It’s chilly outside, but my window is open to let the fresh air in. I need fresh air and even more a bit of sun, but we didn’t see it for days now.

How often we take for granted the beauty that surrounds us…

(click on the photo to see it bigger) 

… and how lucky we are! I feel a bit better today, more tired than stressed. This morning I started making a list of things I am grateful for and it has been helpful. I started with a simple list and then, just for fun, I tried turning it into an ABC. So, from A to Z, I am thankful for… 

A: Autumn colors.

B: All your beautiful blogs.

C: Coffee, I won’t ever wake up in the morning without it.

D: My sweet Dad.

E: Our beautiful planet Earth and its beauty.

F: Good friends, they are our chosen family.

G: Gelato (ice cream), especially lemon&strawberry or mint&liquorice.

H: A cozy place to call home.

I: Being Italian, with its culture and romantic language.

J: Joy.

K: Kisses.

L: Love and laughter, my marriage is full of both.

M: my beloved Mom.

N: Nonni (my grandparents), even if they are not alive anymore I have many beautiful memories.

O: Oh-ing in front of Mother Nature.

P: Photographs.

Q: Quiet moments.

R: Romanticism.

S: Sleep and sweet dreams.

T: Cups of tea, at least one every evening.

U: Being unique, with all my (little) goods and (many) bads.

V: Vacation, either a one day trip or a long holiday.

W: Sunny and bright weather, so rare here.

X: X-ternal hard drive.

Y: Greek yogurt with plenty of honey.

Z: Zeno, I’m lucky I am married to my best friend!

In the past few days we have been cuddling on the sofa looking at a few DVDs. We truly liked Knowing with Nicolas Cage. The ending could have been better and I still have nightmares of the part where the plane crashes, but the basic idea wasn’t bad. We also watched the Stone of Destiny about four Glasgow University students stealing the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey on Christmas Eve 1950. It’s a true story and it’s a good one. You can also see a few areas of Paisley in this movie. We have also seen 17 Again and Ghost Town, both quite funny, ideal for a relaxing evening.

Time to go, writing this entry has taken me almost all day. Have a happy last day of September and a joyful beginning of October!

It has been a while since my last post, I didn't even realize I didn't write anything in the past five days. I guess it's because I have never felt this overwhelmed before in my life. I'm quite stressed and nervous right now. What are the ways you release the stress and relax? I have already tried with a hot bath with candles and oils, a cup of herbal tea... chocolate (even too much of it!).

Hi ladies, sorry I'm behind again... typical, I know! I should have more online time tomorrow. 

Thank you everyone for your interest in our wee giveaway. I’m so glad many of you wanted to participate. I really enjoyed reading your comments. The happiest memory that I have of this summer would be our close encounter with some young “hairy coos” (as locals call the Highland Cows) during our trip at the beginning of August. Who is familiar with me knows that I am in awe when I see any kind of cub! 

Well, the time has come to pick up a name. The WINNER of our end of summer giveaway is…

Congrats, Dru! I will contact you by e-mail very soon. Thanks everyone and I can't wait to find some time to host a new giveaway for you all. Maybe around Christmas…

Time for breakfast (colazione, in Italian) now, I've got a super busy day ahead of me. Have a lovely day!

Autumn has always been my favorite time of the year, and I am trying to remember it even now that I live in a country where all the seasons are quite rainy and chilly and the clothing in the wardrobe is basically the same all year round.

We had 16°C/61°F, the sun rose at 7:02 and has set at 7:17 PM, just three hours before the beginning of Autumn. We had scattered rain around noon, but we have been able to enjoy a walk before dinner.

Most of the trees is still green, with some nice colors here and there. I love to see the leaves turn yellow, orange and red and when they fall down, walk on the crispy blanket that they form on the ground. Back in Italy I would celebrate with roasted chestnuts and burning candles that smell like cinnamon or apple. How do you celebrate the first day of Autumn?

Thanks for visiting our Flickr, I have added only 4 USA-photos so far, but hopefully I will add more tonight/tomorrow. My (and Zeno’s) dream vacation: visit all the American National Parks. But you already know it, right?

Congratulations to grandma Darylynn and her family for the arrival of a new bundle of joy! Sweet Ryan is a big bro now. Hope he won’t be as jealous of his baby brother as Zeno was of his little bro, LOL! But I must add it didn’t last more than a few months, and after that Zeno and his bro were inseparable.

Also, happy birthday to dear Inger! Well, a yummy smell is coming from the kitchen, our soup is ready, have a lovely evening y’all!

HAIL TO AUTUMN 

Hail to Autumn at its very best
Before all the trees decide to rest.
The heat and humidity of summer finally past,
The chilly and frosty days will return at last.

Autumn brings her gifts all tied
With burnished vegetation far and wide,
Displaying an awesome scene for everyone
Beneath the cover of the lustrous sun.

Acorns dropped to the leaf-covered ground
Where hardy, orange pumpkins now abound.
Flocks of wildfowl in a southward flight,
Migrating to a region to avoid winter's plight.

All season long Autumn will proudly display
A skein of beautiful colors day after day
Until again the cold, Northerly Winds will blow
To eagerly remind us of the forthcoming snow.

It is Autumn's disposition to please each heart
With a spectacular event from the season's start.
The dark days of winter are now approaching fast,
So, Hail to Autumn for its memorable cast.

.:: Joseph T. Renaldi ::.

While grocery shopping, we noticed that all the stores are already full of Christmas related stuff. And while it might be nice to take advantage of an early Christmas shopping (only 3 months left after all) and to buy now cards and ornaments, we were truly perplex to see Christmas cakes on display. The funny (or not so funny!) thing is that the best-before date on those cakes/sweets was way before Christmas! Hum… are they trying to get rid of last year stock?!

Summer is getting to an end bringing lots of rain. Here autumn officially starts tomorrow at 10:18 PM (other 24 hours of summer, yay!).

We love the last days of summer converging with the first days of autumn and surrounding us with nice colors…

The last official weekend of Summer was supposed to be gray and rainy, but it surprised us with many hours of sun. My sweetheart had to work, but we tried to enjoy the nice weather as much as we could.

Another unexpected surprise was the possibility to see cygnets from a short distance for the first time in our life.

They are adorable, aren’t they? Hopefully next summer we will see them at an earlier stage.

With hubby using our computer for work, I’ve been dusting off our old laptop (dating back to 1999). While cleaning a few old folders, I’ve found a few nice shots my sweetheart and I have taken in Autumn 2005, during our trip to the USA. They are low quality ‘cos they have been taken with our 3 megapixel point-n-shoot (that suddenly died a few days ago, sob!), but they sure recall great and lovely memories. Have a look on our Flickr to see the first shots. More will come in the next few days, along with the photos we took last Saturday at the Doors Open Day here in Paisley.

Hope your weekend was lovely and joyful as ours. Until next time, keep smiling.

Messengers of Autumn…

The leaves are green, the nuts are brown,
They hang so high they won't come down.
Leave them alone till frosty weather,
Then they will all come down together.

Today the sky was blue, there was a gentle breeze and the birds were singing cheerfully. Again! Hurray! I wish I could freeze the weather and keep enjoying these gorgeous days! Life is good, especially if you are easily amazed like me, LOL!

Alas, every now and then daily life seems to get complicated so easily, doesn't it? Now that Zeno is so busy with work, things seem to pile up and accumulate.

Before dinner we went out for a walk and we saw this adorable squirrel that was munching and getting ready for winter, partly hidden on a high branch.

Click on the photo to see it bigger.

A lot to blog about but, alas, not enough time…

The days are getting shorter so quickly, it seems like just yesterday we had light until 10 at night. Now the sun rises at 6:47 in the morning and sets at 7:37 in the evening, giving us a length of day of 12 hours and 50 minutes. In June the length of day was of 17+ hours and in December will be barely 7 hours. Gosh, I’m so not ready for that!

Right now my sweetheart and I try to go out for a walk everyday right before or soon after dinner, and I’m really enjoying it. Today a friend joined us, and the three of us had a really good time chatting, laughing and walking around.

On Friday we ended up eating a mouth-watering homemade pizza with grilled vegetables at our friend’s. We spent the night chatting about this and that.

We had a beautiful clear sky during the weekend and we truly enjoyed our tour of Paisley. We have tons of photos to share with you, hopefully in the next few days.

With not enough online time on our hands, hubby and I decided it was time for another giveaway.

Two little colorful cards from two original watercolors by Emma Ball (with light blue envelopes).

International participants are welcome. The winner will be selected in a random drawing, which will be announced next week.

All you have to do to enter is:
(1) leaving a comment below with these words: "Cards, please";
(2) answering the following question in your comment: " What’s the happiest memory that you have of this summer?";
(3) complete step 1 and 2 by Wednesday 23rd of September.

Please, remember to leave your e-mail address in the proper line of the comment form so that it will not be shown, but we will have access to it.

Thanks for entering our end of summer giveaway! One more thing… good luck!

It's Friday already, how did that happen? I guess the end of the week comes quickly when you're busy. My sweet husband has been very busy with work and is pretty tired, even if he says he is not. Me? Mostly enjoying the dry weather (can you picture me doing a happy and silly dance?!), trying new recipes (yum-yum!) and reading a tons of books I borrowed from the library. When I like a book, I have to finish it within a day or two. Nothing else gets accomplished! It's awesome to get lost in a good book, isn’t it?

Tonight we’re going out for dinner with a couple of friends, not sure where yet, but Glasgow has a lot to offer.

Tomorrow is Doors Open Day here in Paisley, and we will have the opportunity to visit some of our wonderful buildings and monuments that may be otherwise closed to public viewing. Next Saturday we’ll be Glasgow’s turn. So now you know what we will be doing tomorrow. What about you?

"A single rose can be my garden...
a single friend, my world."

.:: Leo F. Buscaglia ::.

The weather in my neck of the wood has been quite pleasant yesterday and today: sunny, breezy, with temps around 16°C/59°F. It has been so nice waking up with the sun after all the rain we had. I had my breakfast near the open window. How lovely feeling the warm sun on my cheeks while sipping my coffee!

Thank you for all your sweet words about our photos. I’m glad you liked the insect in our Monday entry. It’s a hoverfly (sirfide, in Italian) or flower fly. Hubby and I have seen many hoverflies this summer. We’ve never seen them before moving to Scotland. We didn’t even know their name and had to ask our friend Jaana. They are so pretty, looking like miniature helicopters. It amazes us how they can stay still in the air by quickly rotating their wings! Hoverflies are harmless despite their mimicry of the black and yellow stripes of wasps. I really like their iridescent and metallic coloring.

I started writing this diary entry at about 6:40 this morning, but have been sidetracked...

Let’s see, what else… the mystery week at Happy Snappy has been brilliant! Here is the shot I was thinking of using on Sunday, if the colored pencil one didn’t come out neat enough:

Thank you so much for all your visits and comments, dear friends. I’m sorry I didn’t have enough time to pay you all a visit, so far. My sweetheart has been and will be pretty busy with work all week and will need our laptop, so I will (try to!) keep my entries short in the next few days and stay mostly offline. I tend to monopolize the computer, just like Zeno tends to monopolize our digital camera. Good night and sweet dreams!

Yesterday my sweetheart and I decided to take advantage of the nice weather (meaning dry, even if windy and cloudy) and went to Chocolatz, a nice wee café shop with homemade chocolates where you are attacked by a rich chocolate aroma as soon as you step inside. Hubby ordered a warming hot chocolate, while I opted for a black coffee. I always try to remember to add “black” when ordering, ‘cos if I say only coffee the waitress might add milk to it, eewww! We also tried dark chocolate with rose and mint (me), white chocolate with apricot and milk chocolate banoffee (hubby). Next time I’ll try the Violet and Mango ones. Yum-yum!

Off to read your comments and e-mails now, hope your day is going nicely. Till we blog again...

Good morning! You were on our mind, so we thought we’d share a cup of coffee with you. With the incessant rain and blowing wind, a hot beverage is perfect to start the day.

We had a lot of fun at the Indian restaurant. We all opted for the buffet rather than the menu à la carte, and Zeno and I liked all the food we tried. We both tried to avoid dishes that were too hot and were pretty satisfied with our choices.

We finally have found out why we were getting horrible results when resizing our photos. PSP was set to save in lower quality & high compression, so our photos were coming out pixelated after we resized them. We were both sure we had adjusted those setting a while ago, so we cannot explain how come they were changed/wrong... gosh!

Have a great Monday and happy Labor Day to our American and Canadian friends!

I'm running late today, hubby and I are going out for dinner in about an hour. We’re going to an Indian restaurant with a few friends. It’s only my second experience, so I’m pretty curious, I don’t know much of Indian cuisine, apart from Pakoras, Naan bread, Chicken Tikka Masala and Lamb Korma. Do you like Indian food? If so, what’s your favorite dish?

In order to enjoy more the food, I had a light lunch...

A strawberry smoothie made with plenty of strawberries (my favorite summer fruit!), half a glass of rice milk and two tablespoons of Greek yogurt. It was deee-licious!

Sorry this was so short… as I said, running late. See you all soon, hugs & smiles your way!

One month ago today, we were joyfully starting our 5-day holiday across Scotland. We think it would be time for a long overdue entry about that trip, but for today we will start talking about our first stop. From the weather point of view we have been very lucky. Some rain, but it cleared up a few times.

In Linlithgow we have seen St. Michael Church and Linlithgow Palace. Two local young girls dressed up as Ladies of the Court showed us all the rooms of the palace telling some historical facts and anecdotes. Mary Queen of Scots was born at the Palace in December 1542 and occasionally stayed there during her reign.

The Royal Palace is not spectacular as Glamis Castle, it's just a ruin, but it has been very interesting walking around, and up and down, imagining how life could have been in ancient times.

To enjoy a wee virtual tour of the Palace, check out our Photo Album and click on “Edinburgh & The Lothians”. Good night and sweet dreams, everyone!

Someone, who shall remain nameless, wanted more hairy cows (or coos). So here you are! Our digital camera had a wee difficulty coping with the lack of light and all the fur, but I think they are lovely anyway.

And for those of you who want a change from those hippie cows, here is a little fox.

There were two foxes, but the big one (maybe the mom) ran away, while this one dashed into the bushes to hide. This is the closest we could get.

Along with sheep, cows and foxes, there seems to be pheasants everywhere in this country. Whenever we see them, they are running very fast away, so this is the best shot hubby and I have so far.

I’ve noticed that our photos lose a lot in definition after I resize them and add a frame. Any suggestion? Maybe I'm doing something wrong...

My sweet hubby has added a few shots of Dundee to our Photo Album. We have been there for a few hours on our way to Glamis Castle (see our August 30th entry).

Still about photos: go have a peek at Happy Snappy when you have time, Jaana and I have been cracking up about today’s entry!

Will keep this entry short ‘cos I had a major headache this afternoon and I’m still a bit dazed. This thanks to two stupid wasps that kept flying around the screen and keyboard of my laptop for about 40 minutes, despite my attempts to get rid of them without killing them. But now, after an headache and a painkiller, I wonder if it was worth it… and I feel less sorry for this wasp. That shot is Zeno’s. Even if he doesn’t like spider at all, he got very close to the web, as you can see.

I can’t believe it’s almost over before it’s really begun! The summer, that is. With all these rainy and dark days I’m starting to feel a wee bit autumnal. All the shops are already full of winter clothing, hats and scarves. Mornings are chilly and evenings quite cold, already around 8°C/46°F. Days are quickly getting shorter (sunrise: 6:21 AM; sunset: 8:12 PM). This dreary weather make me yawn all day long.

“There are two seasons in Scotland: June and Winter”
.:: Billy Connolly ::.

Yesterday evening we were talking with Zeno’s bro and mom on Skype and they were complaining about the heat. Well, we had exactly 20 degrees less than them! How crazy is this?!

I know, I know, like many people in Scotland, I’m slightly obsessed with the weather. I check the weather website at least two times a day and I’m constantly looking out of the window to see if it’s raining or not. And I write about it a lot! But I’m sure you already noticed it, LOL!

Alas, after one year the weather can still catch us unprepared by surprise. Like last Saturday. Since it wasn’t raining, my sweet hubby and I spent the entire day outside. We left home in the morning, walked around Paisley for a while, went grocery shopping, had lunch in a very nice new cafeteria and then decided that it would have been nice to see the sunset on the ocean. So we caught the train to Largs. On the coast the weather is always a bit chillier ‘cos the wind is stronger, but we wouldn’t expect to freeze. Around 7 PM we were already freezing with our t-shirt plus sweater plus rain coat!

No, I am not done complaining yet, LOL! Why? Because when we were all giggling for a lovely sunset… it turned cloudy and started raining! We came back home around 10 PM, cold and shivering.

Many keep telling us that in Scotland there is no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothes. Well, 250 rainy days per year are bad weather in my opinion! Especially if most of the remaining days are not sunny but cloudy and dark.

It’s been raining since Saturday evening, but the weather forecast said it should be only cloudy tonight and I cannot wait to go out for a walk. I’ve been lethargic all day... despite all the coffee I’ve been drinking. No wonder I keep gaining weight!

Oh, boy! Can this entry get more boring than this? LOL! Hum, since I’m already whining, can I complain about Royal Mail, too?! We witnessed a postman dumping the mail on the ground, onto the wet grass, so that he could calmly organize it inside his bag. Now I understand why sometimes mail gets lost, grrr!

I think I better close here and say goodbye, before you all fall asleep, LOL! Zeno needs our laptop now, he must work a bit before bed. In the meanwhile, I will start the new book I got at the library. So now you know our exciting plans for the evening, LMAO! Till we blog again.