One of the things I love best about Sicily is buying fresh fruit and vegetables from the trunks of cars parked haphazardly on the side of the road or dusty little trucks which seem to suddenly appear over night filled with peaches, melons, onions, and whatever else might be in season. I'll happily choose fruit from a trunk over the fancy, waxy stuff that gets showered by fake rainstorms and glows under florescent lights in big American superstores.
This was the scene in our driveway last night: kids, chalk, a hose, and a bottle of dish detergent. It wasn't planned. It wasn't an activity I had read about. It wasn't one they had seen on-line and wanted to try. It was good old messy, concocting, creating fun. The kind of thing that is often sparked by boredom and ends up evolving into something pretty cool. It started with a hose fight and turned into a colorful scene on our driveway which is still there today (it turns out chalk mixed with water and dab of liquid soap turns into paint). There wasn't any bickering or teasing. And I didn't do a darn thing except sit back in the lawn chair and read my book. Like the garden, I had big plans for our summer. I envisioned daily art and science projects and perhaps even an art group for older kids in the neighborhood. But none of that really happened. In fact, we haven't done any "projects" all summer. And I actually think that's been a good thing. There is a lot to be said for boredom induced creativity and taking a break from structure. We only have about a week and half until school starts and I can honestly say that I am sad to see summer coming to an end.
I had such high hopes for our summer garden. We started out with zucchini, tomatoes, yellow watermelons, cucumbers, beans, green beans, parsley, basil, grapes, sunflowers, and zinnias. All was going along well. We started harvesting cukes and tomatoes. We had baby watermelons growing and tons of zuchinni blooms. And then we took our trip to England in what turned out to be a time of record setting temperatures. Thank goodness I hired one of our babysitters to water while we were gone, but sadly it still wasn't quite enough. Things were pretty fried when we got back. And then things continued to go wrong. Adam accidentally cut down the watermelon vines and the cukes while weed whacking and in a cruel development the access to our back yard was cut off last week due some exterior painting. And so our summer garden has taken a serious beating. Happily we still have tomatoes. Lots of red, juicy jewels which seem to keep going despite all of the set-backs. Thank goodness for tomatoes. Perhaps that's all we'll plant next summer. Headed out the door to water, prune, and try to coax some our other plants back to life. What's growing in your garden this summer?
Dartmoor National Park came to my attention several years ago with this article.At the time, I remember thinking it would be so cool to do some letterboxing in the area where it originated, but I didn't really think it would happen. And then when we started planning our trip to England, I dug out the article and started trying to figure out if it was possible. Turns out it is a little more challenging to get on-line information about letterboxes at Dartmoor than I had anticipated. 
Actually, searching for letterboxes in the rest of England was also challenging. I just assumed that the birth country of letterboxing would be easy and similar to the on-line searching that we do when we are in the States. I eventually became so frustrated that I returned to that original article and decided to contact the author, Carol Rifka, directly. Thanks to the power of google searching I was able to track her down and here's the advice she gave me. Since it was so helpful, I thought I would just go ahead and share it word for word:Hi Lucia,And Carol's advice was "spot-on" (Thank you, Carol and hope you are having fun in Tuscany!). We went the kid friendly route of just showing up and searching. Our first stop was the Haytor visitor center where the park ranger recommended some hiking areas surrounding Haytor and Bonehill Rocks.
Nice to hear from you and glad you found the article a good reference! Yes, Dartmoor letterboxing is quite different than American letterboxing. Both easier and more difficult and, well, kind of strange. There are a lot of unofficial letterboxes on Dartmoor. Usually these are placed by kids or families. You can basically just let your kids look for these at the more popular places on Dartmoor--Hound Tor (highly recommended for kids, rock scrambling etc.), Haytor, Bonehill Rocks etc. These are all on the east side of the moor. There are lots of boulders and big rock piles with nooks and crannies where people hide boxes. You'll see what I mean when you get there. You don't need clues and it's ideal for younger kids because in the course of normal exploring and peeking around they're bound to find a box or two or more. The downside is that as those boxes are unofficial and not particularly well hidden they can often be wet or missing the stamp. It's luck of the draw, but ideal for younger kids.
If you want to get more serious and get out the compass and maps (you'll want/need the Ordnance Survey map OL 28) you'll have to contact the Letterboxing 100 club in writing and buy a copy of their Catalogue of Dartmoor Letterboxes. It's all a bit weird and very "secret society", and I have to say, we've only really done a few of those official boxes. They're nicer boxes than the ones you just stumble across and there is an actual feeling of accomplishment when you find them, so worth doing I'd say. The clues aren't as "fun" as I think the American clues are. They're just compass and map directions with maybe reference to a land feature. The Ordnance Survey maps are very very detailed, so you can find even the smallest landmark on there.
Here's a couple links that you mind find useful...
***Dartmoor National Park letterboxing info: http://www.dartmoor-npa.gov.uk/index/visiting/vi-enjoyingdartmoor/vi-letterboxing.htm
***Letterbox 100 club: http://www.userfriendly-devon.co.uk/100club/
Keep your fingers crossed for good weather. The last couple summers here have been abysmal. Oddly enough we're going to be in Italy for most of August. Tuscany, just outside Florence. I know Sicily is quite a ways from Tuscany, but any general Italy tips would be much appreciated!
All the best,
Carol
We didn't find any boxes on Haytor, but our first letterbox was actually at the ice cream truck at the base of Haytor Rock. While waiting for our Devon cream cones, we just happened to mention to the driver that we were hoping to find some letterboxes. He got a big grin on his face and pulled out a box from under the counter. 
After that fun and suprising discovery, we headed to Bonehill Rocks where we hit the jackpot. Box after box crammed into nooks and crannies. We were giddy with excitement. As Carol mentioned some were in better shape than others and sadly most of them were store bought and not hand carved, but we have never experienced anything quite like this. We found over twenty boxes in less than half an hour!
Snap Circuits and Flower Soup are daily activities around our house this summer. What's keeping the hands around your house busy?
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?!
Bits and pieces of daily life, nomadic rambles, pickled cravings, piles of books, and a furry dog. Cajun, Jewish, Taiwanese, American family on the move.
In addition to loving the blue doors we found on a little, dusty street in Urubamba, we also enjoyed: lunch at Kaia , ...
