The Soldier with the Musket

Meet Henry.

The soldier with the musket.

He drinks sherry.

He loves a racket.

See the blue flask? Yep, that's where Henry stores his sherry.

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This toy soldier belongs to my little brother. He begged my dad to buy it from a flea market in Moncalieri. It's quite heavy. Well-made. I took photos of Henry here when my brother was away in school to avoid any objections :)

P.S. I named him Henry. My brother knows nothing about this =D

Almond Cantuccini

Famous in Florence and Tuscany

A delight with coffee or tea

My Italian teacher came by today, and together with my mom and I, made this crunchy yummy biscuit.

Ingredients:

150 grams of sugar

75 grams of butter

2 eggs

250 grams of self-raising flour

lemon and orange zest

50 grams of diced almonds

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After mixing together all the ingredients,

We spilt the batter into two,

Laid them out as two long rectangles on a tray,

Baked them for 20 minutes (200˚ C),

Took them out for slicing,

Popped them back in for another 10 minutes

and they were done.

Earth Sky Water

Just three or so days ago, I tried coaxing photoshop to perform an action, but it told me flatly that there was not enough memory. So I had to abandon the project I was working on and do some housekeeping...i.e. throw out stuff. And by definition,"stuff" meant photos. So I ended up running through my iphoto library deleting any photos I felt were a complete lost. Mission heartbreak. No photo is a complete lost... even the horrid ones can be used for their texture or something right? Anyway, in the midst of parting with gigabytes of memories, I found some photos I thought I'd like to post up here.

These photos were taken in Chendering. I had posted up some in a previous post. But here are a few more...

In this photo, the earth, the sky and water meet. The photo below is an edited version of the original. I adjusted the levels in the photo to make it almost white. I thought it looked dreamlike.

Three coconut (extremely tall) trees. I liked the way they reach up into the sky. The photo above has been edited to mute its colors and add an antique look. The original colour of the sky can be seen in the photo below (I wish the car wasn't in the way...)

I love this photo. I added a colour filter to it. The little boy with the bucket is my 11 year old brother :)

Seashells delighting the beach...

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p.s. I cleared up about 8GB that day.

It Isn't Just Kids Stuff

Since posting photos of other people's art in my previous post, I decided to do so again in this one :) We could all use a little (or a lot) of inspiration from all the creatives out there. These photos were taken in May in Moncalieri. The brilliant and creative artists behind these beautiful works of art are but kindergartners.

The Candy Shoe

The Pasta Shoe

Primavera (Spring)

There's Daddy, Mommy, and the Twins...

Graffiti

Illicit but art is art.

For the paper plane and boats (not fully visible), the artist actually stuck on newspaper to the wall...

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The first four were taken in front of the lido entrance near my place. Whereas the other two were found in Parco Valentino.

Addicted to Flowers

After scoffing down two egg and cheese sandwiches, feelings of guilt started to seep into the forefront of my mind. To remedy the situation and appease the angry little voice in my head, I took a long walk... to Parco Valentino (my favourite place to hang out with nature - yeah I've mentioned this before).

While the intention of the walk was to exercise, the outcome was this:

Click on images to enlarge

So much for the idea of exercise... I hardly think stopping every five minutes or so to take photos can be called a workout! Sigh...

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Begin Falling

It's okay to fall.

Can one have so much pride?

Even nature in all its bounty,

Knows how to be humble.

The beautiful gems in its hair,

Must curl up and die.

Its virescent dress of jade,

It unfastens slowly,

As falling leaves fading away.

And even it knows how to cry,

With its showers of rain from above.

And its warm smile soon turns cold.

But there is beauty there in its tears,

Refreshing and sweet is its waters,

Falling gently from above.

And even as its warmth pales to a chill,

Its fading dress strewn across the earth gives out warm hues of red and gold,

that can only bring a smile to my face.

Yes, it's okay to fall.

I fell in love with the colours :) They look like yellow stars.

Above: Leaves in the midsts of browning.

I took these photos because I found the roots of the trees in these pics so interesting. When I look at the bottom photo I immagine two lovers embracing...Hmmm

Below: Dead Flowers. Sad, yet pretty in a dark way.

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Photos taken in Torino this September. Most of which taken in Parco del Valentino...my favourite place to hang out. The first photo is similar to one taken for a previous post. Not the same leaf, but the same shoes >.< I've been wearing for over a year now.