Written Sunday, April 10, 2011. Tony shows me around the garden.Our "apartment" is in the tall building in the background. My second suitcase arrived with my gardening clothes and cookie making equipment on Thursday, three days late, after missing the connection in Amsterdam to Rome. (See my April 1 post about how I found myself as a gardener in residence in Civita.) I was reluctant to wear my city shoes into the garden, but the fact was that I had work to do, so city shoes and clothes have been sacrificed. I know this is a cookie making blog, but sometimes cookies have to be set aside. I am here to help an architect care for the garden that helps feed academic fellows who come to this small architecture institute . Tony, the architect on site, has been working this garden for years, and I am careful to ask his preferences: Which tasks to prioritize: Besides weeding and planting, Tony wants a culinary bay leaf hedge trimmed (grows like a weed), and a gravel...
I began this blog when my mother was ill and needed enough of my attention that I could not concentrate on longer-form works I wanted to write. I set those aside to distract myself with cookie-making and this blog. Please find my new blog (2020) entitled "Time NOT Lost" at karenbrattesani.blogspot.com, where I explore the behavior I see around me -- both my own and that of others -- and what it says about our changing culture during the coronavirus pandemic. And, I hope, beyond.