A Year

This week we will have been in Sicily for exactly one year. It's been a good year. It's been a year full of interesting cultural experiences and wonderful travel. It's been a year full of good food, good wine, and very good olive oil. During our first couple of weeks in Sicily, we took part in a cultural orientation program. At one point the leader of the orientation program, a lively Sicilian guy who has since become one of our friends here, was talking about the production of olive oil in Sicily and encouraging us to see the process first hand in November when families pick and process their olives. And then he said something that was shocking to us. He informed us that his family uses at least 10 liters of olive oil a year. 10 liters! How could that be possible? We liked olive oil and we bought it when we lived in the States. But that meant one bottle that usually lasted us an entire year. Was the guy bathing in his olive oil? 10 liters?!

That was a year ago. Last week for Adam's birthday, one of his gifts was a 5 liter container of our favorite olive oil. We now understand what it means to live in a place where the fresh, local olive oil is so good that you need to have at least 5 liters. Obviously we aren't quite up to the 10 liter standard, but maybe next year?

So here's a visual glimpse of us via our front door: 5 liters of olive oil, the plant stand my Uncle Ron made for us when we were married, the demi-john dumpster treasure,the pots of Sicilian succulents I love (what's not to love about plants that don't need much water and produce lots of babies all on their own?), and the remnants of kids' chalk drawings on our wall. Like I said it has been a good year. A very good first year.