Last night's Venice Night Trail

Venice isn't a city designed for long distance runners. Or even short distance runners. Any runners,  for that matter. It's a walking city. That's how we get around.

However, a local running group, Venice Running Days, in association with the Venice Marathon, organized a 15 k night run through the city. Brilliant idea, to do a run at night when all the streets are empty. The link below is a video of the course mapped out, beginning at the port on the Zattere and winding it's way throughout the city.  Do take a look.

Venice Night Trail Course through the city

Along the course, somewhere between 10-11 k, the runners would be going right by our house! I noted the event on my calendar and was prepared to watch from my vantage point on the terrace. 

 Yesterday was not the best weather day here in Venice. We had a nasty thunderstorm in the morning, then it cleared up mid-day, with another storm hitting late afternoon. Fortunately for all the race participants, the skies cleared up by night time and the temperature was also perfect for running in shorts and t-shirts. 

I knew the race was slated to begin at 9pm, so I figured the fastest runners might be already at the 10k mark around 9:30. About 9:15 I stepped outside, looked down and noticed a white haired  gentleman on the street below me, dressed in a neon green high visibility vest. He had a flashing light strapped to his arm, and he was waving a lit-up orange wand, similar to something an airport traffic person on the tarmac at an airport would use. No, an aircraft was not coming in for a landing on our sidewalk.  He  was busy practicing his hand motions to direct traffic.  The original race course was set to run past us, straight down the edge of the street to the waterfront, then along the waterfront all the way to the bridge over towards Giardini.  However, with all the rain the path along the waterfront was more like a stream. Obviously someone at race headquarters had decided to change up the route to keep feet dry. 

 The volunteer down on the street practiced his arm motions for 15 minutes or so. Every once in a while he'd say something out loud, as if he were having a conversation with someone.  But there was no one else but him down there. Then I noticed who he was conversing with.  A cat.  The cat, lying   on the sidewalk or walking around a bit,  was keeping the man company as he swung his arm with the wand back and forth. 

The first runner was past our house just a few minutes before 9:30.  Our traffic controller yelled out a cherry "Ciao!" and then proceeded to give directions , " Sinistra, poi destra, poi lungo viale" 

The second runner followed seconds behind, and got the same greeting and instructions. 

In another five minutes  runners started arriving down the street in packs.  Our guy downstairs was swinging his orange wand, and greeted each and every group with the same happy "Ciao!". For some he yelled out "Bravi, Dai!"  (Good, go on!) Every once in a while he'd not only give the directions in Italian, but also in English. "Left-a, right-a, then-a straight-a down-a  da street-a".  This went on for well over an hour, as a couple thousand runners made their way through our little corner of Venice. 

All the runners were wearing head lamps, some had red blinking lights on their backs, some even had shoes with blue lights in the heels.  

While the friendly volunteer downstairs was directing runners, the cat was getting into the action. Every once in a while we'd hear the man yell "No, Milo, vieni qua"  (Come here) or he'd run a few feet from his post and scoot the cat out of the way. He and Milo greeted every runner that past our corner of Sant'Elena. Runners were  yelling back to him "Buona sera" or "Grazie". 

I can only imagine how joyful this event was for the participants.To be able to run through this spectacular city on a clear spring night must have been something so unique and memorable. If only I could run, I am pretty sure I'd have been out there with them. Even from my non-runner perspective,  I know how happy I was looking down at them.  And this guy on our corner made it even more special. 

Photo of runners on the sidewalk straight below our terrace. ( My husband has a fascination with these night time light streams)  Thanks to Mike Henderson for the photos. 

Hemingway in Venice

Yesterday one of my Facebook friends made the comment "There's never a dull moment in the Henderson household!".  Yesterday she was so right!

Sitting along the canal while enjoying a lovely lunch at Gam Gam restaurant in the Jewish Ghetto with friends from Baltimore who were visiting us in Venice, our friend Mike turned to me and said " Hey, you just got an owl!"  Huh??? He handed me his phone to show me a photo. My husband Mike had just posted a photo on Facebook explaining  he had rescued a  baby bird . Sure enough, it was a baby owl.  My husband then sent me a message telling me I had to go buy some beef baby food and a syringe so I could feed the owl. Before our conversation was over, I had already given our baby owl a name, Hemingway. Looks like I was in for a fun afternoon!

In the meantime, we'd heard from another friend who was kind enough to check out some local sources for what to do with the bird. She was able to identifiy it- it's a baby Assiolo owl. And it didn't need to be fed, but it did need to be put back up in a tree or low branches  that evening so it's parents could find it.

My husband put the bird in our downstairs magazzino (storage room) to be  in a safe place. After bidding our friends goodbye, I rushed home to check on Hemingway.

 This is what I found - one very frightened little owl!  But what cutie. One look at him and I knew I wanted to keep him. How could you not? Just look at that little face?  He was totally petrified, so I just whispered to him that he would be ok, he was safe, and we'd do our best to get him reunited with his parents later on when it got dark.

Mike took a photo of Hemingway out where he found him, in the middle of a big open grassy area just in front of our apartment. It's in a place where lots of cats and dogs were, we were sure Hemingway would have been in one of their mouths if he was left on the ground. It was also blazing hot. Mike couldn't have left the bird there. He did the only thing he could think of, he scooped him up into a container and took him to safety.

Mike and I joked about Hemingway, our new family member, during dinner and while we waited for the sun to go down. We wondered what kind of owl he'd grow up to be, made plans for his future, all the things new parents typically do! As soon as the sun went set, Mike went down to the magazzino to get Hemingway so we could try to get him out into a tree.

Shortly after, my phone rang. Mike was on the phone telling me to run down so I could see where Hemingway was.  The little bugger could fly!  He wasn't in the plastic container anymore, he had flown up and landed on a metal bed frame we have stored along a wall in the magazzino. There he was , perched up above my head on this metal frame, just looking down at me.  He's no bigger than my hand, but looks exactly like a big owl, in minature.

We got him scooped up into the plastic container and took him back out to the park area in front of our apartment. The trees that he had fallen from earlier that day have limbs about 30 feet off the ground, there was no way we could climb up there. Fortunately, for us, and for Hemingway, there are several young pine trees recently planted in that area. We were able to let him loose on one of the closest of these smaller pines to where Mike found him.  We said our goodbyes, wished him a safe and happy life, and went inside.

A few hours later, Mike went back out with a flashlight to see if Hemingway was ok out there. Hemingway was not where we left him. He was no where in sight. Hopefully he had reunited with his parents. We already missed him, the little bugger!

We wondered about him all day today. Every time I passed through the park area, I checked out both the ground and the surrounding low trees. No sight of Hemingway.

We had another storm rolling in tonight. Of course, we worried about the owl.  Just as it was starting to get dark, I heard some loud screeches coming from the trees. Mike took a flashlight and went out searching. We immediately thought Hemingway might be in trouble out there.

Guess who was making all that noise tonight?  Yup, our boy Hemingway! Mike followed the sounds of the screeching, which was moving around, so clearly Hemingway was flying from tree to tree. He actually found Hemingway, perched about 20 feet up on a branch. The tiny guy is ok.

He'll probably  keep us up all night with his screeching, too. I imagined that his mother, if he's been reunited with her, has been giving him what's for for being out later than 8 pm last night.  That's our boy!

Secret Garden update

Just about every morning Mike and I make a run down to our "Orto" to see what new developments might have happened overnight.  In the evenings we've been watering and weeding. Today I took a few photos so you can see the progress going on there.

 Melanzane!!!  We actually have 8 of these beauties hanging on the vine- ranging from about 2 inches to 5 inches. We want to let them fatten up a little bit more before we start harvesting, in the meantime our mouths are watering!!!  For what seems like weeks we looked at flowers on the vine, but nothing else, and thought sadly that we weren't going to get any eggplants at all. This was our very first attempt at eggplant, we had no idea what to expect, and to be honest were a bit disappointed when we saw tons of zucchini but no melanzane. About a week ago we started seeing little purple eggplants .... we have babies!!!

 Perhaps by September there just might be one ear of corn in the garden. We're just starting to see some silks appear, that's a good sign. We miss corn on the cob a lot, so we might be fighting over that one ear!!!

 There is a bumper crop of tomatos going on in the garden- lots and lots of cherry tomatoes, and these bigger ones, even some heirloom tomatoes and what looks like just one daterino plant. We've been pulling ripe cherry tomatoes off every day and popping them in our mouths right then and there. They don't have a prayer. They will never even make it up to the kitchen!

 Hot peppers, and lots of them. Have no idea what we'll be doing with them all. Any suggestions?

 This tomatoe is just about ready.. maybe a day or two more until it is nice and ripe.

This is yesterday's zucchini harvest. Last night we made 2 loaves of zucchini bread. Tonight for dinner we made fried zucchini in batter. Tomorrow it will be zucchini quiche. We're going to have to get pretty creative, cause there are new ones to harvest every time we go to the garden.

We're so lucky to have this special space, and even luckier that it had been a garden for years and years before us. There's something magical about vegetables grown in Italy, they just taste better. Must be the combination of that Italian sun and soil.  

Redentore - il giorno dopo ( the day after)

I wanted to try to share a little bit of Redentore with you. My firework photos aren't spectacular, I'm envious of some of the incredible photos I've seen on the internet this morning. I'm going to have to really practice with my night photography next year. For what it's worth... here are a few. Redentore fireworks are some of the best I have seen in my life. I just don't think anyone does fireworks better than the Italians do! 

This year we had a wonderful dinner on our terrace, then walked out to the waterfront along Sant'Elena to join the thousands of others who had already staked a spot there. Families had set up tables and chairs all along the water earlier in the day and had even hung lanterns and lights. By night, their dinners were over, everyone was ready for the fireworks. Others were on blankets on the grass in the park. There were young and old alike, dancing, singing, just enjoying the evening. 

 After the fireworks, most of the people who had gathered on Sant'Elena gathered up their belongings and headed home or to the Lido by vaporetto.
Sunday morning I headed off to Giudecca  island to Pesca di Beneficenza, a lottery type game to raise money for the church, held annually on the morning after the Redentore celebration. This has become a favorite of mine, and it's well known amongst my friends that I have no luck winning anything- except fly swatters!  I have quite a fly swatter collection now.  So--- Sunday morning it was more fly swatter time for Karen! I hopped on the 4.1 vaporetto and made my way to Giudecca.

Here's a little taste of Redentore, through my eyes......

 Here's how this works- you pay 1 Euro per ticket, hand your money over to the volunteer who is manning these bins of little rolled up papers. They pick out tickets from the bin and hand them over to you.

 I contributed 10 Euros this year, these are my hot 10 little winning tickets!

 You unravel the papers, hoping one of them is a good number!  They either have a word or a number on them. The lower the number, the better the prize.

This is a display of some of the better prizes. The motorbike was number #0001.

 And this is my stash of prizes..... a curtain and rod, a swiffer duster, 2 plastic flowers, 2 small glass dolphins, a little glass ring, a car air freshner, and a tiny little plastic keyring with a small container of playdoh attached!  No, I didn't even win a bottle of wine. And no, no fly swatter!!!!

 Here's a view of the Redentore church from the temporary bridge. Yellow paper lanterns are a tradition, lining both sides of the canal. I love the atmosphere on this weekend!

 The bridge is constructed from sections that are held in place by large pilings.

 Contributing to the party atmosphere are the nut, candy and balloon vendors stationed near the church. I always buy a bag of roasted almonds for Mike. It's become a tradition for us whenever there is some festa going on. Of course, a bag of nuts came home with me yesterday.

These are fresh , warm and delicious smelling.

And finally.....one last remnant of a special night in Venice... empty tables on Sunday morning along Giudecca canal waiting for their owner to come pack them up and carry them home.  

New Secret Garden update

Our secret garden had a milestone event today- I finished ripping out the thousands of brambles and all the remaining weeds! Finally, all the beds are cleared.  I have 2 gi-normous piles of crap still to bag up and haul out to the trash pile, but that's work I can live with.  Our "orto" has been planted. Now we'll spend the remainder of summer evenings watering and watching the crops grow.

 The zucchini bed. Lots of  tiny flowers already forming. 

 The pepper bed, with lovely little peppers. Eggplants, tomatoes and corn are all growing nicely. 

Next year I see more roses, and an iris bed or two. 

Secret Garden update

No rain today (big surprise), and you would have thought I'd take advantage of the clear skies to get down into the garden again. Not today. I gave myself a day off to spend a few hours at the Biennale exhibits (more on that in my next post ).  We did go down for a look-see, hoping to notice some progress. Luckily I remembered to grab my camera on my way out the door!

Here's the new tomato bed, filled with heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and some big round tomatoes we hope will be perfect for thick slices on summer sandwiches. 

The first of the tomatoes on the vine!!

The zucchini bed. Too early to spot any zucchini's, but everything looks like it's getting bigger.

The pepper and eggplant bed along the side garden wall. 

First of the peppers!

Roses blooming today. Another first!

View of the front half of the garden.

The back corner finally cleared.  Now I can do a little dreaming about what this might look like in a year or two. 

A Secret Garden in Venice

There have been books written about Venice's secret gardens. Where are they ? Always behind wooden or iron doors, surrounded by brick walls, away from Venice's curious visitors.  And always, when you find one, you feel as though you have been given a special little gift, the opportunity to sneak a peak at something rare.

My post today isn't about going on a secret garden hunt in Venice. No, it's about my own secret garden project in Venice. If you are a reader of my blog, you know from past posts that we had a marvelous secret garden at our previous apartment. Totally walled in, 600 square meters of private green space filled with iris beds, rose bushes, all sorts of flowering perennials, trees, a grape arbor that produced grapes, and yes, grass that needed to be mowed on a regular basis. Who mowed grass in the historic enter of Venice??? We did.

That garden was huge, and required lots of tender loving care. Although we were very reluctant to leave it, when it was time to search for smaller apartment, we were ok with our decision. Little did we know we'd take on yet another garden with the new apartment in Sant'Elena. Yes, we're now on Garden Numero Duo.  This one is smaller, about 1/4 acre, and also as sorely neglected as the last one had been. So we're back to work again. Welcome to my own "Secret Garden".

It's quite a work in progress. This one has been so badly neglected, the weeds have now grown to almost trees and are about as tall as I am. From front to back, side to side, there was nothing but wilderness.  Unfortunately, we didn't get down into the garden as soon as the weather turned warm. Our first priority was to get the terrace set up: new sun umbrellas delivered and constructed, lots of geraniums hauled home and potted.  With that work completed, it's time to kick it into high gear on the garden work. And the weeds that we should have tackled a few weeks ago have had lots of rain to nourish them into full blown monsters.

                                             

Above is a photo of Mike digging up stumps. I'd already finished pulling weeds from the area in the foreground.

Along the brick wall are not one, but two wonderful old troughs with running water.  We cut back a climbing vine that had taken over the wall. It looked nice, but I happen to be allergic to that particular vine. Anyone else allergic to Virginia Creeper??  And why has it followed me all the way to Venice?  There is a nice pink climbing rose along a back part of the wall.  I have visions of some terracotta lions on plaques taking up residence on this wall some day soon. 

                                         
This is the beginning of the weed pile that has since grown to about triple it's size. Our trash collectors will only take away one bag of garden trash per day. At that rate, I'm going to have enough bags to last us till November.

The first bed uncovered!  The whole entire garden has beds established, delineated by brick edges, with walkways in between.  We've gotten two of the beds completely de-weeded, and have planted one bed with tomatoes, the other with zucchine.  We have a smaller bed along the brick wall planted with eggplant peppers and watermelon.

There's lots more work to come down in our "Secret Garden". In the middle there is a lovely section with rose bushes we're working on clearing out, and 3 more large beds that are half-way cleared. I'm  already planning an iris bed along one of the brick walls.

Now you know what I've been keeping busy with.  We are so looking forward to some homegrown vegetables from our own little "Orto".  I think we have too many zucchini plants, we'll be selling some to the fruttivendolo in Sant'Elena!  Or I'll be making LOTS of zucchini bread!

As the season progresses, I'll be posting garden progress.