September Orchids Bloom

9/20/2018 is our first BCOS (Bucks County Orchid Society) meeting this season. I only have two blooming orchids to show and compete at the show table (Divided to two groups: the window sill growers and green house growers). My orchids collection has been down sized a great deal, because of my busy schedule for Ikebana work, and I paid less attention to my poor orchids.  

Cat. " Lady of the night"

Cat. "roman holiday" another bud forming

One fade, another one bloom but smaller flower

Ikebana Class for September

The Main Line Sogetsu Study Group resumed our Ikebana year and started in September. I am so glad that Hata Sensei is looking good and energetic as usual.  

We continued studying the basic lessons interspersed with freestyle and creative arranging.(9/17/2018)

Lesson 1: Variation No.6  Horizontal Style Moribana or Nageire

My arrangement Nageire ( Burning bush and Mum/ ceramic)

 Lesson 2: Variation No.7  Floating arrangement

Hata Sensei's demo arrangement

My arrangement: Ivy and Mum / ceramic

One of classmate's arrangement

  Lesson 3: Seasonal Plant Materials, (Autumn) book 5-1

Hata Sensei's Demo arrangement

My arrangement: Magnolia, bittersweet, Mum and some green

Time to Say Ciao (bye) - My Thought

Our family vacation trip has ended. It's time to say good by to Italy! Even though my grandchildren said they didn't want to go home to America. Everyone loved Italy, the town Todi, the house, the pool, and all the sightseeing trips. I am so grateful that everybody got along very well, were cheerful, loved and cared for each other.
The weather was perfect! It's hot during the day but cool at night. We didn't need air conditioning because this house was built hundreds years ago with very thick walls. So, it's cool in Summer and warm in Winter. We cooked several times in house, it has commercial kind of kitchen, well equipped. We ate out a lot times after sightseeing, I think we had enough real Italian food like prosciutto, all kind of pastas, truffle oil dish ....and wine.
Umbria, the place we chose was full of ancient history. My husband loves history, he helped me to write each subject's history behind it. I truly appreciate his patience.
Although August is a peak season for travelers, the places we visited and did sightseeing were not crowded at all. (Only in Rome and London, airports were so crowded, it's jammed). The weather was hot but not as hot as here. It's gorgeous there!
We all are glad to be home. And back to real world! Until next time. (8/26/2018)

Long private driveway to the house up on the hill

My two daughters ( they are 10 years apart )

 

We saw many Sunflower fields, almost end of season

Our house keeper (next to my grandson) cooked for us twice

Family Vacation - Perugia (8)

Perugia is the capital of Umbria province which was the last city we visited. This city was founded by Etruscan 6th century BC and fell to Romans in 310 BC and given the name Perusia. During middle age, the city was racked by many internal feuding and external invasions. In 1538 the city was incorporated into papal state and under papal control for 3 centuries. Eventually this city was united with other Umbria towns, became part of kingdom of Italy in 1860. Now, it is a beautiful modern city in a valley and hilltop of old historic city combined.
Perugia is also famous for its Italian chocolate brand named Baci, which means Kiss in English. So, we went to visit the Perugia chocolate factory to see how the chocolate was produced, and test many different kinds of chocolate. The kids were so excited and had handfuls of free samples. It's worth a trip. After that we drove from the valley going up to the mountain. The building structures in the valley are tall, modern and pretty, and the streets are clean. We found an indoor parking lot and walked 55 steps up to the entrance of an interesting modern tunnel, and took 6 very long escalators through the ancient castle to go up the street level of old mountain top city center. We strolled along the square to see museo archeologico nazionale dell' Umbria and palazz(palace) dei Priori and Duomo( big church) and famous Fontana Maggiore. (Marble fountain). Unfortunately we had no time to visit the palace and cathedral to see their arts pieces. Being late afternoon by then, we decided to have dinner in the street cafe, and at the same time, cerebrated my son-in-law and grandson's birthday. (8/24/2018)

modern cosmopolitan building in valley

converted from ancient castle, the path way to go up to street level

escalator exit through this medieval building

old city square ( two daughters and I )

tunnel to escalator 

alley down to many stores

San Lorenzo Duomo ( cathedral) of 15th century

palazzo dei Priori built 1293-1443

Mable Fontana Maggiore built 1275-1278

sala dei notari ( assembly house for nobility ) built 1290s

Duomo Gothic doorway

2 Perugia griffin above the plate

street cafe in evening

we had dinner here, the restaurant is inside alley 55 steps
below street level   

restaurant inside the alley

medieval building

Family Vacation-San Marino(7)

My other two older children's families went to Florence today. We had been there before, and besides my husband showed more interesting about San Marino.  It's about three hours away from our home base. So, we and the younger daughter and her husband went together to San Marino, a small mountain-top independent country surrounded by Italy. Because it is far away deep in the mountains, not too many international tourists know about this city state. It was founded in AD 301 as Republic of San Marino, the oldest sovereign state in Europe. It is only 24 sq miles in size with population of 33,600. Its constitution was written in Latin in late 16th century, its independence was recognized by the papacy then. It is among the wealthiest countries in the world in terms of GDP per capita. The country's economy mainly relies on banking, finance, tourism, and industry. This country is a member of United Nations but not a member of European Union, although using euro currency. I did not see any foreign embassy or immigration office in the city. The tourist office stamped our passport not for immigration issue but for souvenir purposes and charged us 5 euro. I guess it is part of the government income. We parked the car on a 2nd level parking lot and walked along the medieval streets of 3rd, 4th, 5th levels, then went up to the 6th level to see clifftop castle and towers. On the castle we saw the Adriatic sea on the east side. Below the city, you see many far away houses and mountains, it was a spectacular sight. It is a beautiful country. (8/23)

welcome to San Marino

City gate

 

tourist office center 

monument of speech to freedom

far view of Adriatic sea on east side