31 days of Blogging day 2

Meatballs in Venice

First Meal in Orvieto - Hearty Soup 

Pizza with Truffle

To say I have no real plan for each day's post would be putting it mildly; but, I have a treasure trove of things to share so it should be a lot of fun.  Anyhoo, when I traveled to Orvieto, Italy in 2012 to take part of an Adventures in Italy art retreat I had no idea what to expect.  The backstory to this trip is pretty interesting.  I was originally supposed to take this trip in 2011, but was diagnosed with Breast Cancer and had to cancel.  The operators of the program allowed me to roll my deposit over to the next year and I was able to attend a class taught by Tracie Lyn Huskamp.  I travelled alone to Philadelphia, PA and met up with Tracie. One of my classmates Maryann met us in Rome. She showed up how to keep visual record of our meals.  Did I remember to take a picture of every meal, no.  However, I did capture a lot.  Today I am showing three.  

Picture number one;  Meatballs in Venice.  Oh my they were so yummy.  The bread was toasted with Olive Oil and the tomato sauce was sheer perfection.

Picture number 2:  Hearty bean soup with boar sausage was the first mean I had in Orvieto.  After nearly 24 hours of travel this soup soothed my very soul.  It has white beans, carrots, onions and sausage with a thick broth.  I wanted to lick the bowl.

Picture number 3:  We had a free night in Orvieto and went for Pizza.  This one had truffles something I had never tried.  I immediately fell in love with the earthy taste.  I smile now at the memory.

It was fun capturing my meals visually.  Another form of art.  The photo's do not have to be perfectly staged, they do not have to be National Geographic worthy; rather, they just have to record a memory.  

As I write these words I realize that I had 15 years of travel, stretching myself and doing things I never dreamed possible.  Maybe tomorrow I will tell you about the first trip that started it all. 

see you tomorrow.

Welcome to the New Year

Floating down the Yangtze River

Welcome to 2017.  It is the first day of the year and I am writing a blog post.  This bodes for a good year of writing.  I think, and I just thought of this now, that I am going to initiate 31 days of blogging.  I do not do vlog's (video's detailing your life), but I do have a blog that I have been neglecting.

My word for the year is actually two words "Pay Attention".  You might wonder why these words are fueling me to be my words of the year.  Simple, I have gone through most of my adult life seeing and yet not really seeing.  For instance, the photo above was taken by me.  There are times when I look through my photo's and cannot believe that I am the photographer; that I captured this moment in time.  Some of my photo's have an ethereal quality such as the one above and some have straight on beauty such as this:

Rose in an Orvieto Garden

I love taking pictures of flowers, standing up close capturing their essence.  The photo's may not be perfect, my rose has been cut off at the top, but there is something about it that calls to me and says pay attention, not to perfection, but to the essence.

So that is how I plan to spend the next year, 2017, paying attention to life.  Not the the perfection, but to the very essence that fuels each day and makes me want to embrace more.  

See you tomorrow.