???? Lacryma Christi del Vesuvio DOC -"????? ??????"

??? ???????? ???????? ??? ? ????????.
????????, Lacryma Christi -"????? ??????".
????? ?????????? ????.

???????, ??? ??? ?????? ?????? ?? ??????? ???????, ???????, ??????, ????? ????? ??????, ??? ???? ?????? ????? ????. ?????? ??? ???????? ????? ????? ?? ????????? ?? ? ??? ???? ? ?????.
"??????? ???, ??????? ? ?????????????? ?????? ??????? ????, ??????? ??????? ???????, ????? ? ??, ????????. ? ???, ??? ????? ????? ???????, ????? ???????? "????? ??????".
(???? ?? ???????? ???????? ?? ??????????? ?????? ?????? ????? ????????????, ??? ?? ???? ??????????, ?? ??????? ??????? ?????? ?????????, ?????? ??? ????? ??????? ???? ???????: ? -????????, ? ?? ????????? ?? ?????? ????.)

????? ??? ????? ?? ??? ???? ???????? ???? ??????.

?????? ? ??? ???????, ??? ????? ? ???? ????????, ?? ? ???????? ? ?????? ??? ??? ????? -? ?????? ????????? ???????? ? ???, ??? ?????????????, - ???? ????? ?? ????? ???? ??? ?? ?????.

Lacryma Christi "Vesuvio" ???? DOC, ??? ???????? Denominazione di Origine Controllata (????????,????????????? ???????? ??????????????).
??? ???????? ????, ??? ???? ??????????? ? ???????????? ????, ??? ?????? ? ????? ????????????, ? ?????? ?? ??????? ????? ?????????.
DOC ???????? ????? ???? ???????? ???????? ? ?????? ?????????, ?????????????? ???????? ????????? ? ???????????? ?????????.
???? ? ???? ???????????? ?????? ??????????????? ?????????? ???????????? ? ????? ???, ??? ????? ? ??????? ???????? ??????-?????????? ? ????????????????? ???????.
? ??? Lacryma Christi ?????????? 12.986 Hl
???? ??????????, ????? ?? ????????????? ?????????? "?????" ??????.

?? ????????? Coda di Volpe, Verdeca, Falanghina e Greco ?????? ????? ???? Lacryma Christi
??????? ???? Lacryma Christi ???????? ?? ?????? Piedirosso, Sciascinoso ed Aglianico
12� ???????? -? ?????? ???. ???? 11�, ?? ????? ???? ??? ????? ?????? ????????.

????? ???? ?????? ???????? ? ?????? ????????? ? ?????? ? ?????.
??????? -? ?????? ? "??????" -??????? ???? ?????????? ????????.
??????? -?????? ? ??????? ?????, ????? ? ??????????.

????????? ?????? ??? ?????? ??????? ??????? - ?.??

?????? ? ???? ???? ???????????? ???????? ?? ?.?? � ??????? ?????????!

??? ????? ?????? ???????, ??????? ?????? ???????? ???????????? ???????????? ? ??????????? ? ??? ???? ???????? ?????? ?? ????????????.

Spring Travel

Greetings, not from the Gunflint Trail, but from Montana! We are currently on a spring trip out west, in search of warmer weather. So far, we haven't found it, but we understand that it hasn't warmed up at home yet, either. I guess that it is just destined to be a cold spring. It is still beautiful country, and we are enjoying it in many ways.

We often are asked why we leave such a wonderful place as Gunflint Lake, to go on vacation somewhere else. I think that the answer lies in that by going away for a short while, we appreciate even more that which we get to see on a daily basis. While in Theodore Roosevelt National Park the other day, Addie sighed, and said that it was her third favorite place in the world. Number one is Gunflint Lake, and number two is Alaska. I can understand that. We all concurred that number one for each of us is, and will always be, Gunflint Lake.

Another reason why we travel now is that we enjoy seeing the trees and forests that other people see. We usually go to remote places, and smaller towns, since we feel at home in those areas moreso than in cities. And it gives us an opportunity to see wildlife that we don't get to see at home. We've enjoyed seeing elk, antelope, mule deer, redtail hawks and several smaller birds on our journey so far. A few years ago, when we were visiting Yellowstone Park in the spring, we saw several folks with spotting scopes out. They were all hoping to catch a glimpse of the timber wolves who live in the park. We wanted to see grizzly bears, hoping that one or two would be starting to wake up so early in the season. No luck for us, but we did get to see a wolf, and in the end, that was pretty exciting, too.

And finally, we enjoy traveling, because we can get a chance to camp, something that we don't usually find time for in the busy summer days. We have a few favorite places that we go to for camping, and often times we are out hiking, too. That is very limited this year, because it is a real challenge for me to hike on a trail right now, thanks to my achilles tendon. But the others have done some, and I know that in the future, I will be back out there tromping the trails, looking for animals and treasures in the wild.

We will be back home in a few days, and my cast will be off shortly after that. Spring cleaning will commence in cabins and spring clean-up will be happening outside, as we prepare to re-open in early May for the spring fishing season. The irises and rhubarb will be starting to sprout through the ground, and the leaves will start to bud out. The same things might happen every year, but I always find it new and exciting.

A bit of Robert Frost

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep"......I love that line of poetry. It's true, too, in that our woods have been dark since I last wrote, but now they are moving back in to the sunshine. The rays are beaming in to the kitchen windows much earlier, and I can feel the warmth in it. With the equinox just two weeks away, we really are coming in to the light.

The month of February will be mostly remembered as cold cold cold. We didn't get much fresh snow in that time, but fortunately didn't lose any either. All winter long, we were able to maintain about a foot or so in the woods, and the ski trail base has been between four and eight inches. The big snowstorm that was predicted for the very end of February unkindly skipped us, dropping only about an inch of new snow. What a disappointment to watch the weather reports and the radar, to see the snow going all over the place, except here. I really was losing faith in the forecasting process. At one point, our forecast said that there was a blinding blizzard happening in Grand Marais at that moment. Greg called the law enforcement center to verify conditions, only to be told that while it was cloudy, nothing else was happening. What has been happening to this winter?

When the big storm for last weekend was predicted, I said that I wasn't counting on it until I was actually counting the inches. My skepticism seemed justified when Thursday rolled around, and nothing happened. It was time for our Winter Tracks Festival on the Gunflint Trail, so we just kept going about our business to get ready for it. In our case, we were setting up a wall tent by the bread oven, so that we could prepare and bake pizzas on Friday afternoon. Greg even put a little woodstove in it, and that afternoon, we enjoyed the company of some friends while having some homebrew in the tent. It was very warm and cozy, even with a strong east wind blowing outside.

When we woke up on Friday, it was looking better. We had a couple of new inches, and that lifted all of our spirits. During the pizza party, big fluffy flakes kept falling, and they would land on the fresh-out-of-the-oven pizzas. No matter--those slices tasted every bit as good in winter as they do in the summer at our weekly pizza bakes. By the time we were finished, several inches had come down, and I was beginning to count. It snowed on into the evening, and then settled down. The sun came out on Saturday and our snow total was around ten inches. It was hard to get a decent spot to measure, thanks to the wind. Our estimate is close.

So now it is very much a winter wonderland outside, and we even added about three inches yesterday. The skiing is fabulous, and the snowshoeing is good, too. People probably can no longer drive on the lake, with all that new snow, but the fishermen are still able to be out there on their snowmobiles. The last report we had on the ice was about three feet thick. Not bad, considering that the lake didn't even freeze until Christmas night. Winter will be with us for a while yet, and that is fine by me.

The miles to go before I sleep has to do with a mishap I had over the weekend. The Winter Tracks Festival had a schedule loaded with many varied activities. On Saturday night, we all went to the dinner and dance at the Gunflint Lodge Conference Center. The music was lively and fun, so we got into the spirit of it all, and had a great time dancing. I learned, however, that I truly am middle-aged when I took one jump too many. I landed on my feet, but managed to rupture my achilles tendon in my left foot. Since then, I have been mostly house-bound, with a big old black plastic cast on my foot. Tomorrow, Greg is taking me to Duluth to have the tendon re-attached. I think that I have lived a charmed life up to this point, as I've only gone to the hospital to have my babies. So I consider myself to be pretty lucky. I probably won't give up dancing, but I will try not to be so wild and crazy about it!

The Heritage Centre

Its half way through the half term holiday and we're all going a little stir crazy. I had to pop in to Barnstaple to go to the post office so I decided to take the children into the Heritage Centre, mostly under protest I should add. I ignored the whines of "Can't we go to Playtime Adventure?" and bribed them with a trip to the cinema tonight instead.

The Heritage Centre is situated on The Strand, the road that runs along the river Taw. The area directly in front of it is home to the Millenium Mosaic which charts Barnstaples history back 1000 years to when it was made a borough by Athlestan. It is generally also home to large groups of skateboarders, but the weather today must have driven them away.

Inside the centre the tale of Barnstaple's history is also told, starting in Anglo-Saxon times, focusing quite a lot on Tudor times, mentioning briefly the Civil War and ending in the 18th Century with Barnstaple born playwright John Gay. Adult tickets are �3.50, children �2 and under 7's go free. The children were given a quiz on a clipboard and a pencil to record their answers but finding these answers involved listening to the recording of the models telling their stories and once they'd pressed the button to start the recording they generally lost interest in this. Much more interesting was the task of looking for the 15 white plastic mice that were hidden in the exhibits. When we got to the end and had only found 10 we had to go round again. We still only managed to find 13.

Other points of interest were remaking the broken pottery plates magnetised to the wall, dressing up in costumes, and doing a brass rubbing. By the time we'd finished my nine year old daughter said, "OK this isn't boring after all".

Donkeys in the Cold

The temperature is finally hovering around zero, the wind has calmed, and the stars are out in full force. It's a beautiful night on Gunflint Lake. I just walked up the hill from stoking the sauna, and the Seven Sisters, Pleides, were looking down at me. The Milky Way is streaking the sky from the northwest to the southeast, and my favorite, the Big Dipper, is hanging just north of where we put the dock in the lake in the summertime. The Big Dipper is my favorite, because it shines right outside my bedroom window each night, and I like to check in with it before I hit the hay. Whenever I travel, I can look at the Dipper and know that it is in the same position out in front of the lodge, no matter where I am.

We've been caught in the throes of the big chill the last week. In addition to low temperatures, the wind has been blowing daily. Sometimes it is blowing so hard across the lake that it obscures our view of Canada, filling the air with snow. The leftover artwork of this action has made some attractive drifts and lines on the lake, and our big drift behind the beach is growing. Sunday morning we saw the lowest temperature so far this winter, when the thermometer read minus 33. Fortunately, the cabins have been staying toasty warm, the lodge feels cozy, and the pipes have been holding their own against this snap (knock on wood!).

The donkeys, on the other hand, have been only tolerating, not enjoying, the conditions. They will come out to eat each morning and evening, but the rest of the day, it is all they can do to stick their furry noses out the door of the barn. Jethro has plenty of heft and fur to keep him comfortable, and once it started to warm up some, he would make his way to the sunniest spot in the pasture, to soak up the sunbeams. Moses is still on the lean side, and when we were down in the twenties and thirties below, Greg decided to help him out a bit by putting an old sleeping bag over his back. He wears it like a noble war horse, even though it is more ratty-looking than regal. But it has made a big difference for the frosty shivering burro. Greg took it off recently when it started to get warmer (at least in the donkey realm), and Moses got along just fine without it. Maybe he's really just bored with all of this fussing and bother, and we are interpreting it as appreciation. At any rate, I do wonder at times if they find this weather preferable to the heat of the summer, and all the flies that come with it.

For someone who needs a winter project, when the weather has made outside work next to impossible, what is the next best thing? A home improvement project, of course! So it is that we find ourselves amidst the joy and challenge of a remodel happening right here, once again in the lodge building. We decided that it was time to sort out all the years' of accumulation of stuff upstairs, in our living quarters. Greg and I moved in to the lodge with Robert, about nineteen years ago. Since then, we added two kids and lots of stuff. It probably is true that people should move every ten years or so, because that keeps the saved possessions to a minimum. We didn't do that, so now we are busy sifting, sorting, pitching and throwing, and when we can, we are recycling, too. For example, I have a large white plastic bag full of stuffed animals that will go to our resale shop at the local recycle center, and several boxes of books that will be dropped off at the library, for the used book sale in August. Clothes no longer in service will also go to the recycle center. It is good to have a place like this to pass on these useful items. By the same token, the resale shop is also a great place for us to do our shopping for newer things. Greg has found several excellent bargains there for his wardrobe. But back to the remodel. The original plan was to re-do the bathroom. Naturally this has turned into a sequential vortex that included removing the old carpeting in the bedrooms (orange shag, anyone?), deciding to move a wall, adding a new wall or two, and down the road, painting of the recently exposed ceiling and beams. I was warned about this effect a few years ago....What seems to be a simple, straightforward plan will morph into a whole new realm of ideas, and take on a life of its own.......So I remind myself amid the chaos that the outcome will be wonderful.

For me, the perfect winter project when the days are cold is something knitted. I get to see progress at regular intervals, I don't need to make a mess before it gets better (except in the case of a big old tangle in the ball of yarn), and I can pick nice bright colors to work with, which often helps in this season. But at the risk of turning this into a knitting blog, rather than nature notes, I'll stop there!

Saunton

Yes, I know I've written about this before, but its worth another mention. Today was a glorious day and as we haven't been anywhere for a while (the whole of January in fact) we thought we'd stretch our legs. It must have been a good idea because well over one hundred other people had the same one. There were loads of them on the beach, surfers, dog-walkers, parents with children clutching nets, etc. And it could've been April the temperatures were so good - brilliant sunshine and not a breath of wind.

Our main reason for choosing Saunton, and not somewhere I haven't blogged about yet, was The Sands cafe. Owned by the hotel you can see in the photo, and situated at the end of the car park, it serves the most wonderful hot chocolates. Unfortunately it's shut until March (this wasn't the case last winter) so my children were a little disappointed. However, there is a little kiosk next to the beach shop between the car park and the beach, and they serve hot chocolate and hot doughnuts, and it was so lovely no one minded sitting outside on a picnic bench (see new blog for proof - link opposite.)

PS. Car parking in winter is a mere �2!