Pretend You are Italian, Adopt an Olive Tree

In the Le Marche region, which is not far from the Abruzzo region, there is Nudo – a family-run cooperative of olive groves. For the eco-conscious, Italian-loving foodie, Nudo offers the chance to parent an olive tree – and reap the produce from your tree. The Nudo website describes the benefits of the adoption program this way, “It’s delicious, it’s good for the world and you get to show off to your friends.”

What does an olive tree adoption program look like? You follow the progress of your leafy progeny as it goes through the annual cycles of pruning, picking and pouring. Packages of your organically produced olive oil arrive in the Spring and Fall. And when you are next in Italy, you are invited to stop by the grove so you can gaze upon, water and spend some quality time with your little olive producer.  In the process, you have supported local family farmers and contributed to the well being of a community. Of course all of this also comes with an official adoption certificate. For information including adoption costs, check out the Nudo website.

For those who tweet, there’s more from Nudo on Twitter:  http://twitter.com/NudoItalia

I often think about my grandparents, Cecil (Cec) and Ruth Ranney who lived near us while we were growing up in Redlands, California. In the mid-50s, Cec came out of retirement to become the business manager for a small regional circus.

For six months a year, Cec and Ruth followed the Gil Gray circus as it traversed the Southwest and moved up into Canada. Travelling through the West, exploring little towns, and collecting Native American artifacts suited my grandparents perfectly. In August 1961 while on the road in Texas, Ruth died. The clowns sent a wreath to our grandmother’s funeral service.

Looking back on it now, I marvel how Cec went back on the road after Ruth’s funeral. In fact by the time he got to Colorado,  he was in pretty bad shape. After getting two phone calls from Cec in one night, my father Jerome caught a plane for Durango.

What a pleasant surprise to discover that the 100 year-old Strater Hotel – their hotel – featured the best combo in town. Being a musician, dad never went anywhere without the mouthpiece to his coronet. The first night, at the first music break, dad in his bright red blazer went up to the band leader to introduce himself and ask if he could sit in for a set. That night they closed the bar.

The next night, dad was asked to sit in again.  The crowd was even bigger. They had come to hear the guy in the red blazer who was there to support his father-in-law. At closing time, to the tune of “The Saints Go Marching in,” Jerome and Cec marched the entire bar onto the streets of Durango into the wee hours of the night.

Recently we celebrated our 16th anniversary and wanted to do something special. I know this sounds awful but I can barely remember what we’ve done over the years. I do remember our first anniversary because we celebrated for an entire weekend. The first night we stayed close to Yosemite in a teepee. It was fun until we noticed a guy peaking through the teepee flap. After that we hightailed it to the Awanhee Hotel in Yosemite and while waiting for a table in the dining room met the “Clapper Girl” and her boyfriend.  She was beautiful and interesting and I envied her notoriety. If you’re going to do a commercial, make it a classic like the “Clapper.” The only other anniversary that comes to mind was last year because we’d made it to 15 years which far surpassed my first marriage.   I could easily look into the future and see that big 20th celebration.  We went to a Louis Prima and Keely Smith musical production in a small neighborhood theater. While waiting in line, Chris handed me a little box that contained a lovely bracelet from my favorite story in South Pasadena.

So, here we were again. 16 years of marriage and this year needing an anniversary plan that met our recession budget. Then Paolo from my Italian class suggested Antica in Marina del Rey. Antica is the only LA restaurant that is  certified by the Verace Pizza Napoletana Association to make le tradizione pizze.  We ordered the capriccosa — artichokes, mushrooms, black olives, mozzarella, proscuitto and tomato sauce which came on a very thin crust.  I told the waiter that the pizza was “molto delizioso” and he corrected my description. In Italian the word “delizioso” stands on its own and doesn’t need qualification.  I think this is a perfect description of my marriage to Chris – simply delizioso.

Recently we learned of an art auction that will be held on July 2nd  in London. The purpose is to raise funds to help repair the damaged duomo at the Santa Maria del Suffragio in the main L’Aquila piazza.    Many Abruzzo artists and a number of international artists including Chris have donated to the auction.  It feels good  to contribute in some small way to the relief efforts.  An impressive online catalog is available to view at: http://www.lifeinabruzzo.com/art-for-laquila-invitation/

It’s nice to know that Prince Margaret is back in London. I hope she finds a good home.

A few months ago I opened a Twitter account and then did nothing. The more I heard people talk about tweeting, the less I was prepared to get started. Without doing a thing, I began to collect followers. Last Sunday, I heard a modified, but perfect St. Augustine quote, “God make me good. Just not now.”  I had my first tweet.  Apparently I also created the following bio line for my Twitter page, “planning for life in Italy.” And, you know what?  That hasn’t changed one bit. I still daydream about our beautiful garden space where we’ll have lovely dinners with family and friends.  I imagine that we’ll buy a really good bed for late afternoon naps in our little bedroom that has a window to the garden.  I’ve even found the perfect bedspread that I will buy eventually.  None of this changes my sadness about the earthquake and the awareness that it has profoundly changed many lives.  It’s just that it’s Italy and you can’t imagine Italy without nurturing those silly dreams in the best and worst of times.

Renovation was barely underway when the earthquake hit

Our village Fossa sustained enough damage in the April 6th terramoto that it was and still is evacuated – a necessary precaution in a place where the aftershocks haven’t stopped.Last week inspectors were able to begin assessing the damage in Fossa to prepare condition reports for homeowners. The preliminary and not official report is that our sweet 1635 apartment – casa del narcisco –   is inaccessible due to damage to the front wall of the building.  Next a final grade – A to E.  Alot like our grading system,  A is good, no great! and a grade of E is a complete and total disaster.

Giancarlo is currently living in a tent camp outside San Demetrio with 60 other earthquake survivors. I’d like to share a recent note from him. A previous email is posted on my website. Here’s what he reported last week.

Damage to duomo in L'Aquila town square

“Dear Jane. Thx for your email, you can use my message for your email no problem. Situation in camp is better, but weather and tremors not helping at all. Today we have heavy rain and thunder, and the last tremor I felt was at 10:20 and I was at Stiffe.  All the hamlets are controlled by the police to avoid people getting into [trouble] in case of tremors! We managed to collect from friends and relatives money that we spent to buy meat – that was one of the difficult things to find with fresh vegetables. We are ok now and have provisions for 6 meat meals to be spread over 2 weeks. If I can manage, I can send you pics of San Demetrio and surroundings latest Saturday. Kind regards.” GC

We’re in touch with Giancarlo on ways to get money to the camps. Will let you know if I hear anything. By the next blog, we may have more news about the condition of Fossa and perhaps our building. Stay tuned.