I had to check my calendar twice this morning before I was convinced that May starts tomorrow. Why, oh why, won't time stand still? I need more time, but the clock keeps ticking… oh, my! Chaos reigns in every room of my house right now. Books, magazines, travel brochures, CDs, DVDs are spread all across the coffee table and on every possible surface. I need more space in order to organize all my stuff. I'd love to hang a few shelves and give all my books and DVDs a proper home. Unfortunately, we don't have permission to do it here.

(Before the IKEA's bookshelf...)

Hubby and I bought a wee bookshelf at IKEA last year, but it's not enough anymore. Maybe I should stop buying books…

(... and after!)

Oh, BTW, my house isn't dirty, just messy... a bit chaotic. What works best for me is to invite people over. I put everything away when someone comes for a visit. Unfortunately, I'm just not up for entertaining every day. ROTFL!

About our trip to the Isle of Mull, we've found a room in a wee hotel. We'll go there at the end of May. Can't wait!

Kia and I would like to spend a weekend in May on the Isle of Mull and surrounding areas. We've been calling some B&B to check room availability. It seems like they are almost all booked. One of the few that had some available rooms replied "We don't do one-nights, we do a minimum of two nights." and hang up. I could not believe my hears! Is this an example of the famous "Scottish friendliness"? They must have a very good business to be so picky.

Anyway, HERE you can take a virtual tour of the Isle of Mull. Isn't it a beautiful place?

Yesterday has been dark and rainy all day long. In the evening the sun came out just to say goodbye…

… and to surprise us with wonderful colors.

We indulged ourselves with a huge slice of a yummy chocolate cake with pecan nuts while looking at the sunset (have a peek at "torta morbida al cioccolato" for the recipe). Would you like a slice?

Lots to do today, not sure we will have time for our visits before tomorrow. Until next time... have a lovely day!

How marvelous is that out of all the billions of people in the world, we have found each other?!

You mean more to me than you will ever know, Zeno. I love you, sweetheart!

Enjoying an afternoon snack (toasted corn) after our walk. Would you like some? They are very tasty.

Hey, it's Friday… again! This week has just flown by for us. Suppose we have been two li'l busy bees. Time flies when you are busy.

In bocca al lupo to our friend Dru who is looking for a new job! We are sure the perfect job is out there, waiting for you!

In bocca al lupo literally means "in the wolf's mouth". It's an idiomatic phrase used to wish buona fortuna (good luck), like "break a leg". The correct reply to this is crepi (il lupo) which literally means "die (the wolf)". Otherwise you won't have luck.

This expression is used to ward off the evil eye: to keep away a bad event, you express it in the form of a wish. When you say "break a leg" you don't actually wish someone to break his/her leg. It's a metaphoric expression.

No one is 100% sure where it started from. It probably comes from the countryside world, probably from the jargon of farmers and shepherds, who considered wolves dangerous animals for their livestock.

If you want to wish good luck to a friend that is going to play a role in theater, you must say "Merda! Merda! Merda!". Bet you all know what that means, especially if you know a little French, LOL!

There are also other more colorful expression, used especially by teens. But we think it's better drop the subject and wish you all a very happy evening. We will leave you with a link we think you can like: I Can Read; it's a gallery of images of various quotes, sayings and statements that people have uploaded.

I'm not one for the gym, so my sweetheart and I go for long walks instead. I find a walk really refreshing as it gives me time to think and usually come back home full of energy and ideas… and nice shots!

Happy Earth Day, everyone! The poetry of Mother Nature...

Don't know about your neck of the woods, but we've had another beautiful day here today, with higher temps of 17°C / 62.5°F. I might get used to it, LMAO!

The sunny weather inspired Zeno and he made Insalata Caprese for the two of us at dinner.

How refreshing! It would have been tastier with a juicy mozzarella di bufala, but it was delicious anyway (the recipe is already in our Recipe Corner, under Appetizers).

I've been rubbish at blogging lately, so you can imagine my surprise when I saw that Kathy nominated me for this sweet award.

Thank you so very much, dear friend! I saw many of you have already got it, so I'm nominating a few I think did not receive it yet: Amanda, Annette, Antonella, Barbara, Dru, Jaana, Pam, Terry and Suzanne. Left click to grab it.

Oh, I almost forgot! The rules are:
1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate up to 10 blogs which show great attitude and/or gratitude!
3. Be sure to link your nominees within your post.
4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Remember to link the person from whom you received your award.

Good night y'all, hope to have the chance to visit everyone tomorrow.

What a wonderful way of waking up and start a new day!

The sun is out again and days are getting longer...

Breakfast with my sweetheart: pear muffins with sultanas (the recipe is already in our Recipe Corner) and coffee.

A new body emulsion: fragrance icing sugar and avocado, irresistible and amusing!

Good evening everyone! Just a quick note because I'm knackered and ready for bed. It's been a bright beautiful weekend here. The sun was shining and the temperatures went up, slowly but constantly, so that this afternoon you could actually walk around with a shirt. Hubby and I spent almost all our free time outside discovering new places in our town. Needless to say, I wish this weather could last forever! Unfortunately, rain is predicted for Tuesday already.

Hope you all had a super duper weekend and I will be back with some photos on Monday.

When I woke up this morning and got out of the duvet, I started shivering. My bedroom seemed unusually cold, but I thought it was only 'cos of the howling wind that has been blowing outside since Monday night giving me an headache.

I hoped to warm up thanks to my first cup of coffee, but nothing. I turned on my laptop and started checking my e-mails… and my fingers were stiff, like frozen!

Just picture me like this:

It was only then (yep, I'm getting old and a bit slow, LOL) that I decided to check temperature on the thermometer: 16°C / 60.8°C. What?! Needless to say, I decided to turn on the heater for half an hour, since I was planning to take a shower. I must say that we had no need to turn on the heater since the beginning of March. Is Winter back? Did any of you see, by any chance, where Spring has gone? Can you send it back here, pretty please? It's almost noon and temps are: 8°C /46.5°F, but feels like 4°C / 39°F, brrrrrr…. We haven't seen the sun since Monday even though the weather forecast kept saying Mostly Sunny or clear. Yeah, right! Where? Above the clouds? Not to mention, I'm pretty jealous that in my hometown my parents are having sunny days with temps around 22°C / 71.6°F. Believe me, I cannot wait to write one day: "Yeah, sunshine all day!".

Well, I'm back after a long lunch break. Where was I? … oh, right! My sweetheart and I have added 7 new recipes to our Recipe Corner. You can now click on "Menu" to see a list of our recipes, to help you find them.

My heartfelt congratulation to sweet Amanda and her husband Kenneth for the arrival of their precious baby boy Kenyattah Kasuku. He is adorable!

And speaking of birth… today marks the 35th anniversary of my birth. Which is a fancy and pretentious sounding way of saying it's my 35th Birthday (which I'm sure you figured out). LOL! Thanks to everyone who sent me birthday wishes. It really means so much to me. Now I am off to eat some cake! Zeno just arrived with a chocolate fudge cake!

Oh, look! The sun is peeking outside the clouds now! Cool! A bit late, but cool anyway! TTFN!

An almost "Wordless Thursday". Nature is waking up…

It's been a week now since my parents went back to Italy. They are in Rome now, visiting my aunt Anna.

My parents enjoyed their visit here in Scotland even though they had some problems with their trip. When coming here, they missed their flight because my father's ID was expired. They had to rush back to their town, get to the town hall before closing time, just to get the ID renewed and catch a later flight.

They have been pretty lucky because the weather behaved itself during their stay. Days have been mostly sunny, with little occasional rain and some freezing wind blowing here and there.

My mother got a little flu and passed it onto Kia, but this didn't keep us from going around and visiting Glasgow, Edinburgh and Largs. We also walked around in Paisley under a slight rain. We just uploaded some pictures of Glasgow in our Photo Album, and those of the other places will follow soon.

My parents had problems also with their return flight. When we took them to the airport and tried to check in, we found out that their reservation was accidentally cancelled. So we had to find another flight for them, and luckily there was one the next morning.

Time to play "What's Your Price" again, after a few weeks absence. Have a good night you all.

We hope everyone who celebrate it had a wonderful and meaningful Easter! We sure had a very happy one together, even if it was just the two of us.

We spent a lot of time cooking together and trying new recipes. We have a couple of "savory pie" recipes to share with you. We'll try to translate them tomorrow, we're too sleepy now. We did not bake any Italian Easter cakes, we tried instead the traditional Hot Cross Bun we saw in a bakery. It is a type of soft sweet spiced bun made with raisins. It is traditionally eaten on Good Friday, with the cross standing as a symbol of the crucifixion.

We did not go anyplace, just took a few walks around Paisley. Hopefully, later this spring, we'll get the chance to make a trip somewhere special. There are so many places we'd like to see here in Scotland! Easter Sunday was mostly sunny, but during our walk in the afternoon we experienced one the manifestations of the weird Scottish weather: while the sun was hot and shining, we had a sudden rain followed by some hail.

We are officially off to bed to catch up on some much needed sleep. Have a great week!

Dear friends, our best wishes for a happy spring full of odorous flowers and colorful butterflies. We wish you a happy Easter spent with your beloved ones.

Cari amici, i nostri migliori auguri per una felice primavera ricca di fiori profumati e farfalle colorate. Vi auguriamo una Pasqua felice da trascorrere con i vostri cari.

I don't think I'm the only one out there scared by the idea of losing all my beloved ones, my certainties and my memories all at once. Since Monday all my smiles have been veiled by a feeling of helplessness. 289 people have died 'cos of the devastating earthquake in the city of L'Aquila.

A couple of friends wrote me asking how they can help from abroad. For those of you who would like to make a donation to help the earthquake victims, please go HERE. It's the site of the Italian Red Cross (Croce Rossa Italiana). You will easily find the bank account details and the online donation info on the right hand side of the home page. Thank you for your e-mails of concern and for your kindness.

For some reason I've never really thought about earthquakes as a child or a teenager, though I've felt at least two or three of them. Even if Italy is the most seismic country in Europe I was lucky enough to grow up in that part of Northern Italy that is considered relatively safe from a seismic point of view.

I'm not feeling too well again, I've been around my MIL who had a cold while she was here visiting and now my nose is running like crazy. Hope to get well very soon 'cos Zeno and I want to go to Dumbarton tomorrow. This coming weekend, starting today, is known here in the UK as the Easter Bank Holiday Weekend. It is so called 'cos it starts with a bank holiday on Good Friday and ends with a bank holiday on Easter Monday. Today is not a public holiday in Italy, so Zeno had to go to work to cover the Italian line. He got home at 5 PM with a very nice surprise…

Time for dinner now. Zeno will post about his parents' visit in the next few days. Have a wonderful evening!

On Sunday night around 3:30 AM an earthquake (terremoto) measuring 5.8 on the Richter Scale devastated the town of L'Aquila and surrounding villages in the Abruzzo region in Central Italy. At least 235 people have died, 1500 have been injured and 17000 are now homeless. Our thoughts and prayers are for those who lost their beloved ones and all their belongings in the earthquake.

Thank you for your kind messages and e-mails, no one of our relatives and friends were involved in this terrible event. We'll write more soon.