Cinque Terre
piawhitmartlet

November in the Cinque Terre

The skies are blue, the sun hot, the shadows cold and the nights crisp. The Cinque Terre is settling down for the winter. Shops and restaurants  are beginning to shut down.  We, and our American visitors, are amongst the last

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England
piawhitmartlet

Halloween is coming!

We live in fear, haunted by the prospect of the imminent budget of the Orwellian-Cromwellian Socialist Crusaders- ‘Let them eat vegetables!’ Cri du coeur. 1789 Just sayin’… These days, a 6am a sleepless night is not disturbed by birds waking

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Surrey hills
piawhitmartlet

Sleepy autumn in the Surrey Hills

One minute we were chopping cucumber and strawberries for a late summer Pimms. The next it was sunflower bouquets and homemade cakes-all to quietly celebrate another birthday, another decade of perfect days slipping into sunsets and starry nights, a new

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Italy
piawhitmartlet

Tuscan Bugs

At home with wasps, bugs and the spice of life Whiney Bastard Stripey Bastard Bitey Bastard Blood sucking Bastard I now have a monumental lump on my thigh, matched only by the collection of savage bites inflicted by horse-flies. This

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