Stan and I walk a lot. The exercise is good, but more than that, walking gives us joy and makes us feel energized, especially when we can walk in forests or on country roads. On most days, the air is light, pure, and free – it smells like a baby, as if it was just made.
We never know what we might encounter on our walks: loud, menacing, highly intimidating dogs, flying grasshoppers, high-speed cars (on country roads??), kitties that beg to be petted, or blessed trees with ripe fruit.
Sometimes here where we are living at the moment, we find roads serving long-ago-established home properties as well as smaller paths alongside big farmlands. It is always bit adventurous as we never know who or what we might encounter.
On days that we neighborhood-hike for fun, we strike out from our little white villa, which by the way, I could easily make my forever home. It is that nice. The scene out our huge windows is like looking at a dreamy screen-saver. First we follow asphalt-paved roads out of the neighborhood, then we turn onto hard-packed dirt roads. As we walk along, we still find interesting conversation after all these years together. Finally, the trail puts on tiny paths that eventually take us to another paved road. Every turn is a new adventure, a new story. Sometimes when we think we could be lost, which is usually when we realize we are growing tired, we look at Google Maps and realize we are not lost but the return trip home might be a very long trek. Making our way there, however, keeps us healthy. That’s what we tell ourselves.
Stan and I are foragers, serious foragers. It’s in our blood, in our genes. Stan’s foraging instinct comes from his mother, Norma Raydean; mine comes from Grandmother Latting.
On our hikes, from the side of roads, in farm fields, and from yards of houses that appear to have no inhabitants, we have picked blackberries, sloe berries, figs, plums, apples, and more. Here in the autumn time in Sicily, we have found and picked yellow lemons, big, fat orange persimmons, and today, we found a tree full of quince. Quince is apple- and pear-like, yellow-skinned, knobby and hard, harder than a Keifer pear, but it softens and its sweetness forms when it is baked. Guess what will be in our oven tonight!
Just a note, all fruit taste much sweeter when pilfered. We might be thieves, but we are very grateful thieves.
We are happy in this place and love this life!
Amazing!
I am so happy you are exploring the area we love and have been 3 times. Sicily, like, Crete and Bali are my soul places! It just doesn’t get bettet!!
Barry, we have so enjoyed this place and as our time here winds down, we are dreaming of a return visit and perhaps a longer stay. I’ve never been to Crete — we must put that on the list! But Bali was one of our first international trips. We fell in love with it! It too is among our very favorite places on earth.
We are heading to Malta on Friday. I know little about it so it should be interesting. You guys ever vacationed there?
See you soon!!! And are looking forward to it.
❤️🥰🥰❤️
Love you, lil sis!
Citizens Arrest!
Oh no, you can’t do that. It’s innocent thievery! 🙂
You guys will never be hungry. I found blackberries in the freezer at mom and dad’s. Grown by dad ❤️. Somehow they taste much sweeter now. Was a pleasant surprise
Oh Amy, your finding the very sweet blackberries made me misty. What a gift! Love you and will see you soon!
What a walk! Looks like a marvelous day! I wouldn’t have known what a quince is nor what in the world to do with it.
Always learning something new from your travel logs!!
Love you! 😘
Aw, Mary! Thanks! Stan and I do love to get out and galavant!!! We never know what we might find or run into! See you soon, love!
I have 2 Kiefer pear trees and make pear preserves that are soooo good on hot biscuits. I didn’t know anyone else knew about them. Yes, they are hard but somehow I am still fighting all the critters for the fruit.🍐
I bet they are those pesky squirrels! I bet they eat the center and then toss the pear!
I love Keifer pears; have since I was a little girl. My grandmother had tree.
Stan and I had a neighbor who had a tree and didn’t like them. We’d gather sacks full. We made pear preserves, pear bread, and pear pie – tastes much like an apple pie. We gave the breads and preserves to friends at Christmas time. I like to eat them raw! Anything that tough to peel and core has to be good for you!