Our Garden In June - Il Nostro Giardino in Giugno

 

Geraniums

This time last year when I wrote the post Our Garden in June 2010 I started it with almost the same words as apart from a few differences that needed changing I wanted to say exactly the same!

How can it be the end of June already?  It is the time once again for me to share some of my favourite garden photos from the last month with you, selecting just a few from the many I have taken over the last few weeks. I think I went rather overboard this month as I have to select my favourites from a total of 298 in all!   

The interested gardeners and photographers amongst you will find the full album on Flickr.  Our Garden in June 2011

The photographs I have chosen from the month of June for you to enjoy are to try and give you an idea of the wide variety of plants in our garden. You know where to look if you want to see them in their full glory in a larger format.  When choosing I also avoided the macro flower shots this month as if I had included them there would be twelve of those, as I find macro photography such fun to experiment with. I post many of these on Beautiful World a site where I have been posting photos for just over a year now. I have not included any photos of the plum harvest either as I thought I would save those for another post.

Jasmine

Poppies Californian and Wild

This photo was also posted today for Beautiful World’s Themed Thursday which this week was ‘sizzling’

Ornamental Leeks

A Favourite Corner

Yucca Plants

Pears

Apples

Apricot

Bears Breeches

Small Orto from roof terrace

Impatiens

Persian Acacia and in front of it Magnolia.

To appreciate the beauty that these two trees provide you need to see the flowers in close up.

Persian Acacia Flowers

Magnolia

Finally in the last day or so the Agapanthus is coming into bloom.

All rights reserved by LindyLouMac Photo Collection

I hope you have enjoyed sharing this peep at our garden plants this month and remember if you would like to see more photographs of the garden taken during 2011 please visit the collection of albums at Flickr.com Our Garden 2011

The Cherry Harvest - La Raccolta delle Ciliegie - 2011

 

We are back in Italy after our third trip to the UK within the last six weeks, all for completely different occasions both happy and sad. Although it is always a delight to see family and friends the most recent visit was a very emotional one and we are glad to be home for a period of quiet reflection.

These trips have meant that my promised post about the Cherry Harvest for this year which took place at the end of May is only just being shared with you here today.

We had a dilemma at the end of May because our cherries were already ripe and ready for harvesting. There is a local tradition that cherries should never be harvested before the first of June, this was a problem for two reasons. Firstly they were ready early due to the weather and secondly the bank holiday at the start of June when locals traditionally harvest, was the weekend we were in England for a wedding. If we had postponed the harvest until our return the birds might well have had them all!  In fact it turned out to be the rain while we were away that ruined the cherries we left on the trees, although we did harvest a few more on our return, it was mainly to enjoy instantly while pottering in the garden!

We have a number of smaller cherry trees plus the two mature trees which yielded us twenty kilos each tree, picked on the 29th and 30th of May.

As you can see from the photos, two different varieties but names unknown I am sorry to say.  I think cherries are at there most delicious fresh so we eat as many as we can that way, it is surprising how long they stay fresh if left in plastic trays in the fridge. We are fortunate enough to have a large second fridge which is useful for such occasions and we are still eating fresh cherries a month after the harvest. The rest we mainly freeze with a few stored in jars both with and without alcohol, which will see us right through until the next cherry season hopefully.

All the photos I have shared here were taken by myself between May 8th and May 30th 2011.

Cherry Harvest Collages

I have also included a slide show of my Cherry Harvest photos which I hope you will enjoy and feel that it transports you to Italy for a few minutes. These photos were all taken in our garden between the 8th and the 30th of May 2011.

Cherry Harvest 2011 by LindyLouMac

If you would prefer to view this video either as stills or in a larger format please visit My Flickr Album Cherry Harvest 2011

My post about last years Cherry Harvest can be found here Cherry Harvest 2010 where it is interesting to compare how much later we harvested.

I am linking this post to Mosaic Monday at Little Red House where you will find lots of other beautiful Mosaics.

Welcome to ‘News From Italy’ to the other participants from Mosaic Monday, thankyou for calling by, I hope you have enjoyed your visit here today.

Happy Memories of Italy.

 

 

…………… after Mum’s funeral which we are spending a few days in the UK for.   Meanwhile I am leaving you with a few old photographs of some of the places we took my parents on their visits to us in Italy. Happy Memories.

 

The Roman Viaduct just outside Tarquinia.

Tarquinia in the distance.

There are a number of stretches of viaduct that can be seen in this area.

Tarquinia Museum.

Basilica of San Pietro  in Tuscania.

The Etruscan necropolis at Sutri with many of rock-cut tombs, there is also a Roman amphitheatre cut from the tufa rock.

Vetralla as seen from the surrounding countryside.

Outside one of our favourite places in Viterbo the Gran Caffe Schenardi, which  has been a cafe since 1818!

Enjoying our Garden

My Sister and Mum in Marta, this one and the remaining photos were taken a few years later.

Partial view of the Lago di Bolsena taken from Montefiascone.

Capodimonte, the town on the left in the photo above.

Finally Mum loved the wild cyclamen that grow here in carpets in the woods in the late summer early Autumn. Simply glorious I will now always think of her when I see them.

 

If you want to learn more about any of the places I have mentioned just click on the blue links within the text.

See you all next week.

All rights reserved by LindyLouMac Photo Collection

Saturday Snapshots - Sunbathing Lizard

Photos taken in our garden last Saturday afternoon!




Anyone else besides Louise from  A View From Carmine Superiore  spot the other reptile?
Have a lovely weekend my friends wherever you are in the world and what ever you are doing.

Friday Photo – Luna Rosa

 

I thought the eclipse of the moon on June 15th was spectacular but last nights moon was stunningly beautiful! 

More photos on Flickr.com in the albums entitled  Luna Rosa - June 16th 2011 and Eclissi di Luna - June 15th 2011

Sagra Del Lattarino – Marta 2011

 

                                      

                The Fishes                                                   The Programme                                 The Commemorative Platter

This annual event takes place in Marta the last weekend in May.

Marta is as those of you have been reading this blog for awhile now will know is a small Italian town on the shores of the Lago di Bolsena, where life is still very dependent on the harvests from the land and lake.

Thirty six years ago a group of Martani, as residents of Marta are known founded a cultural circle in memory of Alberto Lisoni. It is from this organisation that the Sagra del Latterino has grown to become a very popular event within the Viterbo region.

For the event more than eighteen tons of lattarini are floured, then fried in local olive oil, not ours, then served up on the commemorative platters.  A fun evening, tasty fish and a platter to take home, excellent value for a ten euro menu.

Menù:                                                                                                         
 Lattarini fritti su piatto di ceramica decorata (il piatto resta all'ospite)           
 lattarini marinati
 pizzetta fritta,
 pane e limone

 Lattarini fried on decorated ceramic plate (the plate is the host)
 lattarini marinated
 fried pizza,
 bread and lemon

I have also included a description of the fish for those of you that are curious.

LATTERINO
Latin name: Atherina boyeri (Risso
Family: Aterenidi Atherinidae
Order: Mugiliformes
Morphology: Tall and small body with a green-grey and black-pointed rear; a lateral silver band, clear abdomen, two grey-silver pins on the back:the first one inserted behind the vertical joining the chest rear edge with the abdomen pin centre; a clear silver band is on the flanks, nearly the 4th and 5th scales row.
Size: 12 cm, rarely 15 cm ( at 5 years old)
Habitat: it lives in much numerous shoals in fresh and brackish water; it's present in some central Italy lakes, including Lago di Bolsena It's a very savaged species by other fishes and so it represents an important alimentary chain link .
Feeding: planctonic invertebrates
Reproduction: Is during spring-summer seasons, it deposits about 600 eggs per female over a few days. The eggs have a 2mm diameter and they have protuberances with which they stick to the stones.
Their meat is quite good, and for this they are included in the local professional fishing activity and they are available in the fish markets, both the fresh or pickled.

A collage of photographs of our evening from my album on Flickr.com entitled Sagra del Lattarino Marta 2011

 

The video I share with you here today of the Sagra, is another excellent one made by webtony1 a friend and also a YouTube contact of mine whose videos I have used on News From Italy before.

Sagra del Lattarino 2011.mov

webtony1

Link to last years post Sagra del Latterino 2010

Link to My Flickr Album for this year Sagra del Latterino 2011 - Flickr