Sunday, March 27, 2011

Asphodel and sunshine

Today the clocks went forward, and it seems as if summer is well on its way. It was a beautiful hot day; we went on a long walk up the hill behind Ascea, where it's very quite and all you can hear is bird song and insects humming. All the different wild flowers are out, I'm no good at names, I'm afraid, but I particularly like the asphodel, which according to Greek legend grows in Hades. In the twilight it does have a ghostly appearance, the pale flowers seem to hover like fire-flies, and the slim stem is almost invisible.
After the walk we went to the beach for an ice-cream, and found it packed with locals enjoying the sunshine while walking along the sea front. No one was actually swimming, though it was probably warm enough from a northern European point of view.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

A few more photos from the past few days

A crowd photo from the Carnevale:







Some driftwood we found on the beach - we've made a chandelier out of it. This is a detail of the chandelier.




A bit of Ascea seen from above:

Thursday, March 10, 2011

A couple of photos



Cold but sunny today. I have some solar powered lights out on the balcony and they are getting enough energy to shine all night.

These are a couple of photos from my walk: got a good shot of the sunset at last! It sets very fast, you can literally see it sinking.

Upcoming concert including pieces by Rene Mogensen

If you're in Arhus on March 13th, why not go along to this concert - it's free! - in celebration of Niels-Ole Bo Johansen. Two pieces composed by Rene Mogensen are in it.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Carnevale Asceoto

Today was carnival day in Ascea Paese. As usual the floats were impressively large, funny and politically relevant. We had great weather for the parade, which coincided with International Women's day, when random strangers give you sprigs of mimosa blossom. Here are some photos - enjoy!
The 150th anniversary of Italy's unification was a popular theme (above). The anniversary is coming up this year, and with Italians feeling so divided in many ways, especially between North and South, this is a subject ripe for satire.

Translation: So many heroes to unite it (Italy); one idiot to divide it. I think they're probably referring to Berlusconi.


And this is another political scandal and corruption jibe: the theme of this float was 'Politicans in Hawaii'.