I mentioned the glass works across from our apartment in Venice on sunday's post.

I think it is the Orsoni Factory. It looks amazing on their website and in normal times it
can be visited on the first and last Wednsdays of the month, but like to many of Venice's wonders is tantalisingly close but unavailable to us!

My idea to help me along is to find a tiny fun/happy/silly thing to do every day by way of a little challenge and in contrast to the big challenge we are all facing.

Yesterday I learned how to do a very simple and nice head massage on myself with this little video. I've been thinking of learning to do this for ages.

I am going to take a bit of a blog break now.
We are well and taking good care of ourselves and
I do hope you are too.
Warm hugs!

You're showing us clothes pegs in the sun?

Seaweed floating in on the tide?

Peeling paint on the shutters?

Is this what you are reduced to? I can hear you say.

Well thankfully, before the lockdown, I took dozens of photofraphs.

Here are a few of them.

Venice is still out there....waiting.

..we were supposed to fly home from Venice. The flight was cancelled. We have another booked. Will it be cancelled? We don't know.

But, here we are!

I wake this morning feeling refreshed and contemplate the situation....

I've never lived in a house with shutters before. I open them and get back into bed.

I love the way the sun comes into this room, picking up the gilt on the picture frames. The tulips are long gone. You can't buy flowers now.

I listen. There's something about church bells in Italy...Two women neighbours have taken to talking in the mornings from their windows on either side of the canal. I have no idea what they are saying but I like hearing their loud voices. A dog barks. a distant voice shouts Basta! Ah! I know what that means, though the dog clearly doesn't and carries on barking for a bit.

I used to look over to the glassworks across the canal as they opened up for work,  watching barges deliver goods and hearing voices (the odd burst of song) and the occasional noise of metal being hammered by hand. It closed three days ago and the silence has been deafening.

So. here I am. I have coffee and ricotta dolce al limone with all the time in the world to savour it.

 I look at the weather forecast: sun all day and a temperature of 17 degrees will suit me just fine

It could be a lot worse!

 I am  grateful.


And I have an idea...

for a few deep breaths.

(The photographs I am using were taken before the lockdown, which is taken very seriously here. Hopes are Italy is close to a turning point.)

See this article from the BBC

Venice has 409 bridges!

This is the one I see when I open the shutters of the bedroom window in the morning.

If you  are staying at home with someone for an extended period of time it's probably a good idea to talk about how you might cope! This was how we discovered that Heather crosses bridges when she comes to them, and I (ever the grasshopper) jump over every bridge in sight and back again.

Some bridges, and some people, are just puzzling.

I'd say do talk about it. Explain how you feel. Ask for what you need. Negotiate a little. Give and take. Give each other space (though how some households can manage that is hard to imagine!) Respect the differences between you. There's probably no right or wrong way. But ways must be found to reduce the stress, and to make sure you are still speaking to each other at the end of this.

It's hard.

Be kind.

What would your advice be?  Do you have any tips to share?

Here are some ideas from Katrina of The Body Toolkit.

Only two of Venice's bridges have no parapet. Scary, but you can still get to the other side.

So will we!

NB This is a CV-FREE post :-)

The architecture here is astonishing as you know. Much of it influenced by Palladio by whom I am currently fascinated.

Have any of you seen the film Palladio? All I can find are a few very tantalising trailers.

While looking for the film I found this wonderful piece of music.

I hope you enjoy as much as I did.

While we all try to comply  with the latest changes (be assured we are in touch with Foreign and Commonwelath Office email alerts, airlines, insurance companies, local administrations etc, doing our best to stay safe and get home) take five and a deep breath to notice that there is still beauty all around....and spring is very likely still coming.

The colours in Venice are amazing, and crumbling walls and peeling paint and the patina of centuries make for a visual feast at every level...

Two posts today!

I would like to say, on this 10th anniversary of Live Simply Simply Live how much this blog  means to me.

Trying to live simply in unprecedentedly complex times is a bigger challenge than ever.
Writing a blog post almost every day for ten years has been a joy, a happy challenge, and a source of friendship and support I never could have
imagined.

I never could have imagined I would be writing this in lockdown in Venice either!

So I will keep on keeping on, and hope you will stay with me and keep those intelligent,  insightful and kind comments coming....

Thank you for reading and be well.



Below -  Eat Italian

I do realise that many of you in the early stages of restrictions on your movements really won't care a hoot (umderstandably!) about what I am eating here in Venice, but when you are quarantined, as we have been for about 10 days now, food and mealtimes become even more important than usual. lWe can go out  to shop for food. Beautiful fresh food is plentiful.  There are no empty shelves, or panic buying. Here are some photos taken on Saturday.

Having said all that....

I was delighted to find a copy of one of my favourite books about Venice here in the apartment.

Heather loves to cook.

How lucky am I?

She made risotto di asparigi e scampi.

It was absolutely delicious with a wine from the Veneto.

From the same book I made us a Rossini (like a Bellini but with strawbeerries).
A cup of strawberries blended with a tsp of lemon juice and a tsp of sugar topped up with prosecco.  Beautiful.

This thoughtful gift of a lightweight portable blender has come in handy for smoothies and Rossinis. Thanks guys.

Venice is not only uncannily empty, it is also rather eerily silent. The few people who are about are heads down or talking on their phones as they walk along, keeping the required distance apart.

Lockdown is being tightened further and the atmosphere is solemn. A death notice is pinned to a board by the fruit shop. A 90 year old. No funeral. And the bereaved partner and family must stay at home in isolation, even if the death was not caused by coronavirus.

Social distancing is taken very seriously. This is the queue for the supermarket. One out, one in. Courteous and calm, almost silent. There were another 15 people behind me though we didn't wait long. Three carabiniere walked by and I thought briefly of photographing them - then thought the better of it!

Venice is a small community and has been very hard hit.

We are so glad to have a balcony in the sun, and work to keep us occupied.

Work also sustains me...

The attraction of the light on the water here in Venice is legend, but I am thinking of the light in the apartment - light to work by.

I like the lamps here and fortunately two of them can give me the bright direct light I need ro work by, along with specs and a magnifying glass, as I battle with the job of editing my messy novel. It needs some work said my assistant editor Heather when she first read it. I didn't realise quite how much!  I wish I had been more organised from the start, but a city in quarantine gives lots of time to focus on the job I'm here to do....

...and every now and then I focus on the light on the water. Stunning.

What sustains you?

This blog sustains me.

Beauty sustains me.


Warm hugs everyone (virtual ones are still allowed).

 I am keeping a look out when out shopping for new signs and spotted this one which looked a bit different.  Was it a new phrase to keep our spirits up? A political slogan perhaps? Something witty, poetic even? Italian speakers will be laughing already..

It says the intercom's broken.

How disappointing.
:-(

Here is Giulia's splendid banner.

Everything will be all right for most of us.
  Sadly, not for all of us.

I am wondering if exposure to the news is as bad for our mental health as exposure to the virus is for our physical health.

I am doing my best to avoid both.

..here are some I took earlier.

Dorsoduro

Basilica San Marco

I think this may be the most graceful and elegant boat I have ever seen.

 After a few days here we developed a routine which suits us both.
I set my alarm for 7.30. No rush to get up but I open the shutters and look at the mimosa tree. To me it's important to look at something beautiful first thing each day. A flower or a card on the bedside table, or a view. or a mimosa tree.

I do my Wim Hof breathing exercises next and wash my hair in cold water (both the breathing and the cold therapy are said to strengthen your immune system which in the circumstances can only be good!) and we breakfast around 9, sometimes listening to Italian lessons while we prepare, eat or clear up. It's warm enough to have the windows and/or balcony door open most of the time. 18C is forecast for Thursday!

Then we will work for a bit - two to three hours, or as much as five if its going well, with a stop for coffee on the balcony about 11.30. We are both very glad this is a working holiday and that we have work we love to do. If we were here only for the tourist attractions we'd be feeling very frustrated!  We are the lucky ones who can consider this episode as a retreat.

Lunch between 1 and 2 then depending a bit on the weather, which has been mostly sunny, a walk, shopping, exploring, time alone - before the tighter restricitons, whatever we fancied  A bit of sunbathing on the balcony, or a nap, is going down very well. Galleries and concerts and vaporetto rides were part of the original plan but that was BC. Before Coronavirus.  (I stole that from Steven Vardi at Venezia blog.)

We plan and shop for meals then Heather cooks and I clear up. Heather loves to cook - lucky me! - and we enjoy Italian wine with a leisurely dinner, sometimes listening to music. Quite often we are pretty tired by then.

We discuss ways of managing the situation - giving each other space, getting exercise.  Pilates  for me, I've set up a little exercise space in the bedroom, but Heather is missing  her 8 - 10,000 steps!

I'm sleeping well.

The Chinese symbol for crisis also includes the word for opportunity I'm told.  Can you find opportunities in your own situation, where you are?

..are of necessity taking centre stage.

(I took lots of photographs in our first few days here in Venice.)

Some years ago I read an amusing book called The Politics of Washing: Real Life In Venice by Polly Coles about an English couple with four young children who moved to Venice for a year.

Heather wouldn't let me post a photo of our washing drying on the balcony.
  :-(


I wonder how many Italian homes are being cleaned inch by inch from top to bottom during
#I'mstayingathome



Tomorrow - Quarantine, Daily Routine..

 I really enjoyed  this article from The Guardian.

 When out shopping { saw these and thought of all  the children behind all the windows.

Some new posters have gone up nearby.

A concert at La Fenice on 27April.

Italian classes starting at the university in April.

However a group called We Are Here Venice maybe think Venetians haven't got enough to worry about at the moment?

As you know I puzzle over all the notices and headlines and I'm most grateful to Erla Zwingle, who on her wonderfully named I Am Not Making This Up blog is translating them for us. See here

 
Another Guardian article really cheered me this morning, and I am hoping to hear singing from the balconies of Venice on today's shopping expedition!  I have a special memory of singing in Venice which I will tell you about in another post....

Meanwhile stay well. And Sing while you wash your hands!

Ricotta dolce al limone

Best eaten on the balcony in the sunshine.

Be assured we are following and keeping up to date with directives and washing our hands continually!   The argument might justifiably be made  that we are in fact safer here in Italy where every possible precaution is being taken to avoid the spread of coronavirus, than in uk where they are just beginning to talk about such actions.....

At the moment we are focussing on, and grateful for, work, food and wine.

All shops are now closed 'except those selling basic necessities'.
;-)

This is where we did our shopping yesterday.

The most beautiful Spar you have ever seen.

Frescoes, ceiling paintings, even a stage.

(Spar is a very ordinary grocery chain of small shops in uk.)

And you exit through red velvet curtains.

Who knew shopping at Spar could be so beautiful?

No shortages or empty shelves.

Wonderful.

Quietly fabulous, still.

A big thank you to Dragonfly Dreaming who posted this on Facebook and to Lynne who sent it to me!

Two posts today!

Heather is learning Italian properly (she is already fluent in French) but I am learning just to get by - to be polite eg Posso fare una foto? to ask for what I want and pay for it, decipher labels and sell-by dates and figure out which milk is which, and generally find my way around.  So I photograph street signs to help me remember my way home...

I love this name! Piazza of the Madonna of the Vegetable Garden.

For noting places I will want to go back to...

And just to know what's going on. The Tiepolo in the Church of Santa Maria di Nazareth will have to wait.

I try to translate the newspaper headlines..

Anti-virus panini anyone?

Sometimes I am just curious and photograph a sign to translate later. I don't expect this vocabulary to be especially useful to me, but I really wanted to know what it said! (Construction company boat. Mooring banned.)

Now of course there are all the coronavirus notices to translate too!  Erla  Zwingle in her blog I Am Not Making This Up has helped us out here with a detailed post on the current situation.


Please note -
we can go out
people can go to work
people can walk their dogs
we can go shopping
we can go to the cafe (until 6pm)
we can go to the restaurants (until 6pm)


 Today's 2nd post is sure to make you giggle!

Be well.

 
I noticed from the balcony this morning a few women carrying branches of mimosa, and at first didn't realise its special significance.

We went to the cafe  and asked if they would be staying open. The law is changing all the time. said the girl with a shrug and a laugh. Tomorrow? Who knows? So we sat in glorious sunshine with the other people enjoying drinks and snacks and chat - children playing on scooters, couples, elderly people with sticks or on the arm of a younger relative, prams, wheelchairs...

The supermarket was no busier than usual, though for the first time they asked us to wait at the door until some people came out, so that it didn't get too busy I suppose. It looked as if people are stocking up a little, as we were, but there was certainly no panic buying and there didn't appear to be a shortage of anything. (Of course you can't just fill up the boot of your car - you have to  walk home with what you can carry in Venice.) The smiling  boy at the checkout handed us a potted hyacinth each as we left!  For International Women's Day perhaps? When we came back I saw that our neighbour with the mimosa tree had a pair of stepladders beside it...



It has been such a happy and productive first week.

and this fabulous one...

Could there be a more beautiful place to be locked-down in?

I'm not going to call it a lockdown, I'm going to call it a retreat. :-)


At last a sensible and sanguine article about coronavirus - a worthwhile read. See here.