Happy Birthday to Me!

As I sit here listening to Italian music, the sun rising over the Adriatic, a few fishermen heading out for a day's work, I ponder a birthday to remember.  Eight years ago it didn't look like birthdays were in my future.

My blessings include the advances of modern medicine.  'Procedures' replace surgeries, injections slow tumor growth.

And so I celebrated another memorable birthday.

The day began with a very special e-card card from my mother.

As long as we have a mother, we will always have a cheerleader in life!  I count her a great blessing.

She shakes her head at her eldest, a vagabond who rarely bothers to store away the suitcase.  

But it really is Mom's fault.  Though her favorite trek takes her as far as her garden, it was she who nurtured a love of reading and far away places.

The best celebrations in life center around the people we want in our lives.  2014 holds no exceptions.

But you're not here to read sappy words, are you?!  You want pictures to feed the wanderlust in you!

The journey to today's celebration started with the friend who delivered me to the aeroporto on a cold winter day in December.

Was that really just a month ago?

Because a few months earlier, I suggested to Laura that we meet in Italy while she spent four months in London.  We have never traveled together.  What a jolly good time we have had!

She was given a heart on her way to the airport.  Some wear their heart on their sleeve, some just hang it right out front.

Here's a lady who throws away clothes to make room in her bag for pasta, orchiette and fusilli, to be precise.  Who could deny her friendship?!

Friends made my birthday and her sendoff stupedous.

Marco and Cristiana did lunch.  Roberto sleeps in the background while his sister Aurora plays at his side.

The table covered by the cloth is that really cool table that you see in the video going around on Facebook in the 400 square foot apartment in New York City.

And that silver cylinder with the handle on the table is part of a Bimby - Thermofix in the States.  Have you seen one?  An amazing appliance that takes the place of 12 appliances!  She prepared the heart shaped bread loaf in it and a wonderful sorbetto made with two lemons picked from their tree.

Marco's parents live on the property. What a kind, hospitable couple.

And a couple of gentle hearted sisters standing in front of another lemon tree.  Nothing sour about these ladies - as you see by the sparkle in their eyes!

And so a new year begins with old and new friends.

Oh!  A sunset? Of course, the sun did set.