants-crawling-vintage-porcelain-dishes/

Sunday, 8 March 2015

"One is not born a woman, but becomes one."

I borrowed the title of this post from Simone de Beauvoir as we celebrate International Woman's Day. The people commenting on this blog are mainly women, but we have some men here who feel comfortable in the company of strong, opinionated, funny women. Good for them!







This is interesting... (click to enlarge)



Where would we be without the ability to laugh?






Saturday, 7 March 2015

Unusual architecture


When we started thinking about moving away from the UK, Italy was our country of choice. I spent many hours scouring the internet, studying all the different Italian regions, comparing the prices of the houses and dreaming...

The region of Puglia captured my imagination with its unique architectural characteristics. I fell in love with the trullo. Unfortunately, the asking prices for a trullo in good condition were very steep. The starting prices for trulli in need of modernisation were not that low and the costs of remodelling them in accordance to the regulations were prohibitive.

Properties in the desirable areas of Italy were too expensive for us and we ended up in France.

The rest is history...

Here's what trulli are all about and you'll see why I found them so attractive. They are truly amazing (groan).

A trullo (plural, trulli) is a traditional Apulian dry stone hut with a conical roof. Their style of construction is specific to the Itria Valley, in the Murge area of the Italian region of Apulia (Puglia).

Trulli were generally constructed as temporary field shelters and storehouses or as permanent dwellings by small proprietors or agricultural labourers. In the town of Alberobello, in the province of Bari, whole districts are packed with trulli. The golden age of trulli was the 19th century, specially its final decades marked by the development of wine growing.

The vast majority of trulli have one room under each conical roof, with additional living spaces in arched alcoves. Children would sleep in alcoves made in the wall with curtains hung in front.

A multiroomed trullo house has many cones representing a room each.

The thick stone walls and dome of the trullo, pleasantly cool in the summer, tend to become unpleasantly cold during the winter months, condensing the moisture given off by cooking and breathing and making it difficult to feel warm even in front of the fire. The inhabitants simply leave the doors open during the day to keep the interior dry, and live more outdoors than in.

Today the surviving trulli are popular among English and German tourists and are often bought and restored for general use. However, anyone wishing to restore a trullo needs to conform with many regulations as trulli are protected under the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) world heritage law.