Now to the birds...
Archive post March 28, 2019…
Our clocks have lately sprung forward for Daylight Savings Time, the Euro-version. Ore legale in Italiano. The EU wants to eliminate it as a community-wide thing in 2021. Let each country decide to keep it or not. Could be kind of like the entire US has Daylight Savings Time but, Arizona does not. Minor amount of confusion when flying into Phoenix from Denver… two cities in the Western Time Zone. You must flip the hands on your watch either backwards or forwards when you are reminded by the flight attendant of the real time. Here in the EU, they fear confusion. In light of Brexit, immigration and new trade deals with China, they may have a point.
That lost hour of sleep this past Saturday night was a blow to You. He gets so little slumber, what with his commute to & fro the hospital at extraordinary hours. He was not a happy camper while he soaked bread into his cafe latte Sunday AM. His grumbling encouraged me to walk the Canines.
For those Canines, the time change is a boon. Means getting fed at the old stomach clock hour but the real one says differently. I am saved from those two’s emotional explosions of hunger as they notice the ding-dong of the Campanile of Codiponte ringing in the 7 o’clock hour.
I too am saved the terror of that campanile. By the way, it is tops on My List of what to eliminate here in Codiponte. Oh, not the historic bell tower… per l’amore del dio… just its incessant ringing. Instead, with the time change, my repose is gently lifted to wakefulness by the soft musical chirping of birds as the light outside rises towards dawn. Sweet, like a tickle at one’s ear, until I realized the chirping is mostly right above my head! On La Casetta’s facade towards the Aullela river, between the BR & Bath windows and the slowly decaying Medici cornice, are a series of built-in holes. About 10 or 12 of them all the way across. Highrise nests for the swallows! Their arrival at La Casetta is a yearly occurrence. They came earlier this year. Probable inducement of Global Warming? Chissa? I rise from the bed 90% occupied by my two splayed-out Weimaraners, open the double sash window overlooking the riverscape and then duck just as a swallow… beak high, flaps down, wings spread for landing… on a straight-in approach into one of the holes above my early morning perch. Gently, dried brown bamboo leaves and odd bits of twigs flutter onto the stone window sill and down onto the floor too. Home decoration. The morbid beige of bamboo leaves are ever so chic. Might as well have a cozy home, don’t you think? The fall-out has abated somewhat. It was pretty fast & furious last week. Finding the bits & pieces of the swallow’s home improvements are an endearing reminder of the passing of the seasons here at il Poggiolo. Another used to be rains in March but, that has apparently been postponed… we hope not cancelled out-right!
