MIDWEEK MUSINGS: MISHUGENAH -KRAAAAZZZY

 I am beginning to wonder if I will ever make it through all the hoops to change my previous phone number. You enter a site and indicate you want to change your phone number and the automated response is  that you are being texted using the old phone number. Seriously?

So, so aggravating. Now I am receiving collection agency calls on the new number for Sandra. I inform them this is my new number and AT&T is not going to be happy to see me again- so PLEASE take my new number off their list.

Two days later before 6am, you know I am up, but certainly not expecting a phone call at that hour and the phone rings, I answer it and there's silence at the other end. 

 "Good morning," I quip ... silence.  Bewildered I now add, who's calling?"  

A groggy voice  responds "this is Sandra. "silence.

 " Okay, can I help you?" 

She utters: "This used to be my phone number, " and proceeds to hang up. 

I write down the number she called me on and have decided if the collection agencies keep bugging me for Sandra, I'm giving them that number. 

The next day the phone rings and a voice asks if Sandra is here. 

Give me strength. "No, I thought this is my number now."

She hangs up. Now if she had waited 10 seconds, I would have asked her if she would like Sandra's new number... but she didn't.

For years on my 414 number, I received harmless calls for 'Rafael' if I wanted to sell my house/ vote for whomever. Fortunately, we were of the same political bend ... 

So,  now is the time to contemplate whether I want to keep the number. You just might be receiving this year's newsletter with a different phone number. Just saying...

TUESDAY TUNES: 'MEMBER DA- GODFATHER?

TUESDAY TUNES: Certain Italian songs seeped into our lives when we were a lot younger ... Here's a steamy one that resurfaced although not from Tuscany but farther south- Sicily. 

 The first link is subtitles in both Spanish and English.  I feel it's more powerful in Italian.

BRUCIA LA TERRA

or this version :

Brucia la terra

or where I saw it this week...

:FB: VERSION

MONDAY MUSINGS: PRESSING NEWS YOU'VE COME A LONG WAY BABY..

 Monday Musings is about why the end product ends up so costly especially if you want it rated organic  So come with to see what happens with all those bins of picked olives. 

We actually had a morning field trip in between our lunch prep to  check out a local press in Chianciano. 

As we approached the building machine noise welcomed us as we witnessed leaves flying out of a PVC pipe into barrels.

Benvenuto a Frantoio where a sister and brother are now helping run their family's business... 

Electrical issues for this generation are not the same as those massive old wooden presses that greeted us before entering. (L)

Truthfully, we weren't sure if we would see the process as one of the new automated machines had broken down the day before. 

It seemed even if all weren't functioning, the noise level was nonetheless deafening 

Anyhoo, after the extra debris is detached ie: small branches/stems along with leaves, insects, etc...the olives are washed...

before heading to the main room where they are ground and kneaded...

water added, separated, husks discarded...

  

and the centrifuge goes to work separating the water and oil...

and one voila the finished product.

Isn't it beautiful?

We had a sampling of the newly produced extra virgen olive oil with baguette slices.

Delizioso.

We'll talk about organic and the different grades another day...

FOTO FRIDAY: A PICTURE SAYS A 1000 WORDS

This FOTO FRIDAY I am putting the title from my 1000+ Tuscany Kodak moments in your hands. 

Let's see your suggestions in the comments. 

I know you won't disappoint...

Last week's title didn't do the pic justice so: THINGS ARE GETTING OILY

TBT: A DECADE...WELL ALMOST!

TBT: Today my brother Marc and I will spend some time visiting our Mom and cleaning up a bit as today marks her 95th birthday and what we both thought was a decade. Okay forget both of thinking 2014 as we discovered after removing the rain-splattered mud from my parents's joint headstone. Fortunately, I had a water bottle in the car and wipees in my travel backback.

Mom was the epitome of a homemaker having received her masters in Home Economics and Child Development.  I interrupted her doctorate plan with my arrival and gave her the title of Mom instead of Ph.D.

Since she was such a good cook, our father rarely gave her a day off from being in the kitchen until we 3 kids had moved on.  She loved baking and always shared her culinary endeavors at dinner parties/ with friends.

Bridge was her constant, a master in duplicate bridge and a director at the Little Rock Bridge house. We called it her home away from home. She had more than one bridge group. It was a cruel joke that her loss of sight prevented her from continuing playing.

In later years she also enjoyed swimming laps at the Y/ the senior center in North Little Rock and participating in the senior program of LifeQuest.

As a German Jew she lived through the Holocaust and then the Civil Rights years in Arkansas.  After all she witnessed she warned us about any religious right.  Today's news would have proven her feelings once again...

 May her memory always be for a blessing...

MIDWEEK MUSINGS: B&B:BEAUTY & BOUNTY

Having lived off the land in the Coulee in southwestern Wisconsin (where contour plowing was introduced) and recently being an agritourist in the Tuscan countryside, I was fascinated by their agricultural practices. Of course, this Tuscan area near Montepulciano  is famous for its vineyards and olive groves. We even had an apple orchard at Poggio Etrusco's neighbors. But, the farmland can also be used for grains.

As one drives through the rolling hills between towns in some places the land appears almost like a moonscape and then upon closer inspection there are acres of big clodded upturned earth. 

Katharine, an ex-pat, introduced us to the surrounding farmland  explaining that tractors disc blade the land not once, not twice, but three times. I had seen the Amish in the land above our Wisconsin land whose plows are horsedrawn do this technique enabling earlier access to the fields but only disc plowed once.

Disc blades no matter what can be used for tilling, preparing farmland and mowing vegetation whether it's grass/hay. 

As far as this eye can see of this Tuscan vista

In tilling the discs cut, mix and turn over the soil, bringing nutrients up to the surface and helping crops's roots develop. Discing prepares the land for sowing seeds and also integrating leftover crop remains into the soil.

Okay, so there's aeration and more soil uniformity and discs can be adjusted for depth. Larger blades dig deeper.

Fascinating for this transplant suburbanite...

The world is very lucky UNESCO chose this area of Tuscany as a World Heritage site so future generations can continue to enjoy both the bounty and the beauty of this region.

TUESDAY TUNES A BLAST FROM THE PAST ...

TUESDAY TUNES this week makes the cut as it was in my favorite movie of the weekend FOCUS. What an entertaining premise and story line...especially at a time when we all feel we have been scammed. I think many of you will remember this tune. The image will give you a hint.

I haven't heard it in so long... by It's a Beautiful Day (1970)

WHITE BIRD