A Mediterranean Sunset......Moment by Moment

I can hardly believe we only have 3 days left here in Sicily! We are making the most of our time left here :) We have made such wonderful friends here....really they are more like family! They will all be missed so much :)

This week some of the ladies helped me celebrate my birthday....getting closer to the big 40! It was a beautiful and relaxing day. My friend, Tonya, hosted the celebration at her home. She made an awesome cake :) It was very sweet. I enjoyed spending time with friends and watching an incredible sunset!!



Here are a couple of pictures from the party and then pictures taken in Tonya's yard and finally....... enjoy the amazing sunset as it takes place over the Mediterranean Sea.



















What an amazing Creator God is :)

Exploring Favignana

Did you have a good weekend? I hope so!

We ended up only doing one of our boat adventures this weekend. We were going to take a catamaran boat out of San Vito Lo Capo Friday night. It was a 2 hour ride from 7:30 - 9:30pm to watch the sunset on the Mediterranean. It was cancelled due to wind. We tried the same thing last weekend and that was cancelled because of wind also so........

Sunday morning we got up early and caught the 7:05am boat out to Favignana Island. It's one of the 3 Egadi Islands we see from Marsala. The water was a little rough on the way out but the return trip was smooth.

We rented a car and toured a good part of the island. There are tufa (stone) quarries all over the island. One of the nicest ones is grouped by Cala Rossa. Cala Rossa, a rocky bay, gets it's name from all the blood that was in the water in that area during the Punic Wars.
We had fun climbing around and exploring. The water was so blue and clear.

The church in the town was very pretty. The walls were painted a soft yellow with white trim. It's not a big town but we walked around and then wandered down by the marina. I love looking at the little fishing boats. They're painted in such cheery colors.

The weather here has been wonderful. A few days have been sticky humid but then it's been broken up by cooler less humid days. We haven't been running the AC the last couple days. There's such a nice breeze that comes through our patio doors.

Thursday is supposed to get HOT. Friday even HOTTER. High 90's. I'm used to 100* or more in Utah but it's a very dry heat.

Well, I'm off to pack some more. We have a little over a week left here in Sicily.

Have a good week! Be adventureous....go see something you haven't seen before....try something new!

Kittens, Water & Olive Wood.......

Ben and I spent some time at our friend Tonya's house this week..........of course I had to take pictures to share :)

Ben holding a kitten ( I think about 3-4 weeks old ). The momma had 3 babies...2 darker and 1 yellow/orange.


I love yellow/orange cats. My first cat, Sunny, was yellow/orange and he died when I was 10.....it broke my heart. I loved him!



I never was a huge fan of the hibiscus flower until this summer here in Sicily. They are everywhere and in such pretty colors! How did I miss the beauty of these flowers before?


These chairs are in Tonya's backyard and belong to the landlord. They caught my eye....with a fresh coat of white paint and maybe a distressed finish they'd be perfect in my flower garden area back home! :)


This is Tonya's patio....the view is AMAZING!


Ben wearing an Irish hat and being silly :)


Pretty.....


A zoomed in view from Tonya's patio


Ben and I went to the base beach this week with Tonya, and her 5 year old son Jack. The water was great and you get an awesome view of the Egadi Islands from the beach. The day we were there the islands were postcard quality with a beautiful, blue haze. ( below )




I love cracked and peeling paint...it adds such character. This picture was taken on my friend Carol's porch. I promised I would do a blog post on her villa before I leave.
Yesterday Carol had a coffee get together to welcome a new lady to our group. Her husband has been here longer than DJ but her and the kids just recently arrived. Carol also invited a local lady, Rosanna, to come and bring her items that are made from olive wood so we all could shop. ......and shop we did!!!!!



The olive trees here in Sicily are protected so they ship olive wood from Tunisia ( a country in North Africa and southwest of Sicily) where they have a surplus of olive trees.
Items made from olive wood will basically last forever if taken care of by rubbing down with olive oil when the wood shows signs of drying out.
The grains are so beautiful!

Rosanna is an example of the warm hospitality the Sicilians have. She was delighted that we all showed such an interest in the olive wood. ( and not just because she made money off of us!! :) :)
Rosanna and myself standing by some of her olive wood items....I bought enough to make her visit worth while!! :)


Here are a few of the pieces I bought.....DJ likes the olive wood as much as I do :)


Summertime has brought a colorful array of old Fiats to the streets of Marsala. We love them! You see them in the winter too but there's alot more on the streets lately.


Enjoy your weekend!! We are doing more adventuring this weekend....both include boats and water :) You know I'll share pictures with you!!

Blessings.

Beautiful San Vito Lo Capo

I love the color and texture of this building against the blue sky.....

Saturday we went to San Vito Lo Capo with friends. The weather was warm but there was a nice breeze on the beach. The water is so beautiful in San Vito :) I will miss that when we go home in a couple weeks. ( It's so hard to believe we only have about 2 weeks until we go home! What an experience it has been!! )

We rented 4 wheel bicycles and rode around town window shopping. We did some real shopping too. We asked the owner at one store if she knew where the olive wood store was. She said she sold items made from olive wood but usually brought them to the shop after 6pm. We told her we were from Marsala and so she called her husband and 15 minutes later he brought in 2 boxes with olive wood items for us to look at. We bought enough between the 3 of us to make it worth her while!

I fell in love with the olive trees here in Sicily as soon as I saw my first one:) The wood has beautiful grains in it. Here's what I bought....



Thursday I'll have a chance to buy more olive wood items from another lady in the area who has a really nice selection.

Ben enjoyed getting in the water Saturday at San Vito as always!!

DJ and I walked to Mail Boxes Ect. this morning and bought bubble wrap and some boxes so we can start packing. Some things like my white china made here in Italy will be shipped home. I don't want to take chances with it bubble wrapped in a suitcase!

The girls are doing well back in the States. They are actually in Mexico right now with their youth group from church on a mission trip. They are building a parsonage for the pastor of a church and doing Vacation Bible School for the local kids. This is their 3rd year of going to Mexico and they love it!

Well, just wanted to say hi and share more pictures :) Take a moment this week to count your many blessings! No matter what's going on in your life there are ALWAYS blessings to be found....sometimes tucked here and there and often right in front of us!! :)

Honoring the Saints

June 23rd was St. John the Baptist day. The Catholic church is very important here in Sicily. There are many festivals honoring the various saints in the Catholic church.

The Church of St. John the Baptist is just down the street from our apartment so I walked down to watch the procession.
There were a few banners, a statue of St. John the Baptist, a music section and then all the people walking. The procession walked through many streets in town before returning to the church.

Poster with the festival schedule


On my way to St. John the Baptist Church


There are always vendors selling toys and snacks to the kids....Do you see the cop on the motorcycle? Their nickname is the Lollipop Police because of the hand held sign shaped like a lollipop they carry in their boots. They will stand or park along roads and wave the "lollipop" to pull people over.


Waiting for the procession to start


Banners



Procession moving out from the church



Statue of St. John the Baptist


Music section


St. John the Baptist Church


Tail end of procession


People on their balconies watching the procession

Glimpses of Sicily

I hope you had a wonderful 4th of July! I love all things patriotic and really missed going to Huntsville for the fireworks this year. It's been our family tradition since 2004....next year!

Friday we went to Mozia Island to help a friend, Alissa, celebrate her birthday and then went to lunch with her family and some other friends.

Saturday night we went to a 4th of July BBQ with the guys and their families that DJ works with. It was nice but we didn't stay very late as it was so humid. Just standing around there was sweat rolling down our backs and face.

Today we took our friends Dave and Sue to a picnic area in the Scorace Forest out by Fulgatore. We discovered it in March when my parents were here. It was a lot less humid up there than here in Marsala so lunch was enjoyable. It's very pretty and woodsy up there with picnic tables scattered through the forest.
Even though it was 90* Ben still had fun building a small fire in a fire ring! :)

We stopped and took pictures on the way home. Sicily has such beautiful countrysides. It's hard to capture in a photo the absolute rugged beauty of this island.

I enjoy trying to give you glimpses into Sicily so there are more photos in the PhotoStream.

Have a WONDERFUL week. Ben and I will be going to Disio Resort a couple days this week and the Base Beach trying to stay cool!!

Let Freedom Ring!

Happy 4th of July!!

My favorite holiday next to Thanksgiving.........
I hope you have a wonderful day celebrating our great country and independence!

Take time to remember the many people who have fought and died for us to be able to celebrate today.
Above all I am grateful to God who our Founding Fathers looked to for guidance and wisdom.