Michelangelo

Pieta  St. Peter's Basilica Vatican City  1498-1500

Tomb of Pope Julius II  San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome  1505-1545

top and center of tomb

Moses San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome 1513-1542

Rachel and Leah San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome  1542

David  Accademia in Florence 1501-1504  he looks pretty good for being 513 years old!

I was on a quest this trip to see as much of Michelangelo's work as possible. We saw The Four Unfinished Captives at Accademia. We also went to the Sistine Chapel and saw the Ceiling and his Last Judgment but photos are prohibited because lights and flash will fade the pigments.  I'm so glad I reread The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone,  I saw his work differently than I did 3 years go, more emotional and a bigger feeling of awe when I put everything into perspective of the culture, politics, religion and living conditions of the time and Michelangelo was only 24 when he carved the Pieta.  --Ann--

San Gimignano

Notice the wear on the steps
The green leaves growing on the wall below (lower right) are capers.

 San Gimignano is a medieval city surrounded by walls and famous for its towers, the Towers of Tuscany, 13 of the 70 remain. I'm rereading a book called The Towers of Tuscany by Carol M. Cram and now the setting is familiar and I can walk with the characters as they go about their day.  The well in the center of town has grooves from centuries of hauling up buckets of water, the tour guide called them gossip marks.  I would have liked to spend the entire day there with my sketch book and really study the buildings and landscape but knowing me I never would have decided where to start the sketch......... so much to take in.  The last picture is a clay model of the city.

Then we went to a winery and tasted the local wines.  My palate it not refined enough to pick up the nuances of the wine.  I'll have to keep sampling . --Ann--

Venice Italy

My DD and I took a tour to Italy last week.
Our first stop was Venice and some towers lean a little bit to the left.  Venice was built on 100 plus tiny islands in a lagoon, there are no cars and very few trees.  There are sidewalks along side some buildings and between some buildings, there are 400 bridges connecting the blocks of buildings and narrow canals and wide canals and hundreds of boats and gondolas of all sizes and shapes.

A few of the gondolas had someone playing a guitar or accordion and a singer.  The acoustics in the canals was amazing.  Everyone stopped to listen and click a few pictures when the music started.

Looking up

Basilica di San Marco

a little island with boat access only and see all the sailing ships in the marina.

Red shirts are gondola pilots in training, black shirts have all their training and can text and steer.
Sadly some of the buildings are deteriorating and are vacant.  Such fun to see the window boxes of flowers.  --Ann--

Reading list

1.  Freakonomics by Steven D. Levett and Stephan J. Dubner similar to Malcom Gladwell books
2. Brunechelli's Dome by Ross King Non fiction finishing the dome of the cathedral in Florence Italy
3. Tattoos on the Heart by Gregory Boyle non fiction for book club Homeboy industries and getting out of gangs in Los Angeles
4. Marnie by Winston Graham inspired the Hitchcock movie of the same name book was very different than the movie
5. All the Breaking Waves by Kerry Lonsdale fiction 3 generation of women with psychic abilities 
6. Shadow of a Century by Jean Grainger story of Irish independence of 1916 as good as her previous book!
7. A Matter of Glass by Sylvia Prince  parts of these 2 books takes place in Venice
8. The Zorzi Affair by Sylvia Prince
9. The Underground Railroad by Colton Whitehead book club
10. Warleggan by Winston Graham book 4 of Poldark series I can't get enough of him
11. Secrets of a Charmed Life by Susan Meissner WW2 blitz on London, I'm still thinking about the characters very good story!!
12. Black Moon by Winston Graham book 5  the plot gets thicker and thicker

Happy Reading --Ann--

knitting

 I started knitting socks with this yarn and after really looking at the orangey section I put it against my new rain coat and I liked it.  Stop the socks and knit a pair of reading mitts then go back and finish the socks.  Shorty socks for my shorty boots.  I'm set to go.  --Ann--

side tracked

 I'm so easily distracted.  I cleared my work table so I could machine quilt but I'm still working the quilting out in my head what to do in the meantime.  Some fun fabrics fell out of the closet to make a couple kindle covers.  Sometimes I just have to play with fabric and stitches and technology.  --Ann--

birthdays and basting

 I had another birthday the other day it wasn't a big birthday actually bigger than last year by 1 but it wasn't a milestone birthday. We went to a birthday party for friends who were celebrating two milestones, 70 and 60.  Son stopped over and fixed an app on my phone because I couldn't get the code punched in in the allotted time and kept running out of do overs.  I punch things in with my index finger he uses his thumbs and was  done in a blink.  We went out for supper, the "A" thing sang Happy Birthday to me, hubby cooked lunch the next day.  I  got cards, emails, texts and phone calls.  It was a great weekend.  Earlier in the week a girlfriend sent a lovely scarf and the celebration continues when daughter and I leave for a trip in a few days.  I'll tell you about that when we get back.
I finally basted the last three quilts but couldn't machine quilt until I cleared the table.  I knew if I put all that fabric back in the closet it might be months or years before I got back to cutting pastel strips.  So I cut strips.  When I hit 78 for the pinwheel quilt I quit, stacked things up and put them back in the closet.  Then I put Dolly's Eclipse on the wall and started doodling with pencil and a really bad photo from the printer.  I need to do something special with the darkest star and the 4 yellow stars surrounding it because Dolly Jean was born the day of the eclipse.  More pondering to do --Ann--