Olives, Bologna and Gospel

I went to southern Sardinia, to Carloforte on the island of San Pietro, to help with the olive harvest at Eva and Leonardo's lovely place. One long hard day's work yielded 350kg of olives, which were taken to the mainland to be pressed the next day, yielding 45litres of rather yummy new oil. This was the first time for me, and I was clearly born to be a contadina, for I loved every minute of this hard working day, when you really felt you deserved Eva's  lovely, plentiful lunch, and when you relished the swim in the still warm Mediterranean at the end of the long day..

Then on to Bologna, and my lovely friends Patty and Les, who will be living in my London flat quite a lot in the future... Bologna gets better and better every visit- I love the colours and the shapes and the grand scale of the city- so different from Siena.

The shapes an curves of Siena are more monochrome, but still enchanting to me, and I spend quite some time now on the streets with my sketchbook.

And other activities are becoming important- the below is the Gospel choir I have joined! We are giving a concert at the end of November, and also a couple at  Christmas, I believe..

and most weekends include some trekking- here yesterday in the Crete Senese with the walking group, where I get plenty of Italian practise in...