Spring has Sprung!!!

Wow, spring has sprung in Tuscany...now I feel like I can enjoy the outdoors once again. The visitors are arriving, the flowers are everywhere and there is no rain in sight! The colour of the water is turning blue with the sun rising overhead and the evenings are getting longer with spectacular evening sunsets. Blue skys every day with cool evening nights. Absolutely magnificent! I have never seen so many flowers in my life (along the roads, the walking paths). Wild orchids grow mainly on this side of the island. Red poppies are everywhere in large fields. The colours are truely amazing. I guess that is the gift God sends after a cold winter...pure joy!

Beach trips are always an adventure. The beaches here are much more crowded than in Bermuda but Europeans, on the whole, don't have any concept of space. It doesn't matter if you sit down a few feet from someone else because, just as you do, someone new comes along and squeezes right in between. Then they proceed to remove most, if not all, of their clothing and speak very loudly (sometimes reading the entire newspaper to their spouse) and lighting a cigar or cigarette. They are just used to enjoying life and not worrying about anyone else. My children are not quite used to the topless bathers yet, and quite often my husband has to tell them to stop staring. They are boys, so you can 't fault them for taking a peak. Nudity does not bother me at all, in fact, I don't even notice it any more. The other day, I couldn't help but notice, however, the 80 year old woman go down near the water onto the rocks with her husband and proceed to remove all of her clothing, yes, bottoms too! I thought to myself, "I hope I become like her when I get to be her age".