Back again!

Hello friends! It has been quite a while. I am back from my vacation and I really do have a lot of things to share, but today will have to be short and sweet. Thank you for all your well wishes for the vacation! Italy was wonderful, as always. How could it be otherwise?

I also have some flea market finds to share and some goodies that came while I was away. Will be posting during the week, so stay tuned!

Signing off

It has been awhile since I was here. My sister is currently visiting from overseas and so my time on the computer has been cut back considerably. Sorry about that.

Tomorrow we are headed for a bit of beach vacation in Tuscany. I am so looking forward to the Mediterranean sea, the beach, Italian food and wine...

I will be back around the end of August. Wishing you all a wonderful August, where ever you are.

Tuscan memory

This is one of my beach pebbles from Tuscany. I polished it and drilled a hole through it and combined it with a copper spiral. I love to hold these stones, they are so smooth! And I just love the colours!! This one is about 3.5 cm in length. I strung it on a piece of leather and have been wearing it the last couple of days...

There is still time to enter my giveaway, if you haven't yet! I will be picking a winner tomorrow. Just comment on my giveaway post here !

Beachcomber

Thank you so much for welcoming me back!
My spirit is still trying to find its way back from Italy. Or maybe it is not so much trying... I'm finding it difficult to get back into normal mode.

I thought I would share some of my beach treasures with you. What do I love most about the beach? Beachcombing, of course!!!! I could spend the rest of my life just walking along the beach picking up interesting stones and things - really. I love beachcombing. Even if August is not really the best month for beachcombing in Italy (most of Italy is on vacation and at the beach in August), I still manage to get an hour or two of beachcombing into our vacation. I infected my husband with this bug early in our relationship, so we do this together.
What did we find? Take a look:

some driftwood

beach treasures

more beach treasures

Maybe I should have gotten the pebbles wet before taking the pictures, the colours are more intense then. I think these pebbles are just as beautiful as any other semi precious stone. I am thinking of how I can use them in my jewellery...

While I was away, the number of my blog followers reached 50! I am humbled; that so many of you think it worth your while to stop by here - thank you for your support!!
I think this calls for a celebration of sorts! Too bad I can't invite you all over for a glass of wine! But maybe a giveaway is in order!? I'm just not sure what to offer - I will give it some thought this week. Suggestions, anybody? Stay tuned, I think we will do this on Friday.

By the way, my kitties seem to have missed me, while I was away. Now they are robbing my sleep, because they keep bringing in mice for me to play with - live mice, loose in the house. OMGoodness!!

Tuscany

Just to give you an idea of where we are headed - I've drawn a circle where we will be camping. This is about halfway between Livorno and Piombino (both harbour towns, where you can board a ferry to go to the island of Elba, for example. Piombino is more of an industrial harbour, so - not very pretty) on the coast. This beach is perfect from my point of view. It faces westward, so we can enjoy the sunset. It has sand and dunes, but also lots of pebbles (I get bored with a beach that has only sand...), some sea shells (not in great abundance, so it is a treat to find them) and sometimes, if I am lucky, beach glass. And not to forget the driftwood! The Mediterranean Ocean provides waves and an everchanging colour palette of the water. The camp site is situated in an area of pine forest and macchia, so there are bushes between most of the individual camp sites and there is shade provided by the pine trees, not to mention how they perfume the air! Although, sometimes the squirrels throw those huge pine cones on the cars. The camp site has the necessary commodities and a little snack bar/restaurant and grocery shop and there are also several restaurants in walking distance in the beach town, so you can really relax.

On the other hand, there are all those wonderful medieval mountain towns and the larger, well known cities, such as Siena and Florence, to visit, if so inclined. The first time I visited Florence, I discovered a very unusual shop called Bizarri (the name of the original owner), which looked like it belonged somewhere back in time. It was dusty and extremely old fashioned, with dark wooden wall to wall shelving, similar to old apothecaries. It had the appearance of an alchemist's shop, and actually, it was one, because they sold all sorts of chemicals and strange substances. I bought some sanguine de draco, which translates: dragon's blood!

I love to listen to the cicadas... There are plenty of beautiful lizards to watch. I just sooo love it there! Not far from our camp site, there is a beautiful country road, leading up to a tiny village, which is lined on either side with huge cypress trees.

Well, you get the idea - I am very enthusiastic about Tuscany. I will be taking my trusty camera, so that I can show you some highlights afterwards.