Woke Up to Visions (c) of Italy-Southern Style...! Vintage Patterns...

I was up very early and could not sleep. When I finally started dozing, I had on the Public Broadcasting Station and they we showing a video that I had seen before...although I never knew what it was called. It is Visions (c) of Italy-Southern Style, which is sold as part of a two DVD set and can be bought with Visions (c) of Sicily. Breathtaking!

I have wanted to visit Tuscany and the Amalfi coast for many years and a while ago I realized that my fascination likely relates to almost two years spent in the Azores Islands as a child. I understand that although the political climate has changed (Portugal, the parent country, was Socialist for more than thirty years) and financially things are much better, the Islands are still a quiet destination for vacationers and little has changed in the more than fifty years since we lived there.

I recall picking fresh peas from our house-helper's garden at their cottage by the beach (one bedroom with a large dining-living area and a lean-to kitchen) and speaking in Portugese to the peddlers, bullfights (the Portugese do not kill the bulls), festivals, puppies, beef roasts on a spit, riding around the island and stopping at a bar and getting chocolate shaped like closed parasols with a plastic covering printed like lace and foil underneath and a plastic handle sticking out. Chocolate is a BIG deal over there! I remember more often we got long dark bars of it in different shades of bright foil.

I will finish this post when I have more thoughts...anyway, the Visions (C) series is nice to relax or sleep to...according to the folks at PBS I'm not alone in doing that!

By the way I scored about five jumper patterns and two blouse patterns on line very inexpensively...gotta love Ebay and Etsy! Spring clothes are coming...hopefully my sewing machine is okay or I will need to borrow one. Someone was mean to mine!

Talk more later...

Valerie