In Love with France, At Home In Italy

Although I have previously written on the topic of "Taking My New Front Teeth For A Swim," https://franceoritaly.blogspot.com/2013/07/taking-my-new-front-teeth-for-swim.html   this time is different. First of all, those front teeth are not as new as they once were. Further, it's October 20, when most less nutty people consider the swimming season over. But on each of the past three days, I've swum 42 laps. Stubborn about giving up the so-called summer--which, at least here in Umbria, never quite arrived--I'd been holding out for a nice, sunny swimmable day, and these were the diems to carpe. I googled for tips on how to stay warm in cold water, and ended up wearing a funny-looking get-up of a stretched-out bathing suit topped by a tight-fitting French Los Olivades T-shirt with a snug Land's End bathing suit bottom over the whole bit. Although I have previously documented some of my what-Not-to-wear escapades (see "Update On What Not To Wear When Gardenin...

A dear friend who has suffered a lot of hard knocks in recent years has resumed gardening and has even begun to take some lovely nature photos. He sent me these which he took with his Iphone. He called them "Various critters attracted to the deck flowers," and pointed out the bee's pollen sacs. I wrote back immediately:Wow! Bravo! These are amazing! That includes those pollen sacs, which I would not have been able to identify if one bit me on the butt ! (And since I am pretty butt-less, for a bumblebee to find mine would be quite a trick.) And while we're on the topic of butts, if one bit J on the bum, he probably wouldn't feel a thing, after all that his pinched nerve-treated posterior has been through. BTW, the Italian word for "holes" is "buchi," and when J dropped his pants for the umpteenth time to get his ultima puntura (final injection of cortisone), the doctor seemed pretty impressed to see such a butt full of buchi. It's n...