Have you read this?

Do you want to go back to or take your first trip to Italy?  Do you want to roam the cobbled streets of a tiny village nestled in the mountains?  Do you want an Italian lover, and sweet cold gelato? If you answered yes then read this book.  It swept me away to Montevedova in the Tuscan mountains.  I strolled the streets with Lily, the main character in this little gem of a novel.  I raged with her when she found the hidden photograph of her husband's other family, and I fell in love with Italy all over again.  I'm not even sure that I didn't actually visit Montevedova myself when we were there a year back.  It sounds like so many of the beautiful villages hidden away in those mountains.  

So the story is captivating, funny, sad, and honestly I wanted to just do the whole lifestyle change and go open a pasticceria in Italy myself.  Really a wonderful tale of love lost and found, happiness sought and caught and lives changed.  I think you'll love it.

This is a new addition to my garden.  She sits on the edge of my birdbath.  The same birdbath that as a child I lined with broken pieces of bread, hoping the birds would come and eat and bathe here.  Of course it was my parents birdbath then and when my dad passed away I had to have it.  He had faithfully painted it for years, a deep cream and a hideous forest green, it is now just a beige colour, I don't think he'd mind at all.  We have lots of birds here and they regularly bathe and drink here.  Not so sure they are used to my brass beauty yet, but I think in time they will just accept she will sit quietly watching as they frolic and drink.

Two shrubs away from the bath this little girl is nesting.  She has two speckled eggs under her warm tummy and she is quite protective.  I will try and get some shots of the eggs, but I don't want to scare her off the nest for good.  We call them yellow eyes, these are native but there are some imports that look very similar and they are quite mean to other birds.  I love birds nests and baby birds so excited I hope I see them as little squeaky babies.  How exciting.