London and Siena Ceiling Palio

Spending a couple of weeks in London, enjoying old friends and my London flat.  Meanwhile Siena is

beginning to take shape- the ancient walls have been covered with new plaster, the ceilings are exposed and ready to be painted light grey and it is possible, finally, to have an idea of the finished look of the flat.

Under the ceiling there will be a border of ca 30 cm, in the same colour as the ceiling, running all around the large space of the main room- on this border there will be a horse race! I will once more go back to  Eadweard Muybridge's wonderful early photography and use his horses to make stencils- working on that now in London using my old connection in Hatton Garden to engrave the stencils for me.

                                        

I could of course make the jockeys into Fantini, wearing the Contrada colours... Hmmm, perhaps? 

Below the corner of this large space where the kitchen will go. 

                                   

                                      

A Sunday trek in the Maremma

in the mountains surrounding the glorious little village of Montorsaio, from which it is possible to glimpse the sea by Grossetto. 

And we did, as the mists cleared towards evening, after our 12 k. hike through the misty mountain paths, where the hunt for cinghiale (wild boar) was in full swing:

                                           

                                                    

and where we visited the ruins of an old Benedictine monastery.

before returning to the  village of Montorsaio  and discovering the reason why this village has a special claim to fame: We were lucky enough to catch the last day of the display of the numerous Presepes that are dotted all around the village streets: every house has one displayed, all attempting to outdo each other in beauty and creativity,

with the main attraction being the largest of them all, featuring terracotta figures which are portraits of the village population:

including some of the wild boar hunters. Who knows, the one below we had perhaps met on our misty walk!

 

A Perfect New year

Discovering the loveliness which is Greece, or the Mani, that middle prong that protrude southwards on that lovely peninsula which is the Peloponnese.  Spending time with dear old friends Cressida (from the Royal College of Art times), and her Paul, both delightful originals...in Cressida's new (old) rustic hilltop cottage in the village of Platsa, where I picked my own delicious breakfast  from her orange trees, eaten with local yoghurt and honey. 

New Year's Eve was spent in the neighbouring village with no tourists at all, just the locals- a delightful and very Greek experience which included the local priest (below) cutting the cake for all present at midnight:

and plenty of Greek music and dancing! I thought, in my ignorance,  that that was something old fashioned  that  happened only for tourists or in the  film Zorba the Greek... Clearly not. 

On New Year's day I walked down from the hilltop village to the coast- a one and a half hour's trek through divine Mediterranean scenery on a warm day in total silence, only met one car on the way.

And Cressida awaited me by the beach- we went for a swim, it was actually very pleasant! Can't have been less than 17 degrees, so the same sort of temperature as a Swedish summer swim almost...

 Now back in Siena, where today the streets are full of witches- the last bit of Christmas- with the peculiar celebration of Befana, the broom riding old hag who brings sweets for all the good children, and charcoal for the bad ones... Hettie, Lisa and I are going for Befana Aperitivos in a little while.

                                                                            Buon Anno!