Tea at the beach this morning

The Tyrrhenian today is the colour I have always mentally associated with the Med: blue-y-green-ey. And warm. Time to swim this weekend.

I'm looking for a new flat in Santa Mar for me and Winnie, but can't get on in estate agents' offices without a translator. So some kind friends came out to help. We saw three places, all quite nice and reasonable.

Then we went to the beach and wandered about and took tea at the beach cafe after.



Christopher and Fr. Brendan
deep in conversation about...something related to the bible, or something.
I don't know, really.


Wasn't paying much attention for some reason.


I think it is a pelican. It was quite far off and even the very good digital zoom on my camera wasn't quite able to make it out. But it looks pretty pellicanish to me.


Found one place that I really hope I can get. It's a little more expensive than the one I'm in, and quite a bit smaller, but the real draw is the garden. Kicking myself for not having taken some pics, (sorry) but it is lovely. A garden enclosed. With one of those brick and adobe barbeques.

The thing with rentals in Santa Mar. is that it is a resort town. In the summer, since time immemorial, Romans have got out of Dodge for the months of July and August, (and probably most of June) to take literally to the hills. So, the flats, of which there is an increasing number every year, are rented out cheap to students, giornalistas and other lowlifes during the "winter". At the end of May, all the students get kicked out and the flats, which are all minimally furnished, are re-rented for the summer to rich Romans who want to get away from the traffic, the noise, the heat and the tourists. They flock here and pay through the nose. The flat I'm in now will probably be rented for €2000 or €2400.

The trouble is, this pattern is so lucrative that there are very few tutto l'anno appartamenti for rent in town. And even fewer starting from June.

But I got lucky today...I hope. It's a little out of the way, and that means rather far from the beach and the train station, but that's in European terms. It means there will be a 20 minute walk to the trains instead of a three minute walk. Small price to pay for ground to dig in, a terrace and a potting shed.

I've asked St. Philip for his help and he has never let me down. (Although it is to be admitted that with Philip, it is a dangerous thing to ask him for things. You always get something good, usually much better than you expected, but with the joker saint, you know it's going to be something very very odd.)


* ~ * ~ *


One more flower pic:

What is this

very lowly, humble little way-side flower called?


Want a hint?

We seek him here, we seek him there,
Those Frenchies seek him everywhere.
Is he in heaven?—Is he in hell?
That demmed, elusive...

Scarlet Pimpernel.

So, now you know.

Education makes you stupid

So, if Kathy Ireland, a woman who became famous because of how she looked in a bikini, can understand this and say it clearly,



why can't people with PhDs get it?

"...we've got to get politics out of it. We need to put it in the hands of science. Even if you don't share our faith, an atheist can know that it's wrong to take an innocent human life. That's why I don't mind imposing this on other people."

The Shock! The Horror!`

British religious schools will be allowed to teach...


RELIGION!!!!


It'll kill us all!

* * *

Sue Sanders of LGBT campaigning group Schools Out said: "It's fudging. It is supposed to be compulsory so it should be compulsory.

"It is the schools' duty to enable pupils to learn about diversity and equality but they can't do this if parents are permitted to remove their children from lessons.

"It is giving kids a double message."

Now, let's see. Which two messages are in conflict here?

"My parents are in charge of me, have responsibility for my welfare and their authority is upheld and guarded by the state."

and

"The state is the boss of me, the boss of my parents and it doesn't matter what we as a family believe, the state has the last word on my upbringing. We are thought-slaves to the state."

Does that about summ it up?

Did anyone else ever notice that in nearly every memorable episode, the Federation and Star Fleet, were the bad guys?

"I just don't understand why you pro-lifers are against embryonic stem cell research. It saves lives doesn't it?"

"Yay! It's raining less hard!"

British "conservative" Catholics react to the appointment of Abp. Vincent Nichols to Westminster.

You pull his string, see,

and he talks!

It's the talking Jesuit doll.

"Church should consider married priests"

Mummies!

Almost as much fun as zombies.


An Egyptian worker brushes an ancient Pharaonic sarcophagus of Illahun mayor's daughter dated to the 22nd Dynasty (ca. 931-725 BC) inside a rock-cut tomb which has been discovered by an Egyptian archaeological mission sponsored by the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) southeastern part of the pyramid field of Illahun, Sunday April 26, 2009, in Egypt's Fayoum region. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

Some Egyptologists (didn't you go through an Egyptologist phase when you were a kid? Someone gave me a copy of Gods Graves and Scholars when I was about eight, and I wanted to be the next Carter) have discovered a necropolis of 53 "new" tombs

some as old as 4,000 years — were discovered recently on a sandy plateau overlooking farming fields in the village Illahun, located in the Fayoum oasis about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of the Egyptian capital.

Archaeologists gave journalists a rare tour of the ancient burial site Sunday, which is next to the nearly four millennia old pyramid of Pharaoh Sesostris II.

Science is just so very very cool!

Murderers!

I think I might be getting kinda too into this whole wildflowers, flora n' fauna thing. I was on the train the other day and saw that a favourite patch of flowers, (they look from a distance to be the exceedingly charming Bladder Campion) and grasses had been mown at the Santa Severa train station.

I let out an indignant yawp at the sight and have been quite put out since each time we have passed it on the train.

Still, am pleased to see a whole yellow field, a mass of wild mustard in bloom, with the addition of poppies growing up under the delicate shade of the flowers. Fields and fields of this. I'll wait until the seed pods are ripe and collect some of the seeds and see if I can't germinate them in a pot.

Italy's countryside is getting some very distinctly painterly qualities.


Some kind of wild alium.


I got my good field guide to western European wildflowers out last night and had a poke through. I'm sure I'll get some clews about the identity of our oversized vetch friend. I'm sure it is some kind of vetch, but it's not in the book. It's certainly one of the vetch-pea family though.


This pink thing grows in masses all along the train tracks.

Took a long hike a couple of weekends ago up the hills behind Santa Marinella and didn't see any up there. Even so close to the shore, the flora changes quite a bit up there. I brought home a big handful of wild gladiolus and bright yellow marigolds. I'll have to take another walk soon and take the camera.

More flora

Purple bindweed blooming all over.

Feed me Seymour!

I was going to get someone to stand next to this monster to give an idea how big it is, but I was worried something bad might happen. It's part of the fascinating flora of the Santa Marinella train station.

These things are all over the place. I don't really read the local news sources, but it does make me wonder if there are a large number of missing persons in the area around Santa Mar. Or, not in the area, so to speak.