While I was away...

in ,

I went to Rome. Five days. Two and a half with You, and another two and a half with an old American friend. A recent widow. Plays bridge. Played a lot on the cruise ship she left to meet up with us in the Eternal City. If you are a fan of History, you probably know that Rome has been invaded, sacked, and despoiled a number of times. Visigoths to Charles VII of France to those creeps from the last World War. A long & wide arch. The latest is Mass Tourism. A voracious river of folk. You can’t or, wouldn’t want to image what Rome is like today. Happily, the city still stands… eternal. Meanwhile, back at our Genoese ranch, the Dogs were left with a substitute filling-in for our usual dog-sitters. The two brothers went to Spain for a cousin’s wedding.

Two unexpected things occurred at il Poggiolo during my absence: it got hot and it rained. I had mowed the lawns and weed-whacked where the mower cannot go at some point prior to my departure on a Freccia Bianca train… the Italian TGV… and in preparation of our gardener re-seeding the terraces he had re-built last year. Winter, its dead leaves, lack of water and the drying winds from Siberia… Thank You, Mr Putin?… had ravaged our grassy landscape. Mowed and whacked, everything looked clipped and orderly. Hopeful.

However, I have came back to this…

Forgot to mention the 10-Day Weather Forecast: rain, thunderstorms and, occasionally, heavy stuff until the middle of the last week of May. It’s the Moon’s fault, if you follow the Phases of the Moon.

Bumper crop of grass, I’d say. Weeds, pretty little wild flowers hovering over leafy and equally wild stalks and massive clumps of an insidious cow grass, intermittently graced by what we really want in the category of Grass: Zoysia. We may never get it. A combo or climate change, my occasional bouts of laziness and let me throw in Madam Moon too.

I was amazed. So green, so tall, so abundant. Wish my bank account were so. Power of Mother Nature, when heat & rain are mixed. In our case, suddenly. The welcoming scene alarms my sense of that phrase, clipped and orderly. However, deep down inside me, there is a rebel and having grass shoot up nearly 15 cm in the space of a long weekend has brought it out. I’ll have enough time to enjoy, perhaps even contemplate the transformation for the next 10 days. I have forewarned You. Due in at any moment. Oh! And it’s raining now. Pazienza.

Sainted weather...

in

The topics in Codiponte these days are two: Covid Lockdown or, the weather. Let’s talk about the weather. I haven’t belly-ached about it for a while…

it’s been raining for the last two months! The story…

You calls me about 10 times a day. A mainstay of our shared Lockdown since last February. The first call is usually around 8:30AM. I have already had one caffe’ and am working on a second when the iPhone squeals the arrival of his call. They are a forum for him to ask… Che tempo che fa… literally, What’s the weather?… but, in another sense of the Italian, it’s really to ask… What’s up? Well, more than a month ago… on December 2, 2020, to exact… You called at Our Anointed Morning Hour and I took his query as an opportunity to complain about the weather…

Pretty darn shitty, You. Cold and grey. IT’S RAINING!!! And, there’s a new Moon tonight too. Means we have to put up with this crappy weather for the next month, thanks to the phases stuff.

Va’ be’… buckle your belt… said You… because, besides la luna nuova, it’s also the onomastico for Saint Bibiana. The saint’s name day. You’ve got rain coming for the next 40 days.

What? Saints get an extension to the month-long climate change?

Go to go.

And, lo’ and behold, our weather has obeyed the saintly order of things. The January weather forecast is for continued rain to reach the 40 days!!!

Lately, we’ve enjoyed a rhythm of 6 days of cold, grey, rain, wind and 1 of semi-sunshine. Ephemeral is our Signor Sole. Covid-19 has taken a back seat along with Donald Trump, Brexit, the recent Christmas holidays. People are going nuts about the wet.

Who is Saint Bibiana? A virgin and martyr, of course. Wikipedia states 2 legends. One is soft-core suffering and the 2nd is XXL suffering to martyrdom. Let’s focus on the later. Bibiana was the daughter of a Roman Empire functionary, Flavianus, who unfortunately irritated his emperor by being a devout Christian. The emperor wanted to rid Rome of the scourge of Christianity, and so named one, Apronianus, as governor of the Eternal city, entrusted with the mandate to bring a hasty end to any Christian when and where found. Flavianus was discovered, tortured and banished. Bibiana’s mother, Dafrosa, was beheaded… which seems a bit unfair… while Bibiana and her sister, Demetria, were relegated to a life of poverty under house arrest. The two fasted and prayed. What else could they do? It didn’t end there. Apronianus was so appalled the two women could survived his punishment, he had the two women brought before him. Demetria confessed her Christian faith and promptly died at the governor’s sandalled feet. Saved herself a lot of trouble and pain, which fell upon Bibiana. She was turned over to a wicked-woman, who tried to seduce the poor virgin. Rejected, the vile female beat poor Bibiana yet, she steadfastly remained true to her faith, like her sister. Apronianus, furious, took the matter in his own hands and had the poor virgin dragged and tied to a pillar and viciously beaten until death. Bibiana’s body was then tossed to wild animals who refuse to touch it. Years later, Pope Semplicius conferred upon her a holy martyrdom. And, the martyr’s former house was consecrated as a church dedicated to her and her martyrdom. And, for all those sufferings, we are now paying penance with rain, rain, and more rain. Snow for tomorrow afternoon. Naturally. We’re in January.