We've just had a week of spring rains and all mother nature is bursting forth. Today was beautiful and sunny and we took a three hour walk up into the hills. There are so many roads and trails to explore. Farms are cheek by jowl with magnificient old houses surrounded by high stone walls with massive gates and big growly dogs. There is so much money in the real estate of these hills I wonder where all these folks come from. Torino is a city of a little over a million and there are hundreds, no thousands, of amazing properties. A lot is old money and the families do not necessarily even live here. Torino is the base of Italy's "nobility" so there are all sorts of mini castles and elegant hill homes that at one time were considered country houses for the hot summers. Now they are a mere 10 to 20 minutes from the city center.

The yellow fields are canola, the wildflowers wild salvia and daisies, the view the alps. On another note, I've gotten my first vaccine! I was called in on Friday for the 60-69 group and as am on the "cusp" got Pfiser instead of Astra Zeneca which they are giving most of the oldies. The site was hilarious. They've converted an old livestock market into a vaccination site. We all walked in under a sign that read "Mercato Bestiame". Seemed appropriate as we marched in obediently, masked and standing on painted lines on the floor. Just like sheep we were! I celebrated by stopping in the nearest greenhouse and buying some much not needed plants. After a long period of lethargy, this has instigated me and I am looking into flights home via London. This winter and spring have been truely a blur of too many hours on-line, too many bottles of wine. Oh my God I rhymed! I did it again! Geesh. xxoo me