Valle Della Lucania, Pruno, Italy

My experience is hard to express here in the mountains. But here is a try...

I wake up by roosters between 7 and 8am calling me back from my dreams (really crazy dreams by the way)...to urge myself out of bed in the freezing mornings...Heather wakes up first and starts the porridge that we freshly ground a few days ago. We eat in the kitchen, which is also the family living room, the music room, the dining room, the save yourself by the fire room, and the two little girls constantly screaming play room...and its about 15 feet by 15 feet. The other day I had to leap over one driving a little bike between the chairs in order to help bring something to the table from the fire.
I arrived in the evening, after a 30 minute car ride, a 40 minute train ride, a 4 hour bus ride, another hour train ride...and then another 2 hour bus ride...for another 20 minute car ride. It was dark when we arrived and the lady who welcomed me humbled me by her grace. When I woke up in the morning and walked out of my room, my breath was taken away at the sight in front of me. Through the porch, past the old wheelbarrow, the lush green mountain side with orange and yellow trees in a rainy stormy haze, its so expansive.
We get the donkeys every morning and walk them up to their free reign on the mountain side. But when i say take them to the mountain, its not like you are walking an eager dog. They stand there looking you square in the eye saying, look if i get to eat my first meal in the rain you get to stand there waiting and watching...There is a baby named Rocco his stubborn mother Caterina and an older lady Lucern..I think. I got the baby my first day and he decided it was play time and almost bucked me in the stomach 3 times...later on his forth try if it isnt for my catlike reflexes I would still be in bed today, with a bruise the size of a small country. But no worries we like eachother now.
From my first walk through the mountains with the donkeys I wrote...We walked the donkeys through the path to new pasture and everytime I looked up I was breathtaken. In the way that everything stops for that moment, your heart stops, your breath stops, you even cease to exist, expanding over the tree tops, through the distant pastures dotted with sheep and up up up into the foggy clouds covering the mountain tops and then..Blink...my heart beats, Ive found my breath and op...theres my body...being yanked by this stubborn baby donkey.....
We pick them up in the evenings...after they have freedom for the day...The other night we couldnt find them for 2 hours, and we had to bust through crazy thorny bushes tracking their bells...which is impossible because the mountains are ful of herds of cows and goats and sheep...all wearing bells. Its quite romantic gardening with the distance mountain noises all around you....including the rushing river.
but we did find them...and now they know where to meet us so its getting easier to pick them up in the evenings, they are very smart animals!
When we arent with the donkeys Heather and I are planting things in the Synergic gardens, or spiral gardens...or helping in the kitchen...i picked all the kiwis the other day....or what else...we made ravioli as a family the other night, tomorrow we make bread. They make artisinal bread from a special kind of wheat that is rare. That is what they were at Terra Madre for.
Oh by the way...the way I found this farm was when Caitlin and I were traveling by train back into Turin, and didnt know we needed to validate (stamp) our ticket...so the conductor was making us pay again and we couldnt understand eachother, so i asked the kid in front of us if he knew some english who helped translate...we still had to pay it was retarded....but the point is that then we started talking to this kid and he was at terra madre and gave us the info to Angelo who sings while harvesting his wheat...so I emailed him and tada! Here I am.
The people are wonderful. It is amazing to be here. I am not exactly dressed properly bc I said when I left...no Im not going to be in cold places...so its not super comfortable during the day...and the girls are sick and constantly screaming and coughing...cooonstantly...even in their mothers arms, while we are all in the kitchen together packed by the fire to stay warm.
Its a simple life. Rich life, when the neighbor brings fresh cheese over, and the family is all smiling no matter the choas of the children...and the wine is exquisite. Life is good.
I plan to leave soon though and move on to Greece.

lol Angelo just came out to wonder at how fast I type and he said you type like you play the piano, it seems to say.....and he belts out in beautiful singing while his friend accompanies him on the drum walking out from the kitchen...hahaha

Yes the people are wonderful. they speak less english than the farm in Puglia...but Heather an American from Washington translates.
So yes, my hands are scratched, my feet and back are soar, my fingernails are dirty, I havent showered in a week, Im wearing a tshirt, a silk turtleneck, and 2 wool sweaters, and Im still cold, as its pouring rain outside...the girls are screaming in the kitchen, ......but my belly is full, my body is relaxed, chestnuts are roasting on the fire, and my heart is laughing in good company.

Stay warm!!!