Italy Trip - Day 32 - A Lucca Farmhouse Day - The Magnificent Ordinary
Though there are many days up until Day 32 left to write about, yesterday (Saturday) was stunning in so many ways. We did nothing unusual, but that in itself is extraordinary. We spent the day wandering around the Tuscan countryside, reading and cooking, wrestling and laughing, working out and working…in our farmhouse outside Lucca, Italy.
Dwell on that for a brief minute…our farmhouse outside Lucca, Italy.
The day started with a hearty guffaw.
Monkey has been diligently working on the role-playing video game she’s creating. Sharing a computer with three other people has meant great practice in patience and compromise for all of us, but she has especially felt the pull of needing/wanting hours to work, and not getting it. She stayed up very late on Friday, both to work, and also because Best Buddy Lu was online at the end of her school day.
When Yessa woke up on Saturday morning and asked if she could get up, we cautioned her, “Monkey was up working very late, so please be quiet as you can downstairs.” (Monkey is now sleeping in the living room on a futon, which allowed us to move Buster off the pallet on the floor in the children’s bedroom, which has helped his allergies here improve.)
Yessa gave a vigorous nod as she trotted out of our bedroom and down the stairs, “I will be pitch quiet!”
“Pitch quiet” is another phrase destined for the family vocabulary along with “base-up,” “lasterday,” and “sooth-me.”
Buds and I walked for several kilometers and the walk included: The beautifully cared for, peaceful cemetery by our house; a brief stop for Buds to attempt catapulting himself into the underbrush with a stand of bamboo;
Meandering through an olive grove where several friendly adults on ladders were beginning the olive harvest;
Planning for additions to our home and changes in our life due to discoveries we’ve made on this grand adventure of a trip; and, finally, being joined by the roaming black lab who has made an appearance on most of the walks all of us have taken.
The panting young fellow added a new trick to his repertoire yesterday though. He jogged along in front of us for most of the trip, including several times when he turned a different direction than us, would look to see where we were, then sprinted to get ahead of us.
In addition to wanting to lead, he also wanted to demonstrated his unique ability of being able to poo with his leg cocked in the air. This disconcerting ability was both impressive and annoying. The first few times we thought he was tinkling to mark his territory…as normal dogs do…until we passed by where he’d done his marking and the wafting scent let us know he’d been more thorough than other dogs in his marking. We watched more in awe than annoyance as he did this throughout most of our walk.
His laughing, friendly face, and jaunting wagging tail meant you couldn’t get upset with his silly self.
We did laundry, made coffee, created delicious meals, read books, played cards, gave up on the puzzle that Grandma and Grandpa had started with us when they were here, visited with Lella, our landlord, and devoured the final remnants of our cooking class from yesterday.
The weather was sunny and 21°C with not a cloud in the sky.
Could we have had this day back home? One very similar to it, yes. And that’s part of the joy for me. Knowing we can make a joy-filled, fulfilling life anywhere. The ketchup is different, and we miss our cat, but overall this life we’re living here is a delight.
