Here I am typing today’s entry while Kia is baking a cake for tomorrow morning breakfast.

Did you hear the news? You can see Nessie on Google Earth. Apparently, somebody has been browsing the satellite images of the Loch Ness area and has bumped into a shape in the water that resembles what is the common image of the “monster”. We know that probably there’s no monster in the loch, but like all the mysteries it has a certain charm. If somebody says there’s no Santa Claus, I don’t care; I like the world with Santa much better. And anyway, Santa lives in Korvatunturi in Finland!

And what about ghost stories? In our recent trip through Scotland we have visited many castles and one of those was Glamis Castle which apparently is the most haunted in Scotland. Our guide, a funny old man, while taking us through the numerous rooms, has told us some of the ghost stories related to the castle. All those stories were charming and intriguing. I’d like to quote the three that Kia and I liked the most.

One of the more infamous ghosts is known as Earl Beardie. He was a cruel and wicked man. On a Saturday night he was playing cards and just before midnight a servant told him to stop since gambling was not allowed on Sunday, but he kept going on. He is said to be gambling for all eternity in a secret room with the Devil, and people have reported loud swearing and the rattling of dice.

The family chapel is haunted by the Grey Lady, who is said to be the spirit of Lady Janet Douglas, burned at the stake as a witch on Castle Hill, Edinburgh in 1537, on charges of plotting to poison the King. It is likely that the charges were fabricated for political motives. The apparition has been seen relatively recently in the chapel by a number of witnesses. The small chapel has seating for 46 people, but one seat is always reserved for the Grey Lady. The chapel is still used regularly for family functions, but anyway, no one sits in that seat.

A ghost of a small boy servant is often seen waiting patiently on a stone seat just inside the Queen Mothers Sitting Room. Apparently, one night all the people in the castle went to bed and nobody told the little servant he could go too, so he spent the night there till he was found cold dead the next morning. If you stumble while entering the room, the guide said, it might be the small ghost playing a trick.

Glamis Castle was the childhood home of the late Queen Mother and she loved to spend here some of her holidays. The castle is splendid! It is the setting for Shakespeare's “Macbeth”, and it is popularly believed that Duncan was murdered here by Macbeth. It is possible that Duncan visited Glamis, but the part of the castle named after him was not built until the 1400s, nearly 400 years after Duncan's time. After all, Shakespeare was a playwright (and a great one, I must add) and not a historian.

Besides visiting the castle, we also walked through the gardens. There is also an area where they have some highland cows. These hairy cows are very peculiar, don’t you think?! They are truly beautiful. We spent some time admiring them. There was also a family with kids looking at those cows. At some point one of the kids went: “Daddy, can we buy that cow?”. His father said: “These cows are not for sale!”. And the kid replied quite disappointed: “Sure they are! They have a price tag on the ear!”. LOL!

Time for bed. We are a wee bit behind with our emails and visits, but hopefully we will be able to catch up with all your news in the next few days. Thanks for your patience and have a fantastic new week ahead.

"Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn't be able to fly,
but the bumble bee doesn't know it so it goes on flying anyway."

.:: Mary Kay Ash ::.

In the past few days we happened to read something in the news that really surprised us. In a vault underneath the National Geographic Society in Washington D.C. there are 11 million images that have never been used. Now the National Geographic will begin selling images through the Steven Kasher Gallery in New York City. Also, a show with 150 vintage prints will open on September 17th. Most are black&white prints from the early days at National Geographic. We’ve seen a few shots online and are looking forward to see more. Old B&W portraits, in particular, are always fascinating.

We haven’t seen “Psycho” yet. Every time we plan to see it, something comes in the way. Hopefully tomorrow night will be the right night.

Before saying goodbye we would like to introduce our new ducky…

We’ve chosen this one as a company for the previous one because it was funny with the sign reading “bathroom cleaner on strike” and wearing a shower bonnet.

Rain, rain, go away! Come again another day. Little Kia wants to play… LOL! We are back to rain (really?! LOL!), but we’ve been lucky enough to see a nice dawn this morning. As soon as he woke up, Zeno grabbed our DSRL and took some shots before going to work.

I need to run to the grocery store ‘cos I want fresh strawberries and yogurt for dinner. And maybe some asparagus for tomorrow. Yesterday I made myself a toasted English Muffin with cheese and steamed asparagus, deee-licious!

Then, I have a load of laundry to finish up, maybe some ironing, and then “Psycho” on DVD. I’ve been waiting for ages to see it, I love Alfred Hitchcock and I can’t believe I’ve never seen this movie before. I like that his movies give me the chills without gross images or blood everywhere. When I saw "Alfred Hitchcock Presents - Summer Shade” I was probably 15 y/o and I had to hug a pillow since it scared my socks off. It’s very well done, but also the scariest movie ever for me. Do you like Hitchcock? If so, what’s your favorite movie? I think my favorites are “Vertigo” (La donna che visse due volte), then “The Birds” (Gli Uccelli). Zeno likes “Rear Window” (La finestra sul cortile). Your turn now…

The rain just stopped, better run, have a lovely evening!

It's been an intense day and we are ready for bed a lot earlier than usual. We need to recharge our battery for a new colorful dawn. We'll be more chatty tomorrow. For now, sweet dreams everyone!

Everyone that has little kids (or has been a kid, LOL!) knows the oddly seductive power of a freshly painted wall just waiting for a little graffiti. Many cities have a graffiti problem, with walls horribly vandalized with spray paint. However, some forms of graffiti can be accepted as art. We've seen these graffiti near Kelvingrove Park, in Glasgow.

They are so beautiful, they have probably been made by students of some school of art. What do you think? Do you like them?

One of the things that we miss the most from Italy, besides the pizza of our fave pizzeria, is the (almost) daily ritual of stopping at a bar for an espresso. Having a coffee at the bar (actually, at the bar’s counter) is a ritual which is strongly and typically Italian. It’s nice being side by side with friends and unknown people to taste “na tazzulella ‘e cafè” (a little cup of coffee), as they say in Naples. In the past few weeks we often happened to notice this poster in various coffee shops.

It’s quite beautiful, in our opinion. Lovely colors. The newspaper that you can spot is the Corriere della sera (Evening Courier), that’s among the oldest Italian newspapers, founded in 1876. It’s the first Italian newspaper for diffusion.

Alas, here the coffee is not that good usually. It’s mostly instant coffee, not at least the filtered one. The only place in Glasgow where we could have a good espresso or a good cappuccino is Caffè Nero. Every time we go to Glasgow we try to make a stop there and so we did today.

In fact, today started out as a sunny day so we decided to go to Glasgow for a little tour. We ended up staying out all day, from 10 AM to 8 PM. In the morning we’ve been walking around in Kelvingrove Park taking some photos at the duck pond.

Then we walked up to Glasgow University. The main building is very nice to see and from there you have a good overview of the city.

In the afternoon, the sky turned cloudy, but luckily it did not rain, so we decided to walk to and across the Botanic Garden. There were some new plants and flowers and we enjoyed staying there for a while.

Sit comfortable with a nice cup of coffee/tea in your hand, it’s going to be a long blabbing.

School started this week here. Seems that Jaana is right, Autumn is approaching fast. No, I’m not ready to welcome it yet. Strange, it has always been my favorite season with its brilliant colors and its mossy scents. BBC News said that last year we had the dullest September since 1985. Yep, still talking about the weather here. I know that for my American friends it can make not much sense. It just means we had a gloomy, nippy and depressing weather.

While in Italy there is heat alert and temps can reach 40°C/104°F, we are stuck with the most annoying weather! It’s been raining for 72 hours non-stop and we have high temps of 13°C/55°F. But it’s not the temperature that bothers me, it’s the grayness. My mom called this morning at seven complaining for the humidity and mugginess. They already had 31°C/88°F in the house. Ah, I must add that very few houses in Italy have air conditioning, so you can imagine the distress of waking up already sweat.

I spent the morning surfing on Flickr and the afternoon reading. I know, I should be using my time more wisely, but it was fun. Plus, it’s been raining elephants and giraffes all day, where was I supposed to go?

I know it sounds unbelievable, but hubby and I still have to check most of the photos we took during our last trip. We have taken more than 2000 photos this time, mostly of adorable animals in “motion”, so we will have to do a “mass deletion”.

Since we came back, Zeno has been coming home from work later than usual and we had many other priorities to take care of during the evenings (mostly annoying but necessary stuff like bills, grocery shopping, gas check, etc.), so we had to postpone that.

Yesterday evening we had the chance to relax a bit on the sofa before dinner, while looking at the first shots. I wanted to share with you some of my fave animal-shots so far, and you can seen them added to this entry as pola(d)roids. And here is a little sample of the places we have seen. Just click on it to see it bigger.

Time for hug my pillow now, sweet dreams! ZzzzzZzzzzZzzzz...

"Difficult times have helped me to understand better
than before how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way
and that so many things that one goes worrying about
are of no importance whatsoever."

.:: Isak Dinensen ::.

I have noticed it before: when it’s rainy all day and the sky is gray, I tent to spent most of my free time looking at colorful photos. I have been surfing through the many shots on Flickr today, and I had fun traveling from Australia to Alaska going across Egypt. Colorful and beautiful photos are a fabulous antidote for a gray dull day!

Believe me, we've had far too many gray days this month! Not my idea of summer, for sure. Luckily today the sky has been merciful and this afternoon I have seen three rainbows in 40 minutes.

I’ve “poladroided” the photos I’ve taken this afternoon. They look so much better this way, the grayness is somehow attenuated. Aren’t Polaroids just great?! I remember loving my parents’ Polaroid instant camera as a kid!

“Once the travel bug bites there is no known antidote,
and I know that I shall be happily infected until the end of my life.”

 .:: Michael Palin ::.

Buon (happy) Ferragosto to everyone from Kia and me! In Italy today we celebrate Ferragosto, that is both a bank holiday and a religious holiday. It is the celebration of the central day of what is supposed to be the hottest month of summer. This holiday was celebrated also in the Roman Empire to honor the gods. In fact, the name of this holiday derives from its original Latin name, Feriae Augusti ("Festivals of the Emperor Augustus"). Emperor Augustus loved so much this time of the year that the month of August has been named after him. From the religious point of view, it is the celebration of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.

Nowadays, this is the time when Italians take short holidays, brief vacations to go to the sea, lake, mountains, countryside, any place where they can find refreshment and relief from the hottest time of the year.

Here in Scotland it is a day as any other. This year, my Company has organized for today the yearly Barbecue. We would have loved to go because it is held in the park surrounding a nice castle and also because it would have been a way to celebrate Ferragosto even if we are abroad, but it has been raining since yesterday morning, so we decided to stay at home. It wasn’t worth it, traveling under the rain to reach the castle and take part to a wet barbecue in a muddy park.

The inspection went well yesterday. The guy arrived around lunch time and, knowing we are Italians, he started describing to Kia what he and his family have seen last month in their trip to Tuscany. Kia told me she was a bit uncomfortable because while he was chatting he was also peeking at our laptop, like trying to read the e-mail that she had left open on the screen. I don’t think we will ever get used to this kind of inspections. Anyway, he will be back around mid-November.

Kia wanted to go star-watching yesterday night, but it was raining. At least on Wednesday night the sky was very clear and we have seen two nice shooting stars and also a beautiful waning moon. Did you see any shooting star this year? The last two nights we were able to sleep very well. Now that we have a brand new monoxide alarm that seems to be working properly we could sleep serenely with the windows just slightly open. The guy that has installed the new alarm has also checked the boiler and everything seemed ok. He said that these devices are “temperamental” and sometimes they go off for no reason. That’s not very reassuring, what if someone gets used to the false alarms and does not pay attention to them anymore?

Kia and I want to say congratulations to Susan for the arrival of her granddaughter Jazmyn. How cool that she’s born the same day of Susan’s birthday, such a special gift!

Kia decided to join Flickr yesterday, but only to be able to comment on other’s photos. At least for now.

We'll be by your web-homes tomorrow to catch up with your news. Till then, have a lovely weekend!

As a child, the call of the seagulls (gabbiani) was one of the first signs that my parents and I were about to arrive at the beach.

Seagulls seem to be everywhere here in Scotland, even here in Paisley, quite far from the sea. We have plenty of them around litter bins and houses in general.

Seagulls are beautiful majestic creatures and beautiful subject for photography, but they are also the bullies of the sky, in my opinion. Try thrown a few crumbs to a sparrow (pettirosso) or a pigeon (piccione) and in a few seconds you’ll see a big seagull peaking at the smaller birds and pushing them out of the way! The aggressive behavior of seagulls can be seen in the photo below.

We have taken it in Perth, during our last trip. You cannot see them all in this shot, but five seagulls were chasing the poor heron (airone).

They can even steal food from each other’s mouth.

I also know sometimes people are attacked by seagulls because they have food in their hands, but luckily I’ve never seen or experienced such a thing.

Don't take me wrong, I like them, even if they are loud and bossy.

To change topic, a guy should come and install a new carbon monoxide alarm in a few days. Can’t wait! Both Zeno and I have trouble sleeping nicely right now, we awake at every little noise. Yesterday evening we both had eye burning and a bit of a sore throat and we kept looking at each other telling: “Nah, it’s just an idea, nothing is wrong in the house”. But with a new alarm we’d feel better. I will be also able to close my windows. I am keeping them open all day and night and with only 14°C/57°F outside the house is getting a bit chilly.

Thank you all for your good wishes for my Name Day, you are all very sweet! The cake (see yesterday post) was more beautiful than good, too sweet and buttery for my taste. Zeno likes it, so it’s ok, he will have plenty to enjoy, LOL!

Before I forget, congratulations to Dru that got her full time job back! It’s such a great news!

A text message from our letting agency has arrived, letting us know that our routine quarterly house inspection will be carried out on the 14th. The day after tomorrow, anytime between 8 AM and 5 PM. Isn’t it quite a wide time window?! I hope the guy won’t let me wait all day.

I don’t know if I’ll be able to be online tomorrow, I will need to clean and dust all the house with a bit more of “attention” for the inspection. If not: Happy Left-Handers Day!

The carbon monoxide alarm went off again at 5:10 this morning and woke us up with palpitations. It kept going off (for 6 times) even if we opened up all the windows and kept pushing the reset button, so we decided to called the firemen this time. Of course, that stupid alarm stopped beeping just a few minutes before their arrival. Grrrr...

The firemen had a look around in the apartment, asked us some questions, listened to our description of what happened yesterday and this morning, then they told us that there was no apparent reason for the alarm to go off. They said it seemed just a question of faulty alarm, so they recommended us to ask the factor to install a new one. We feel sorry for calling them for no real danger, but you never know with this things. Every year people die ‘cos of carbon monoxide, and we don't want to be among them. Right now we’re keeping the alarm without battery, closed in a drawer.

Talking to the firemen and (especially) understanding them has been kind of tough since they had a strong Glaswegian accent. This reminded us something we noticed during our recent trip: anywhere we’ve been in Scotland we could understand very well anybody, but as soon as we got closer to Glasgow area the accent became stronger and comprehension almost impossible. Surfing the net we’ve found this nice site: Glaswegian Dialect: a turist guide. Have a look at it when you have time, and let us know what you think.

Ah, while we were waiting for the firemen near the window, we took a shot of a nice sunrise.

The good weather didn’t last long today. In fact, it has been pouring since 8 AM. On the bright side, the rain stopped for a little while around dinnertime and we could see a nice rainbow, even though kind of pale, which did not last very long.

Tonight we’ve been able to celebrate Kia’s Name Day with a mini but yummy chocolate cake that we got at a nice chocolate store and a delicious pasta al pesto.

Time for bed, we only slept four hours last night and we are both knackered. Thanks for your visits, we’ll read your comments tomorrow, with a much fresher mind. Sweet dreams everyone!

My turn to post while Kia is having a relaxing bubble bath. Today is my last day of holidays, for this summer. It was supposed to be fully dedicated to relaxation and celebration (tomorrow is Kia’s Name Day, or “onomastico” in Italian), but unexpected events turned it into a day of panic, nervousness and discomfort. Around lunchtime I was cooking some sausages on a pan when all of a sudden an alarm went off. At first I thought it was the smoke alarm. It is very sensitive and it happened before that it went off while we were cooking. I rushed to the alarm box located in the corridor (the one that usually goes off) and I realized that the sound was too feeble to be that smoke alarm. I remembered that there is a second one located in our bedroom, and when I opened our bedroom door the sound was actually louder, but it was coming from the carbon monoxide alarm (also located in our bedroom since our heater is in there).

I pushed the reset button and the sound stopped, but it went off again in a couple of minutes. This kind of alarm has a sound so loud and so high-pitched that it is somehow painful. My pour Kia has an headache because of this alarm, and her ears still hurt a bit.

After pushing the reset button a second time, we opened all the windows and the alarm did not go off again. I called the factor of the building to let them know what happened. The guy on the phone told me to run a test on the monoxide alarm and also to check the batteries since there was no apparent reason for the alarm to go off (the heater works properly, we get hot water, etc). He said that when the batteries are low it could happen that the alarm goes off for no reason. The battery indicator on the alarm box showed low battery, but when I replaced the battery with a brand-new one there was no change in the battery indicator. The guy on the phone said that probably there was something wrong with the alarm box itself, so he would send somebody to install a new alarm box. A few minutes later we got a call from the technician who told us he was going to come over between 5 and 6 PM. While waiting, the alarm went off two more times even though all the windows were wide open, so we decided to remove the battery (that sound is so annoying and deafening) and keep everything open and well aerated.

When the technician finally arrived a little after 6 PM, he put the battery back in, run a test, and the alarm box behaved properly. Also the battery indicator was ok. Strange! He said “give it a go and if you have problems again I will replace it”. He also said that probably the alarm went off because of something coming from outside since the bedroom window was slightly open. This is not very reassuring, but we will keep our fingers crossed, hoping that everything will be fine.

All our plans for today went to rack and ruin: no walk to the park, no dinner in a nice restaurant, no movie after dinner. We just spent our afternoon close to the window because, well, you never know!

At least our day finished nicely, with pink clouds in the sky at sunset…

…and at night a nice and clear sky, with a shining moon and lots of stars. For the first time since we moved here we could see Cassiopeia and the Big Dipper, even though barely visible due to the lights from the streets and the buildings.

Happy Sunday, everyone! We are back from our trip across Scotland. It has been tiring, but very nice and interesting. Sunny almost all the time with some rain only when we were indoors or when we had the chance to get into a bar, café or other places. We came back on Friday night and on Saturday we had to wake up early and go around here in Paisley for some errands and grocery shopping, so we needed all Saturday evening and Sunday morning to rest and recover. Eco-friendly travelling by train, bus and foot can be a nice thing to do, but probably we’re getting too old for such things, especially if it happens that you have to wait four hours standing for the next bus.

In the next few days we will tell you more about our trip, but for today we just want to mention something unexpected that happened on Thursday evening, a little after our arrival in Dundee.

We were walking along the north bank of river Tay when suddenly we noticed something emerging from the water. We immediately recognized what it was: it was a seal (foca)!

This episode reminded us that we did not post yet about the seals we saw in July when we were in Ireland. We saw 8 seals in the small harbor of Howth, on the coast North of Dublin.

We saw a seal entering the harbor while we were near the lighthouse at the end of the pier. We tried to follow it, then we lost it, but when we reached the other pier we saw a few of them gathering near the boats of the fishermen just returned from their fishing trip.

In the evening the seals come to the harbor since they know the fishermen will feed them a few fish. We had a blast looking at them! They are so cute!

Some fishermen handed over some fish to a group of tourists with kids so that they could feed the seals as well by throwing the fish from the dock. Once the food was over, the seals left the harbor for the open ocean.

As Jaana has highlighted in one of our conversations, it's interesting how wild animals can learn the “timetable” of the fishing boats. They are always there ready for a free lunch. In fact, that harbor was also full of seagulls (gabbiani)! We have never seen so many all together! At least a hundred of them. They were fighting for the leftovers of the seals.

On Friday morning I was woken up at 4:45 by the light coming through my bedroom window (right now the sun rises and 5:23 AM and sets at 9:23 PM). I noticed that the sky was slightly pink, so half-asleep I grabbed my camera and started shooting. The chilly air on my face woke me up completely and also gave me goose bumps. Zeno didn’t wake up, but probably the cool air made him turn and wrap up with the sheet. In the following photos you can see a photo-story of that sunrise.

(Taken at 4:58 AM)

(Taken at 5:07 AM)

(Taken at 5:11 AM)

(Taken at 5:13 AM)

(Taken at 5:32 AM)

(Taken at 5:43 AM)

(Taken at 5:52 AM)

(taken with high F value and shutter speed to see the solar disc and reduce the surrounding glare) 

I'm sure some of you out there can complain for an unpleasant summer heat. We sure can’t, considering that the high temps stay around 16°C/61°F. I’m trying to see the good in it and I keep telling myself that it’s a nice temperature for walking. Well, if it wasn’t for the rain, of course. I hope the weather will be at least mostly dry next week. My sweetheart and I decided not to go to Isle of Barra. It would have been too expensive, especially considering that we have already been travelling to Isle of Mull and Ireland this year. Zeno was a bit disappointed, since he collected many info about that place and it seems a lovely destination, so we’ll try go there next year.

In any case, we will be away for a few days next week. We chose to stay closer to home and visit: Blair Castle, Glamis Castle, Linlithgow Palace, Blackness Castle, Doune Castle and Dunblane Cathedral. We hope to have enough time to go to Loch Tummel and enjoy a long walk immersed into nature. Visiting these places by car would require no more than 2-3 days, but (once again!) we are travelling by train and bus and we have to take into account their timetables as a limiting factor.

Yesterday, my sweetheart finished to write our itinerary, a 3 page long Word file with some maps, the times of the trains and busses we need to catch, opening times of the castles we’re going to visit, hotels address and telephone numbers, and other useful info. So in the afternoon my sweet hubby went to the library to print this file, but there was a note on the library’s door saying that it was going to be closed Saturday, Sunday and Monday due to a local bank holiday. Then he went to the only internet café we have here in Paisley, just to find out that their printer was out of order.

So he had to take a bus and rush to the computer store at the mall before closing time. Buying a printer is something we’d been planning and delaying for a couple of months. Now, this emergency forced us to make up our minds, so we have a brand new printer and we tested it with our itinerary.

As for me, I’m completely hooked on Flickr Fightr. Two photos appear on your computer screen and you click the one you like more. The other will be replaced and so on. There are amazing amateur photographer out there, I can spend hours looking through those photos!

Better have dinner now, and then pack. Zeno and I would like to wish you all a very nice week ahead. Enjoy yourselves!