First Day

First day of first grade. Early morning: holding his bus pass, twisting his hair, waiting at the bus stop and fussing at me to stop taking pictures. Afternoon: bouncing off the bus,hugging me tight, and reporting it was a pretty good day.

More Prickly Surprises

We saw a hedgehog today. Sadly, it was roadkill. I had no idea there were hedgehogs here. Hope we get to see a live one next time. The kids and I have really been enjoying all of the new wildlife. Magpies everywhere. Migrating martins who built a dirt nest on the top of our house. Bats at sunset. Sheep. Lots of sheep. We hear their bells early in the morning and watch them cross the fields (and sometimes hold up traffic on the small roads). Lots of butterflies and bees right now. Lots of stray cats and dogs. And horses. Earlier this week we were taken to a beautiful horse farm down the road. We have been back twice in the past couple of days. More about that later.

As I was writing this post, poor Noah came screaming into the house with his first bee sting. A very unwelcome prickly surprise.

Prickly

One of the most surprising aspects of Sicily is the overabundance of cacti and it seems that we are arriving at the peak time for prickly pears. Last week we had our first visit to the Catania market and it turned into an adventurous lesson in learning how to peel and eat these prickly, sweet treats...very carefully. After peeling back the scary parts, the reward is similar to biting into a juicy melon with large seeds (just swallow them). Very refreshing on hot, dusty Sicilian days. In Etna's Shadow is turning out to be great guide as we start to explore all of the different Sicilian offerings. Can't recommend it enough. Seriously a wonderful book and makes me wish we had had something similiar when living and traveling in Asia. Grocery stores and markets are always my favorite spots when exploring a new place. Lots of markets to explore here. Loving all of the fresh fruit and veggies and don't get me started on the European chocolate aisle (how the heck does Hershey's stay in business?).