I've been slogging through the quagmire of my life as a broad abroad. Since I arrived a month ago I've been trying (unsuccessfully) to get my American passport renewed. After two methods of payment refused, (the consulate doesn't accept personal checks except their website says THEY DO), (the bank check was written out incorrectly - I didn't specify the MILAN consulate), and two trips to UPS to mail said bad checks, and endless emails back and forth, I'm heading up to Milan on the 8th to do this in person. I am taking a trunk load of documents with me so they cannot send me away. Wish me luck.

Autumn is upon us. Days are cool, gray and gloomy but there is a bit of rain after many, many months of drought. I've started my hibernation. I've dug out the woolies, started making soups, and have the desire to sleep for 12 hours when I'm not cuddled up under a blankie on the sofa. It takes a lot to get me outta the house in this weather. Food and wine work. GP has to bribe me with promises of a good bottle to get me to take a walk. It has to be a GOOD bottle. I'm not THAT easy.

MIL is beginning to lose her buttons. She's starting to fib. She was always the most truthful of people. She never had cause to lie as she has always believed herself to be right in all things. She is now starting, at 90, to doubt herself in some small matters and so fabricates stories as cover-ups. She shouldn't eat much cheese, denies she does, then buys (not exaggerating) 10+ varieties every time she goes to the supermarket. WE TAKE HER TO THE SUPERMARKET. WE SEE THE CHEESE! MIL enjoys the attention she gets when she goes to the doctor for check ups and blood tests so she invents reasons to go. She calls to order a range of blood tests she doesn't need beacause she just had them a month ago and tells us the doctor ordered them.. He did not. GP is contacted for all of her medical events. She waited til GP was in Germany on business to do it. As if he wouldn't find out. WE TAKE HER TO HER DOCTOR'S APPOINTMENTS! Tomorrow is market day. Let's see how it goes.

After years of thinking about it, I've joined The International Women's Club of Turin. So far I've only signed up for one activity, Mindfulness. How long has Mindfulness been on our radar? 5 years? 10 years? I have no idea. I thought I'd give it a try. After 2 weeks I have come to the conclusion that there is either NO POINT in my doing this or that I really, REALLY need it. There is no middle ground. Trying to control my thoughts is like playing pinball. My attention bounces all the hell all over the place and I'm trying to get it into a teeny hole and keep it there. The gal who runs the sessions is a German doctor with a PHD in something or another. I wasn't paying attention. She assigns us Mindfulness practice exercises that we should do every day. HA! Whether I am pondering the raisin I'm about to eat or contemplating my toes during my full body scan, I am fighting a full out battle in my head. I have the attention span of a gnat. I'm off to do my homework. Sob. xxoo me

I am not a happy camper. My garden did not fare well this summer. With temps over 100 for long stretches and rain a no show, only desert plants seem to thrive. Anyone who doesn't believe in global warming need only come here and see what has happened in Northern Italy. The heat and drought have literally cooked the landscape. Leaves are blackened or have already fallen from trees and bushes, plants that should grow well here have shrivelled up. The soil is like baby powder. I've cleared out the weeds, a grass referred to as couch grass but is like crab grass that is unkillable, and am assessing the damage. What has survived: The lavender in the ground but not in pots, The palms, 1 miserable broom eaten by snails, The virginia creeper because it thrives anywhere, My unfruitful olives, The groundcover referred to as creeping thyme but it's no creeping time I have ever seen. However it's fragrant, prolific and covered in small purple blooms in the spring. A keeper. What died: My clematis, 3 brooms even tho they are weed plants here, covering every hilltop in a profusion of yellow in May and June. An indigenous rose I searched high and low for as it's found only on old farmsteads and along ancient walls. It's almost impossible to kill once it settles in. Huh. Potted everything. And ferns and hellebores in my one deep shady, wet area. So sad. I'm going to the garden center to buy frickin' cactus. Oh and by they way, I had put down beautiful strips of thick grass sod this spring only to return to a patch of brown crab grass. Nope, not a happy camper at all. xxoo me

So our friend and neighbor Diego, actor of 3rd class horror films and highbrow theater that nobody sees, is doing a film in Torino with Franco Nero! He of Spaghetti Western fame! But what's more interesting is that Nero's long-time wife is Vanessa Redgrave, who is also in the film. But what is most surprising of all is that making an appearance is KEVIN SPACEY! Yes HIM! Well I never! Good thing Diego is large and hairy and looks more like Grizzly Adams than a pre-pubescent boy.

We spent the day at the sea again last Monday. Here is my new boat. Notice the SV on the side. Mine! Actually these are the fishing boats taken out at night to fish by lantern light. They return at dawn and set up their catch at a tiny beachside market. You have to be there early or it's all over. Even after all these years we have never managed to get to the beach early enough. The boats are registered in the largest community nearby, Savona. Thus the SV. Covid has come very close to home. MIL's upstairs neighbor, an 83 year old man she has known well for 12 years, died today. He took ill and was taken to the hospital a couple of weeks ago. No one knows how or where he became infected as he has spent the past year and a half closed in at home. MIL freaked a bit. The other 126,000 Italian deaths weren't worrying but when the parish priest tested positive she panicked and now with a neighbor it finally hits home. Geesh. After much drama I have my flights home scheduled and will be leaving here the 9th. Test before flying, 2 in London, quarantine, test before departure for the US, test once there. And I am fully vaccinated. This is absurd. xxoo me