Val Verzasca - adventure in the making

Val Verzasca is a most beautiful valley just a short way away from where we live, it is beautiful in any season, as long as you still see the stone among the tourists who come and crowd it... :) It is definitely a location of outstanding natural beauty and a paradise for photographers of any age and talent. One interesting viewpoint before the car takes you all the way into the valley towards the elegant Roman double bridge, 13th century Ponte dei Salti, is a concrete monstrous dam, hydroelectricity is big in Switzerland. It is a place to watch fat American girls (forgive the shovinism) throw themselves trying to repeat the deed of James Bond from GoldenEye.

Our favourite part is rock climbing, and watching the life go by on a hot summer's day, looking through the pools filled with amphibians and dragonflies, building little towers of lucky stones, and splashing in the icy cold water.
We have a selection of the photos from the previous trips. Hopefully will get the new ones some day soon. Enjoy!

A little freebie again

I have been doodling today, inspired by the new little sea creature toys, that we have acquired today with my lil one. They have those cute big eyes, so I tried my hand at reproducing the cuteness. I hope you like them. Leave me the comments, and if there is somebody out there, who likes them, I will try to continue the line of the creatures. Remember, if you use them afterwards to mention the creator, me that is (zinzilah). Here they are, meet the Seatures: see creatures... To download them click here. Have fun.

Reflections on the Tourists

Ok, I know what it is to be a tourist, we do travel. Probably not as much as some of the others, but enough to know how the tourist feels. So I have been on both sides, and being a friendly, tidy kind of tourist, who wouldn't litter or go picking flowers in somebody else's garden, I expect the tourists who come to our village behave respectfully and thoughtfully too. I can not understand those who come all the way up to our mountain to this sleepy village that has only about 300 inhabitants in winter, and walk past you in the street with a brick face without even nodding in response to a buongiorno or ciao. Ok, I can understand they don't speak Italian, but you probably bother finding out a word for hello when you go to another country, don't you. There are some nice ones who reply even if in their own language. I was once a newcomer in this village and was on the receiving end of the locals who wouldn't say hello to me, and it bothered me, but I am now coming to understand why they are not all thrilled with the amount of tourists that come here. And not only the quantity but the quality of those, too. We used to live in the centre of the village, and one time having come back from a walk, I found German tourists sitting in the garden on the grass and my swing chair having a picnic, they seemed bothered about being caught, I have assured them in my bad German that they can stay and finish their picnic. They took it literally letting their dog run and dig around the vegetable patch for a long time, and when they finally left, I found a very disturbed garden, and their used tissues, and plastic bags... What's wrong with these people?! Aagh!

Now the season has just started, and the buses full of people arrive from all over Europe to visit the beautiful old-world kind of village with its narrow passages, old stone buildings and botanical garden with azaleas, rhododendrons, roses and jasmine... And when they live, they leave plastic bottles, their unfinished sandwiches and God knows what else tucked in between the stones in the dry stone walls, on the low roofs (?) or five steps away from the bins... It is not the empty annoyed buzz of the lamentation and rambling. I appeal to YOU, when You go traveling, keep this little blog post in mind, please!

Now the second time around we went to Florence on our own, just my darling Husband and I, the kids being looked after courtesy of Grandparents' kindness. And what a fantastically laid back time we had. We didn't lose our way for once, thanks to borrowed navigator from my Daddy-in-Law, we walked a lot, and cycled around the second day, we have seen most of the things we planned, and left just enough to want to come again. If you plan a visit, consider buying a membership of Friends of Uffizi, it's valid for a year for quite a few of the Florentine musea. I have loved Florence, even if we saw those hideous coypu again, too ratty for my liking whatever you say about them. We also saw real rats walking the parks pretending to be squirrels, but the most beautiful part of the visit was a drive from Florence... I will be back to update about our trip through Tuscany. Thanks for listening to my rambling, come again. :)

A little freebie is long overdue

Here is my recent aquisition of photos, extracted and rearranged to make up two clusters and a paper for you to use. I hope you enjoy them.

Download here from 4shared.

Leave some love if you have some to spare. :)

Villa Taranto, Lago Maggiore

Wow, guys, we have been to visit this beautiful villa near Lago Maggiore, and 80,000 bulbs in bloom is a sight to see and remember, until next spring at least! I felt ever so slightly Dutch for all the tulips. Absolutely stunning.

Совсем недавно мы посетили Виллу Таранто на Озере Lago Maggiore, и сказать по-правде, 80 тысяч тюльпанов в полной парадной готовности забудутся нескоро. По крайней мере, до следующей весны! Красота неописуемая.

Дети скакали по тропинкам, прямо как горные козлята! Чувствуешь себя свежо и великолепно весной в окружении такой красоты. Каждый бутон на каждом дереве был готов взорваться новым цветком, каждый листок развернуться новой ареной для букашек покрасоваться в своем весеннем наряде.

The kids were running up and down the paths just like the little goats! One does feel fresh and wonderful surrounded by such beauty. Every single bud on every tree was just about ready to burst open with a new flower, each leaf to uncurl to become a new stage for the bugs and creepy crawlies, so that they could show off their new spring outfits. What a show!

We went to Florence, and...

Have you ever played a memory game with your kids, I went to (insert your own) Florence in our case and I saw a basilica, then the next person goes: I went to Florence (or wherever) and I saw a basilica and... and so on, and so forth with the list of the things seen (or be it done) until someone makes a mistake. Well we went to Florence and judging by our photos we saw a basilica, some statues, some people (some of them yawning), a boot, a bridge, some market stalls...
and the most unexpected of all a nutria, yes, a rodent the size of a dog, and we are talking big dog, not your average chihuahua... Swimming around peacefully, breeding, and as I read they produce up to 13 young per go, mate throughout the year, and have teats (udder type of thingies) on the back (the females at any rate) to let the kids feed on the go! Oh, that is cool! That would have solved so many problems! LOL!


I am not afraid of nature, but these creatures were too much like giant rats for my liking, even if they were in the river and I was on the bridge! I am finding out now that they get served in the tourist restaurants as part of the dinner. Eugh! I am glad I am not a big meat eater! Florence was beautiful, despite the rats. Thinking about it now, I should have recognized them as nutrias straight away, back in Russia in the olden days, when the winters were so cold that antifreeze froze (rather turned to porrige, really) I used to own a coat made of these poor beggars, I wore it last when my oldest was just a babe in arms, I used to put on a marsupial bag with her in it underneath the coat... Memories, memories... See you later anyway.