Category: Simply Venice

Simply..haiku....

6/1/2021

From Shorelines, the book of poetry I am reading through January.

Haiku

Shiki (1867 - 1902

Long the Summer Day...
Patterns on
The Ocean Sand...
Our Idle Footsteps

Here is my winter adaptation

Short the Winter Day...
Patterns On
The Frozen Grass...
My spark-joy footsteps

It feels like deep mid-winter tonight - snow forecast. Stay warm!

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Simply..Venice....

10/10/2020

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..and some good news! See here

It's taken a while. I first heard of it when I was doing a landscape design course at the university there in 1992 (my first visit to Venice) and we were shown the plans and models for the prototype gate.

It's wonderful news for Venice and everyone who loves La Serenissima! You can read more about it on Erla Zwingle's blog I Am Not Making This Up.

If you would like to celebrate with a glass of something and a little biscuit - here is the recipe for Melting Moments. (Measurements are imperial as it was a recipe from my Mum.)

3oz butter
1oz lard (makes for extra crispness)
3oz sugar
6oz self raising flour
1 egg
few drops vanilla essence
rolled oats or dessicated coconut

Cream fats and suga.r
Add flour then beaten egg.
With damp hands roll into small balls, add glace cherries and bake at 180 for10 - 15 minutes.

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Simply..among my notes....

18/8/2020

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Among my copious notes I found this advice -

If the shoe fits, buy it in every colour!

!
I photographed this shop window in Venice one evening and planned to visit it next day, but next day - lockdown!

Oh well, I couldn't have afforded to buy every colour and would have had a very hard time choosing...

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Simply..more little things....

14/4/2020

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Our neighbour's pure white sheet took on the tints of the setting sun and of the wall behind it, and fluttered dreamily in the warm air like the skirts of a ballerina. I watched mesmerised for several minutes.

In Venice even the laundry can be poetic!

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Simply..thank you....

9/4/2020

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..to Alitalia, who flew an aircraft which can take up to 240 passengers from Rome to UK with only four of us!!
Am safely back in UK.
Back here soon when I have caught up with my sleep.
Be safe.
Be well.
Be strong.
X

20 Comments

Simply..Venice....

6/4/2020

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Especially poignant somehow...

But change is in the air...

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Simply..Venice....

5/4/2020

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Eye-popping colour.

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Simply..Venice....

3/4/2020

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Yes, still here!

{ decided to make the lockdown into a proper work and health retreat as all is well on the sunny balcony bubble here in Venice, so forgive me if I just post the occasional photo and don't reply to comments for a bit as I concentrate on my writing project.

Thinking of you all in so many different countries and different situations and hoping that all goes well with you.

x

Below the balcony

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Simply..the glass works....

31/3/2020

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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!

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Simply..clothes pegs in the sun?

30/3/2020

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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.

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Simply..today is the day....

29/3/2020

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..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...

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Simply ..a pause....

27/3/2020

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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

Photograph by Heather

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Simply..bridges, and styles of coping....

26/3/2020

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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!

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Simply..Palladio....

25/3/2020

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NB This is a CV-FREE post :-)

I pass this gem on the way to the supermarket.

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.

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Simply..abstraction/distraction....

24/3/2020

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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...

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Simply..Not Simple....

23/3/2020

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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

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Simply Eat Italian....

23/3/2020

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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.

Fresh meat, fish, fruit and veg

So many kitchen and toilet rolls they have to stack them in the aisles..

Easter eggs....

Beautifully wrapped Panetonne

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.

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Simply..Sombre Venice....

21/3/2020

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The table has been removed now

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.

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Simply..the light....

21/3/2020

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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?

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Simply Venice....

20/3/2020

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This blog sustains me.

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Simply..basic necessities....

19/3/2020

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Beauty sustains me.

Warm hugs everyone (virtual ones are still allowed).

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Simply..a new sign....

18/3/2020

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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.

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Simply..Slow Venice....

17/3/2020

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..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.

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Simply..domestic matters....

15/3/2020

20 Comments

..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..

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Simply..hopeful?

14/3/2020

6 Comments

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!

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Simply..haiku....

Simply..Venice....

Simply..among my notes....

Simply..more little things....

Simply..thank you....

Simply..Venice....

Simply..Venice....

Simply..Venice....

Simply..the glass works....

Simply..clothes pegs in the sun?

Simply..today is the day....

Simply ..a pause....

Simply..bridges, and styles of coping....

Simply..Palladio....

Simply..abstraction/distraction....

Simply..Not Simple....

Simply Eat Italian....

Simply..Sombre Venice....

Simply..the light....

Simply Venice....

Simply..basic necessities....

Simply..a new sign....

Simply..Slow Venice....

Simply..domestic matters....

Simply..hopeful?

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