Figs and Roses

Friday 30 September 2011

over at figs and roses...

if you don't follow my other blog about my newly launched business - figs and roses - you will have missed me talking this week about the inaugural bristol knit club (pictured below) and about raffaele's inspirational nonna who is still working as a seamstress. at 92!!



you can read more about it on the other blog (just click on the 'figs and roses' badge under the blog heading and it will take you straight there). you can see more photos there too. as you can see, theo didn't knit but i'm sure we'll have him casting on soon enough.

so, here is a friday night shout out for my new company before i attend to the more pressing matter of my thesis.

did you know you can show your support (which would be most welcome!) by becoming a fan on facebook? all you have to do is click here and click 'like'. easy! you can also follow @figsandroses on twitter to be kept up-to-date with developments.

right, back to work. a chapter deadline is looming...

Thursday 29 September 2011

fun with gifs - part 1

i have been meaning to post some gifs on here for an age. but then i realised that viewing more than one gif at a time is messy. so, i'll post a series of them and break them up with some nice photos (or some other posts). just because...

first up, i was re-inspired to create some gifs when i spotted this *lovely* one back in july:


NYC Photographer Jamie Beck

caught in the rain
via

Thursday 22 September 2011

magical ischia



well, WHAT a holiday.
 
there are so many highlights and those of you who know me in real life will have had the full details! ♥ ♥ ♥

here are some of the most memorable ones...

meeting some of raffaele’s family and, in particular, his 92-year-old nonna who was ever so sweet and it’s amazing how you’re able to form relationships with people with only smiles, hand gestures, kisses and a few words of italian. although raffaele was chief translator, the family spoke italian constantly to me and, within two weeks, my knowledge had gone from 3 to almost 100 words. SO motivated to learn this beautiful language.




sailing with raffaele off maronti. deep belly laughs from me even when i ended up in the water (twice). can't wait to do it again.


whizzing round the island on the back of the bike. just thrilling.


this is pretty much what it was like except on a smaller scale (and faster!). next time i’ll make my own video.

(for some annoying reason, i can't embed the youtube footage like i normally do so just click here to see the video).
 

bathing in the natural hot-water springs at sorgeto in the light of the moon. i don’t have any photos but this video shows what it’s like.


espresso (made by raffaele) or cafe crema at the beach (also known as cafe del nonno).

 

 
the food, obviously. most of the time i was too busy savouring it to capture it on film. we generally ate very simply and the tastes are still so vivid in my mind.



and, if you're still reading (since i still can't work out how to get links to open in a new page), you can view the rest of my holiday pictures here on flickr.

i am so excited at the thought of spending future holidays there. plus next time we’ll have to visit all the places we never got around to this time (capri, pompei and naples). there was just too much to explore on ischia. it really is the most wonderful place and this holiday was *exactly* what i needed.