Appetite 4 Life - Camilla's Blog

"The nugget that got away" and other adventures by Sofia

Yesterday was an exciting day in the Pags household. And no, not the new baby making waves yet - but toddler Sofia in action -  taking centerstage!

Moffa was downstairs vacuuming the cars and Mommo was on the other side of the house with Sofia watering the plants in the garden, and Mamma (i.e. me) was inside the house getting a thing or two done. Did I tell you what a blessing it is to have such active "babysitters" when my belly is forcing me to just slow down and almost watch from the sidelines at times? I just wanted to get that in there, before you read the next paragraph...

All of a sudden Mommo comes inside to ask me if Sofia is with me. Oops. "Nope, I thought she was with you". Mommo was watering the (by now somewhat famous) albicocca tree and Sofia was up there with her potty. Mommo asked her to bring the potty back down, and a minute later she found the potty halfway down on the grass but no Sofia. 

Time to mobilize. Mommo trots up to the camper/husbilen/RV/mobile home, I call down to Moffa who has not seen her, but he starts walking around the house that way, our landlord Georgio is with the gas&water guy, and both of them head out with me towards the other logical places. 

Hens ready for some adventure

I go down towards the swing and the back of the property, and leave them to go into the chicken coop. Every afternoon Georgio opens the door and lets the hens out - happy hens, but not so happy me when I catch doing their business where I want to have easy walking access, but it's a small price to pay really for country living. So the gate is open, and within 30 seconds I hear Georgio shout that he's found her. I pass on the word to Dad, and via him to Mom and head in to find her happily standing in the middle of about half of the dozen hens that Georgio has, splashing away in their little birdbath, talking up a storm. 

Phew, to say the least. And the start of freedom in a bigger way for Sofia, one where she is enjoying starting to explore on her own, whereas previously she was always making sure someone familiar was close at hand. An excellent example is that just two minutes after I got her washed up and ready to go after her chicken adventure, she trotted up to husbilen with very determined steps - not even looking behind her to see if anyone was following, and refusing to acknowledge any of us calling her.

Should I put up the don't disturb sign?

A while later it's potty time, and there's nothing quite like a bit of fresh air to go with that. And some literature entertainment. So I'll let the picture speak for itself. But do note that her newfound friends from the coop are now wanting to get very friendly - and one boldly approaches the potty, until the inborn fear chases it away. Sofia is completely oblivious to the whole thing, and why not: she's engrossed in a good book by now. 

Fast forward to late at night and Jeff emptying the washing machine of the evening's load of various and sundry. He poked in a rag to collect the excess water in the rubber sealant of the door (frontloader, European style) when something very surprising caught his eye: a dark brown hard little nugget. Thinking exactly what you are thinking he smelled it. Nothing. Again. No smell whatsoever. A third time... ok, maybe a little whiff of what once must have been a normal #2 nugget, but now was the cleanest, shiniest and best disinfected little thing you could find. 

How was your day, by the way?

A Tuscan road trip

We were invited to our friends Jeremy and Federica's lovely Tuscan country home this week. They have a 5-year-old boy but for Sofia more importantly: a donkey! All the way there we talked with her about Eeyore the donkey and how exciting it would be to see the real Eeyore! 

Not many straight things in this picture

So after a winding drive out into the Tuscan countryside with all the rolling hills and beauty you would expect, we finally arrive at a steep uphill gravel road. With me behind the steering wheel, Jeff tells me "Jeremy told me to go really slow up this road". At this point the wheels are already spinning, as the gravel is just sitting loose on top of the packed dusty dry dirt. So I try to slow down a little bit more, and of course: there is zero traction so we just sit there.

Just picture about a 20% incline, winding left to right, with potholes everywhere, forget about sloping the curves right, it was all crooked whichever way the cows had trotted all these decades. But if they drive up and down this every day... it just has to be doable!

Jeff is itching to take over, and I just KNOW what he's thinking... not much more give for him either, so I decide to bring forth what that little voice inside has been telling me for some time now: "We need to have some speed to get momentum to go up this hill without a 4-wheel drive, we just can't go slow-slow". I guess it's the Finn in me piping up, subconsciously remembering all the winters spent navigating snow and sleet - not to mention ice. AND all the gravel roads we have in the country there. But I have to say, this gravel-trail topped anything I can remember.  

Taking a break

So Jeff reverses back down the hill to a less steep incline. At which point we hear this from the backseat: "No Eeyore the donkey". It wasn't a question, just a resigned statement when she realized we weren't going forward anymore. 

We start giggling, and as we wind ourselves up the hill and see the cows grazing on the slope and notice the home-fixed sign warning for cows we're in stitches as I try to get a picture of them. "No more laughing, just drive!", comes the command from the backseat. We just look at each other in amazement and laugh so hard we're almost in tears. You just had to be there. 

We have a great visit, seeing the calves, the cows, the donkey, the dog, the cat and the dinosaurs. Yes, the dinosaur collection is their son's toy collection, and he happily shares it with Sofia. We have home-made sashimi rolls (yum!) and a good chat before it's time to head back home. 

We get strapped into the car, say our good-byes, and as soon as all the car doors are closed, Sofia exclaims with absolute immaculate timing: " We did it!"

 

First look at the calves and cows

Sofia feeds the donkey

 

You looking at me?

The morning of January 15th was surprisingly cold here, with a hint of frost on the grass. Our terrace acted as a landing pad for a very cold and sluggish grass hopper. I felt sorry for it knowing that it would have to wait another couple of hours for the sun to hit the spot it was resting on. 

Sofia thought it was most exciting and added a new word to her growing vocabulary. I thought I would be able to make it fly by waving a towel by it, but all it did when the towel finally got too close was to grab on to it with its well-equipped 'claws' and that made me shriek, and made Sofia take two steps backwards. 

You can see its two hindlegs raised, and without knowing enough about grass hoppers, I'd say it looks very defensive here, particularly showing off the red part. When undisturbed for a while, it lowered its legs. Once I'd taken the photo and could see its eyes close up, I could only conclude that not only was the grass hopper frozen and cold, but clearly annoyed at being interrupted in its attempts at defrosting in peace.