I love my job. It would be easier if I were in shape or regularly breathing deeply, but it’s a ton of fun just the same. The trick is to run to the car or the shop or the coffee bar whenever possible, and laugh. I find the effects to be very similar. I taught for a week and we cooked until we could cook no more and then ate by the light of the moon and then Ferdinand and I went off to Urbino for a visit with an old friend who re arrived like magic. Time has no meaning when you love someone. There is only where you left you off. And so while our boys played, we talked and talked some more and she walked us through the halls of the Ducal Palace and all the treasures of Raphael. We came back to Mercatale all together, stayed at the top of a hill with a view of every star and ate and drank a dinner of pork chops, panzanella with the summer’s sweet tomatoes and fried basil, a salad of cannellini, arugula, lemon, pine nuts and parmesan, and a massive piece of watermelon for dessert. Ferdinand had his birthday the next day at Caroline’s. More eating and drinking on exotic rugs and cushions under a tassled silk umbrella and the sun and then the stars; Ferdinand broadcast his latest compositions with a dance thrown in at the end. He even danced with his mother.
We will rest for a few days while Jonathan works, and then we will fly to Paris to study the Loire Valley. I am on a mission for croissants, castles, and wine for teaching this fall. After that, we go to the isle of Aaron, where they have a trove of seashells to hunt. We are really excited to see Grandad and cousins and uncles. Then to England and Nanna, and then home. Love, love and more love to everyone, Faye