Venice to Bari

As we sailed out of the port of Venice we went to dinner and then a relaxing night resting for our first port of call, Bari, Italy. Bari is almost due east of Naples in the south of Italy. It is Italy's second most active sea port after Naples and the home of Santa Clause. Ok, actually Saint Nicolas. If you say the name in Italian, Santa Nicolas, and hear it with a western ear, you can almost hear how we got the name Santa Clause. He was a bishop in Bari and as seen in the photo below well respected by both the Western Church (the Latin inscription on the base) and the Eastern Church (the Cyric inscription on the base)


Oh and here is a shot of our ship from port!

Though a bit rusted, it was a great sail! Actaully, as if I have to say this, that is NOT our ship. It was moored at the port right next to our ship though. I named it the Costa Serena II.

The streets of Bari were well decorated. Italy was in the semi-finals for the Eurocup (Soccer for those who don't have a life) and they were supporting their national team.




Banking, or getting money from the ATMs, can be a multi person task in Italy. Seems that some ATMs accept some cards and not others. We gathered at this ATM for a short time, enough time for me to get bored and take a picture of us all...yes I am in the picture too.


One of my most favorite things about Italy is the food. It is so fresh and varied and here is a street scene of where the locals buy their fresh veggies.


And of course what is a day on the coast without a picture of my wife against the backdrop of the Adriatic Sea from the Bari Promenade!


Next installment will be Olympia and Ephesus...I hope.

Off to Pisa and our ship

If you have never been to Pisa, well I will show you here EVERYTHING that you need to see. The day began with all our luggage packed and put on the bus, then off to Pisa for a short 1-2 hour tour. I found out that tour guides, the ones that travel with you on your bus are not allowed to do city tours in Italy. There are local guides that you must use. These guides are trained and schooled and tested then they serve an apprenticeship and ONLY THEN they are allowed to guide groups. The tour guide we had in Pisa was, how shall I say this, overly proud of his city. There is only one thing people come to Pisa for, the Leaning Tower of Pisa. He spent over an hour with us looking at the baptistery (which you will notice I don't have a picture posted here showing it, though I do have ONE, I mean standing in front of it for 30 minutes I had to do SOMETHING!) Well a few of us ditched him as we left the Church to get our pictures and find a place to sit and have something to drink. It was very hot in Italy this year...VERY HOT! So as not to bore you with words like our tour guide here is PISA!

This is from the gate into the church area of Pisa, the only reason people come to Pisa...see...the TOWER!


As you enter the inner courtyard you see the church and the tower. This past year it was officially declared that all the work done to stop the tower from leaning has worked. They have stopped the leaning and it is holding at the 17º that it currently leans.



This is from the back of the church. A good view the tower and you will see that they are still doing renovation on the tower.

From Pisa we got back on the bus and went off to Venice to board our ship. We did not stop in Venice, though we did stop at a diner to eat. they used to be called "Pevese's" but have been bought out by another company. Besides being overly crowed with minimal offerings, it was ok. We then arrived at our ship and boarded. Within a few hours (2 at most) we set sail. the ship leaves Venice by going right past San Marco Square. This is an unusual site to be on top deck and seeing Venice pass you by BELOW! It was GREAT!






And this one I couldn't crop...or I should say WOULDN'T crop. It is so fantastic as you can see the whole island as well as some of the smaller ones in the background.



From here we set sail for Bari, Italy. But that will be another post. Hope you enjoy!

The Vacation of 2008

Where to start? Well it was a great trip and a fun time by all who went. We started when we gathered at Fresno Pacific University parking lot at 7AM and then went on a 4.5 hour bus ride to LAX. After getting our E tickets and then standing in line for about an hour to turn in our luggage (Homeland Security was operating only 2 x-ray machines in that part of the terminal so all flights had to be cleared by one of two machines), we wanted a lunch. So here we are at lunch all 8 of us that would be traveling as a sub-group of the larger group

(notice the photographer in the mirror!)
We then flew to Dublin, ran through security, immigration and jumped on a plane to Bolonga where we did the same, but jumped on a bus to Montecatini, our staying point for 3 days:


It was and IS a pretty town. It is an old spa town. In past centuries "taking the waters" was a very refined thing to do in Europe. Royalty and famous people would flock to these spas to drink the waters and take the cure. The cure being a great laxative from the minerals in the waters! They were cleaned from the inside out! The waters would be consumed in the morning and by noon, all would have passed. they then would walk the gardens have light foods and have great music to listen to and enjoy, then off to bed and early to rise for another session of the waters. Today we just go to Mexico and get the same treatment.

From Montecatini we visited Florence for a 1/2 day. Since Cathy and I had seen the tourist sites we wondered off from the group and did our our walking of the city. Great shopping day for us!


We also spent a day exploring Montecatini and I found this GREAT vintage Vespa! Notice the spare wheel in the rear of the bike!


And pretty fountains too!


We also spent a 1/2 day in Lucca. A place I had heard of all my life as many of the Italians in the neighborhood were from there. It is a WONDERFUL city! This is what remains of the Roman Circus. The Luccasi turned the area into a market area.




We then packed our bags and left for Venice, via Pisa. But that is another entry I hope to get to by Friday or Saturday...keep looking as I will be updating!

It is simple...click the star. Every person who signs up will help with clean water for those without! Hey. I did it, you can too!

May is GONE and it is JUNE already!

I cannot believe how quickly this year has passed. We are already half way through 2008 and I will be starting my 30th year teaching come this August when school starts up. 30 years in the classroom teaching, I never thought I would get this old! May went by and things were fun and enriching! I turned 54 and we had a small gathering in the back yard, can you believe it, NO PICTURES of the event. Fr. Brian was in town from Rome and stopped by for the hamburgers and the birthday celebration. It was good to see him, and he looks so much better than he did in Rome in 2006 when I was there.

It has been a windy spring in Madera, and we lost one half of one of our trees, as shown here.
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It took a big chunk of the tree down, and the worse part was it was one of the major shade trees blocking the setting sun. Here is the break:
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I also found these amazing petunias at Home Depo, they are called lemon petunias. I think they are so neat!
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Our yard art continues to increase with these two frogs. I think they look very worried that the large pot behind them will fall on them!
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The walkway is getting ready to be finished this summer. I will be placing slabs of stone in the path then filling the space with a mixture of sand and cement or small pebbles. I think the pebbles will look better, so see the walkway as it is now for maybe the last time!
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After all that work, I will need a glass of wine.....looks like I will have to wait for that as the wine is still on the vine, and it is NO WHERE near being ready!
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Well Cathy and I are off to Europe this Wednesday the 18th of June. We will be in Italy for 4 days then off on our cruise of the Mediterranean Sea. It will be a great 12 days! And you have lots of pictures to look forward to as well. So until we return, I wish all of you a safe and fun June!

California Poppies!

Well last weekend Cathy and I went to the California Poppy Reservation. I thought it was some sort of place where we forced poppies to live and they had built a casino...but I was wrong. In the high mountain desert of California, near Lancaster is a large area of the state where the California Poppy is preserved in its natural state. IT IS AWESOME!

It all starts with ONE poppy.....


Who grows up to be a BIG poppy plant.......


Who then joins a whole community of poppies......


Who form a WORLD OF POPPIES!!!!!!!!



all under the protection of the USA and California!


But we still get to enjoy them!


In case you don't get the idea of Desert..this might help:


I hope you enjoyed this as much as we did!

Daffodil Hill part II

There is so much to see at Daffodil Hill...like FLOWERS! So as not to waste a lot of film, I tried to compose shots as I took them. I seem to be getting better at this as I only shot 2 rolls of film! Oh, yes, I still use film. I don't have a digital camera. I like the resolution I can get, and the fact that it really is photography (photo=light, graph=writing, the writing of the light on the film and the chemicals!).

SO...here are more photographs from Daffodil Hill and I'll let the pictures do the explaining for me.








Our new retirement home we bought in Dry Town! A fixer-upper, but we think we are up to the challenge. Bring it on!



and one more from our gardens at home!

Seybold's Place in Spring, 2008

Ah..yes this is the season to walk the yard and look at what beauty is held in the small wonders of nature. I am always amazed at the ability to be wonderfilled by flowers and their colours. Oh well. Here are the first flowers of the year from the back yard. There is a new flower I call olde blue, and you will see it at the end. Enjoy!

This angel was a gift to Cathy over ten years ago. It has been a part of our gardens ever since!


Though the daffodils in the picture are from the American Cancer Society's Daffodil Days, they do add a touch of colour to the garden table!


Snapdragons in full colour!


I really like these flowers. I always have pictures of them!


POPPIES...oh just wait! There will, I hope, be TONS of poppy pictures soon!


the mixing of colours in the flower pots is great!


here is Olde Blue!


and a detail of the flower....



more pictures soon I hope! Enjoy your yard and your flowers, they are gifts given freely to us, and as such should be shared freely! ENJOY!

Spring has SPRUNG!

We, Cathy and I and friends of ours, went to Daffodil Hill this year. Years ago, and I do mean YEARS ago, my Grandmother and I took off to find Daffodil Hill. We never found it, but had a lot of fun driving about the area. I believe she and I ended up at Fiddle Town. This must have been when I was in 7th grade,(about 1967) because she died in July of 1968. In any event, we found it this time and here are some pictures from Daffodil Hill!

I know this sign wasn't there in 1967! We would have seen this!


Here is the entrance. What I found UNBELIEVABLE, there was NO admission fee. IT IS FREE!


And free it is! This is a shot of one side of the hill. they open up when 25% of the flowers are in bloom (which in this picture is that weekend!) and close when only 25% remain in bloom.


My beautiful wife against a pretty backdrop!


And one I really like that is alongside the entry barn!


There are more, but I also have a LOAD of pictures from the back yard, so if you wait a few hours, those too will be uploaded! Enjoy!

Soon to be SPRING 2008

I await for the longer days and the sunlight that warms the ground and makes all the flowers bloom. It has been a nice winter. A good amount of rain in the Valley and the flowers are JUST as excited about Spring as I am!

So, OFF to the backyard and shoot some early pictures! More to follw as the days get warmer and the season opens up for beauty in the summer!

I love the movement of light across the branches and sifting through the leaves, and the bright illumination of the center in this picture!


Singled out by sight alone, yet so alike!


And what can we say about the interaction of plants and insects? BEAUTY AND GRACE!