Some Things That Happened in June

New plants on the balcony with clouds sitting on them.

Lunch with good friends to celebrate a birthday.

A new tablecloth with colors of the Italian countryside to brighten the balcony.

A new (to us) view of Cittá Sant'Angelo, our fair city

A new home for the bougainvillea so it can eventually tumble over the railing

New scents mingling on our balcony from new placement of jasmine, lavender and rosemary in proximity

Herbs and hot peppers thriving on the other end of the balcony. The basil is post- harvesting of two huge batches for pesto.

An old olive tree with new trim for its leaves located not far from our house.

Discovering new places with an old friend in Luxembourg Gardens, Paris.

Post- pruning magnificence of the coleus and its myriad colors.

New blooms on the plant who loves the light if not the sun and lives indoors next to the french doors.

I'm marveling at and enjoying the abundance of summer in my little corner of the world. How about you?

UFO's and iPad Keyboards

In the view from my balcony, the UFO cloud, previously documented on September 25's blog post, appeared again this evening (which is coming entirely too early since going off daylight savings). It seemed to swoop in leaving that visible path and feathery accompaniments. No aliens were seen emerging.

And in other news of the day, behold the new, full sized, regular keyboard for my iPad.

The iPad sits in a channel and is magnetized to hold well.

The keyboard is bluetooth enabled, made by Logitech and becomes the cover for the iPad with a magnetized strip along one side (shown on the left) once the iPad is removed from the channel.

This is the super slim width when closed. It works like a charm, makes typing easier and I give it two thumbs up as a must have item for iPad owner writers.

Last Night's Sunset from My Balcony

I was watching this unusual cloud with my neighbors and here's what occurred:

Those were from my balcony looking south, while westward from my neighbor's balcony, I ran over to capture this:

I was speechless at the display.

Three Word Thursday

A friend's gift.

Returning Home

It's a particularly splendid day after the torrents of rain of the past few days. The flowers continue to flourish, the table invites a sit to take in the view and enjoy the warmth.

While I've been away the hot peppers matured from green to bright red and have already been shared with eager neighbors. The little ones from Thailand are extra zippy. The bigger Italian ones don't skimp on the heat, though, and are plumped out well. All are grown from seed this year and thrive in this southern exposure.

The air is fragrant with lavender as the flowers not picked die back and scatter grains of scent on the balcony near the table. A good book (I'm currently re-reading The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings trilogy), a cup of tea, Bocelli and Brightman singing in the background and a slant of sun under the awning complete the scene. Ahhh, it's good to be home.

And dusk falls.