To Blog or Not To Blog?

This blog has more than 6 years. 6 years and 2 months, precisely. It's not a commercial blog and it has not other aims than tell about the events and things that were interesting for me.

This blog was important for me, you know. I met different friends from different countries here. Some of them closed their blogs and are in FB, others changed the "direction" and have commercial blogs now. Or simply do not blog more. I, myself, was very busy and did not have more time to visit others and even to write... and... I feel I'm alone here.

So, I decided to close my blogs.

I opened Blogger and looked at the statistics. There are about 100 views every day here.
I opened the page. I have 27 readers...
I wanted to know, who reads my blog? Maybe, you will not believe me but I've never seen statistics of this blog. So, I discovered that most visits come from Stumble Upon.

Ohhh... Stumble Upon... It was my first love in Internet. I liked to stumble it's sites randomly. I learned so many things there! It's still alive and is interesting - but I have not time to sit in internet for my pleasure more. I have to learn and I have to work...

I wanted to close my blogs today.
But I had not enough courage to do it...
Maybe I have to change my attitude towards blogging and blog so as I feel without trying to create "clever" articles, without trying to satisfy anybody? Without following advises of all those "illuminated" gurus? No, I did not follow them but the thought I don't blog so as it has to be ruined the pleasure of blogging for years - at least it was for me so...

I don't know.
I don't know if it's the last post here.
Maybe it's better to leave this question to the judgement of time.

Detective is my New Job

This expressway I've seen many and many times was not so as it was always before. It was different because I was driving and was alone in the car. Nothing bad - I became a very expert driver this year and, honestly, had to pass the "best" itineraries like Amalfitan Coast, Vesuvius, Naples...

This time the situation was different. I had to find an organization in a completely unknown town with only one-way directions. And the game was more interesting thanks to the forbidding weather conditions.

I found the place where to look for the organization I needed and imagined the direction - more or less. And - what a great fortune- I found it after not too much time. 

You would ask me: why, the hell, I go looking for who know which organizations in such places? You will never believe me, but I "play" a detective. God moves in a mysterious way, you know. I'm very VERY fare from any desire to become Sherlock Holmes or Nero Wolfe. It's my inability to say "No!" and the need to help sentient beings that takes me in all the disparate troubles.

So, what is it this time, you ask? A certain young man from Moscow contacted me by phone (where took he my number, I wanted to know????) and asked me to help him to find his fiance which fled in Italy from him, and he can't find her to say he is waiting for her and loves her...

Yes, a novel. He said, he has some bars and found this girl when she was 18 years old. A naive girl from an Ucrainian village near Chernobyl, she came in Moscow after she finished secondary school and wanted to work in one of his bars first, than they began to live together. And they lived in love and reciprocal respect for 7 years till -suddenly- she left him...

Yes, I understand now, too.

The problem was he sent me money and did not want to accept them back (I did not know where to send them since I knew only his name written in Russian). So, I said, I'll find this organization and it will be the last thing I do for you. 

Imagine that I had to listen to him every day for hours. He called me 2-3 times a day. I wanted to make him more calm and relaxed, trying to explain him that he is not right, first. But I'm not a psychologist. I'm not able to work this way every day for more than a week...

After hours I was making circles around this town (all the residents laughed and, I suspect, they indicated me the wrong ways especially), I finally found the expressway and a great commercial center near it. 

So, I decided to have a rest and to gift me something very beautiful (a warm woolen dress: I'm tired to wear always pants, I want to feel myself a woman). And, look, I found a clock I needed! So beautiful! And with Japanese clockwork!  

On my way home, in the dark and hard rain, I did not see a big truck entering the expressway.........
Well, fortunately, the driver had time and place to bypass me. That is why I can tell you this story personally.
But it was a very hard experience, you know.

I swear, I'll never do something like this more.

Love Story

Interesting in this life are the stories of sentient beings. There is not matter is it about the humans or other animals. We are equal in this sense. I practice "bird watching" in my hen house and, you can believe me, observe many more or less tragic destinies. Here is one of them.

We bought a couple of mandarin ducks this spring. There were two couples in the animal shop, and probably the shopkeeper gave us ducks from different pairs. The adaptation period was long and hard. The male did everything possible to create good relation but the female did not want to know anything about it. 

After some time she accepted his company but did not want to know about the family. So, we remained without ducklings this year. 

In summer, my husband suddenly bought an other male. He was sold for so little price... 

The old couple hit him all the time and we did not know what to do with them. In autumn, we bought a little female. The male-ducks began just to change their summer wear to nuptial suits. We were happy: now, the young duck will court the young female, and so all will be happy.

Unfortunately, the things go not so as we wanted.

The young male began to court the others male's wife. There was a long period when she did not know what to do with them. But at the end, she chose the young duck. This is more strong and aggressive. Now, these two occupy the pond and protect it. They do not allow all others enter in it. They sit on the border or swim. The second,old, male is always with them. Not accepted but dreaming to have back his "girl-friend".

My husband wants to move them in a new big open-air cage with my big beautiful pond that I did so much to create. That pond can't surely stand so many ducks and it will transform in dirty puddle...

But I wanted to tell you about the strange games of the destiny.
In the mean time, the young duck is allown...

Strange Hobbies and Inspired Persons

Hobbies are so strange thing, you know, you can find those passionate persons everywhere. Some days ago I wrote about the bird lovers. Now, I wanted to report you about the other kind of "thrill-seekers".

Yesterday, I was in Paestum. I wanted to collect all the possible books and brochures about the interesting for tourists places. Since I accompany tourists in their visits in Campania -it's our region, in Italy- and because I'm a history lover myself, I look always for something new in this field. In Paestum, there was the XV fair of archeological tourism. It's a strange event because they promise it's the last time, every year. But they continue year by year. Probably, they find enough organizations who wants to pay the place inside the 5 stars hotel.

So, I went there yesterday.
One hour in the car (fortunately, my husband wanted to come with me and I had not drive myself) and the nature changes from the hills around our house to the plain with the Apennines chain in the distance.

I was not the first but there were not too many persons at 9 in the morning, so it was possible to pass from one stand to other.

The interesting part of this event is concentrated in one room. Those are the organisations of history lovers who try to live so as the people in this or that epoch lived. Here you can meet very "mad" persons. They love what they do so much so that they can tell you about every single piece hours and hours. I would like to hear them, too, but my husband waited me and he had to go to work else.

Here you can find jewelry creators. Their brooches is possible to buy. But they cost  not less than 100 euros since they are from silver with precious stones.

Here you can learn how to create natural colors and use them in your life.

Many copies of archaeological finds created using the techniques of that times...

And that birdie in center is natural. It seemed very glad to participate...

The long tools in front of you on the right are the medieval keys 

...and Sardenia was represented with different mannequins

I collected so many books and brochures that could not move more after about an hour. My husband was really happy to regain me: he had to go to work at the 13 and we had at least one hour of expressway.

Ahhhh.... The mountains of Salerno... Home...

Mad Bird Lovers

There are many different hobbies in the world. One collects pictures, other can't see antiques without tears. You will remember that my husband is a birds lover. This year he had many species of birds: Virginia Quails (we still have 2 or 3 of them), Rock Partridges (father, mother and about 15 children probably will go away this week), Red-legged Partridges, Quails (15 males wait for their new destination), Grey Partridges, all they passed months of this year in our hen house. Today, except those I just mentioned here, we have different nanous hens and pheasants.

From time to time, I had ..."strange" thoughts about my husband. I was glad he has a hobby but I think, the birds have to enjoy great spaces, and I do not like these games with alive beings. You will remember the pond I helped him to create for his mandarin ducks (we have 2 couples and one white Carolina today). If I will show you the photo, you will laugh all the evening. It looked like this:

My husband needed other species of birds and had to sell those he had too many copies, so, he knows all the other bird lovers of the region and at least half of them in all the Italy. From time to time, we go to exchange birds, to buy them etc etc. Looking at those "zoos" I thought: poor wives... Here are some photos.
I do not know the names of most of these birds. Many of them have not price, as said one of the owners (like that azure-blue bird I do not know the name but I like it soooo much...), because they are unique in Italy and maybe in Europe.

So, here are two collections:

 

And this is the second one