Spring Indeed!

poppies!

Spring IS for making plans but let's take a little break, even with a billion things to do, and take a walk outside.  This week we rode to the Oakland Rose Garden and tomorrow we will maybe go to the beach.  And once a day or so, I walk around the garden to see what's happening.
Here is my report.

the choir

one of only three that sprouted the first round

I love watching beans sprout

california poppies in a sea of overgrowth

Making Stuff...

I like my job.  I like making stuff for other people.  I especially like when it comes out looking fine, not too crooked, or inky or splotchy.  I made business cards last week for two ceramic artists.  Roberta sent me a drawing to incorporate into hers.  She makes drawings and functional and nonfunctional work and is about to graduate from Lousiana State University.  And her work is amazing.

For Kim, I hand-lettered her business name instead of using a whimisical-but-overused typeface.  Handdrawn elements are fun!


It's been springlike here and we finally started doing something with the dirt and weed patch called our yard.  Last week, I dug up and turned over a 10 x 5' patch that we mulched to become our garden.  Remember folks, this is not a gardening blog and we have more ambitions than skills. Oh, and we have a good guide book.  So far, there are only marigolds, but I am working on that. Hopefully soon I will post lovely things emerging from the acidic mulch.  Not tonight.

what grew there before

our "garden" where nothing grows

Temporal Amnesia

 at the park in Torino

In Italian, tempo means time or weather. Not in english. I'm using it this way here because "meteorological amnesia" doesn't sound right. I mean time and weather. I was trying to explain this to a friend to describe my feelings about spring in Milan. Some days, I wake up, walk to the grocery store and the sky is so clear and thick with color. The trees are breathing and everything seems possible. It is hard not to smile. This morning was like this. But as I left the grocery, I could see the clouds.

sitting on the Po River, Torino

The rain here isn't like in Louisiana, where it is so humid the rain has to be aggresive to get noticed. It rains hard here but not for long. But the grey sticks. And wipes out any memory of a sunny morning. It is dark. We abandon all plans to go out. I've tried but everyone seems inside, snuggled in until it is over. I stay home for days studying (or procrastinating). Sometimes the sun will return and we forget the rain. The air warms right up to a perfect comfortable temperature and we go out for coffee again, or I walk around.

good night

At night they grey will slowly fade but when it is clear, the sun is up late. And when it finally sets I have this nearly full moon out my window.

World Class Procrastinator

 my favorite milan park

There should be awards for this.  Though I have been getting a lot of other things done today, even if my paper is not written.  After watching 2 clips of Family Ties on youtube, I realized I should at least go and enjoy the day.  There is a smartly-placed gelato stand between the park and the church piazza in my neighborhood.  I favor the park because, at this point, it feels like an old friend.  Now I know that the looking orange building is not abandoned but a library.  The park was filled with teens in the grass, daughters strolling with their mothers, and me.  I have been reading Primo Levy's If This Is a Man  angry that I had not read it earlier, that I had not heard of it, and I wonder if I would've understood it earlier.  The horror of it is not in the dramatic retelling of atrocities but of the lack of drama.

In other procrastinations, after Italian class the other night I went to the cafe near school with the lovely garden seating and had a glass of wine and drew.  While I did, the waiter stood at the bar and drew my table from his perspective.  One day I will have many drawing to share with you.

cloister at Santa Maria della Grazie

And for my last short story, I am preparing to leave Milan, physically and mentally.  I like it here but I am ready to be moving.  It is a lot to think about and the other day the thoughts came too fast so I returned the the cloister at Santa Maria della Grazie to see the frog fountain.  Thanks, guys.

Fair Verona

I arrived in another haze of cold grey, and for a minute I thought maybe I should've stayed on Lago di Garda a few stops earlier where mountains and water and sun awaited. Also, the Verona train station is not very inviting. Also, I did not bring my coat since it is April and warm in the sun. If there is sun.

So first I found a place to eat, an enoteca with cheap glasses of wine and a bar of snack foods. I had a few tiny sandwiches, drew a few pictures, listened to the group of men who had moved inside talk to each table. Sure, the bartender wore a shirt that said YOU SUCK but since it was directed towards everyone, I appreciated his egalitarian hostility. He was actually very nice.

I braved the cold grey and was rewarded with a slowly sunny day. Verona is very beautiful, even in grey, and yet I didn't manage to capture that in any photos. But the trees were showing off fat green leaves, there were balconies all around, and though there were plenty of tourists at certain spots, I eventually wandered from church to church, enjoying the river view, and avoiding the crowds. I did not go to "Juliette's house" but I wandered along the river, climbed inside the amphitheater and ate dinner in the Piazza Bra. On my way back to the hostel I could not find a place to get a drink. It was Easter Monday and the streets were quiet and dark. Sometimes I felt a little like this guy:

eyes bugged out and a little overwhelmed but mostly, Verona is beautiful, great for walking slow and watching people.

Alternating Waves of Panic and Exhilaration

Oh spring! Now that I have walked a million miles in Milan, I comfortable getting lost on a bike. I have yet to not get a little lost and it is even more exciting in the evening as I hurry home for dinner. In case I have not explained, Milan has a bike rental system called BikeMi where you pay a little for a membership, then you can borrow a bike from a hundred stands downtown and pay a little when you use it. You get a lock, a light, a basket, an adjustable seat and three gears. No helmet, but you can get a free map too. There are even bike paths here, like in Montreal, on the street but separate. However, they seem to end suddenly but so do the streets here. More than once I found myself at an intersection of multiple cobblestone streets with trams and no idea how to get to where I wanted. Oh, and one bike path seemed to send at a busy tram stop. However, nobody got hurt. You can't keep the bike for more than 2 hours and I still have to take the metro to get to the closest bike stand but it is worth it. Bikes and outdoor cafes...I may never go to class again.

Springtime!

Milan's winter was colder and longer and snowier than I am used to but they have a real live spring! It was grey when Kerry and I walked around a neighborhood I had never really seen before. Fancy architecture, balconies, shiny tiled walls and blooming blossomy trees.



And graffiti! There is lots in Milan, and some of it is made of odd figures wheatpasted to walls. I liked these robots and this piece high up on a wall somewhere near the park. School is good, my classes are interesting but I think I might need to go outside a little more.