Enshrined

In Italy it is common to find little shrines here and there along the way.

This shrine of the Madonna and Child Jesus was taken in Florence. I simply love the way it's positioned above the street with a staircase leading up to a nearby door.

The balcony above is also of interest.

Click on the image to enlarge.

This little shrine was found along one of the winding roads in Brusson, a little town (famous for its ski resorts) located about 1,388 meters above sea level. Its size is about 12 x 8 inches.

It was so small I almost missed it.

The photograph below gives a better idea of its size.

Have a Happy and Blessed October :)

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...