Visitors

Saturday morning dawned clear and bright. It was so clear that we could see the mountain range at the end of Vale Stucky - normally we don't see them through the haze and their cloud cover.

The seasons here seem to move softly from one to the next.  They vary only by degrees - difference in moisture and temperature and by what is flowering in the forest.  We are in rainy season - days - 24 hour days of fog, clouds, and heavy rain.  The cut-a-ways along the roads begin to show signs of slippage.  Lanes close, Rota 116 concession directing traffic as they attempted to keep the roads open. Then on Thursday night we had heavy winds and not only did the Internet connection stop working for nearly 4 days, but the rains seem to have stopped. Well no, not the rain but the days of heavy rain.  Now we are having bright warm days until about 3 in the afternoon then the clouds begin to build for a heavy-duty thunderstorm around 6 in the evening.

So we are now, definitely, in Summer.

 

I don't know if it is a Brazilian custom, or Latino, or Machnizh family but on Saturday we were hosts for an engagement party for Camillo's oldest granddaughter. This is definitely not something common among the Americans I know.  Just like a full wedding, there was a ring ceremony, a cutting of a cake ceremony and family meals, (definitely Machnizh Italian family custom) family photos and a lot of laughter.

This is Valentina - the soon to be newlyweds' new puppy.  Besides being allowed up on my sofa by the proud parents - which I would never have allowed if I had been in the room - (they took proud photos with my camera so I knew)   She was a big hit and most the time a real lady. I wonder how well she will do in their new and small apartment when she is no longer a cute fuzz ball but is a full grown golden retriever.

While in the kitchen cooking while the rest of the family was celebrating, Camillo yelled for me to come see the butterfly - I will say bug and suspect a moth not a butterfly - but I have no real knowledge of that to back it up. He was a good 5 inches through the wings. see the tile he landed on - a six inch tile. (in cm of course)   His camouflage looks somewhat like Valentina doesn't it?

The baby birds

On Friday, Camillo and I went to the fish market west of Centro Nova Friburgo and bought a Namorado (just like boyfriend). It was a good sized fish and rumored to be good for MUQUECA. On Saturday, Terazinha our neighbor from Bahia cooked lunch for us….

Fish/ red and yellow peppers/cherry tomatoes / onion/ lete de coco and a touch of dende oil and a pinch of salsa, Served with rice and forofa, caipirinhas and smiling faces.

While sitting in the dining room at Terazinha’s, a bird kept flying onto the patio and zooming back out. She (they including the father) had built a nest just outside the window and they were feeding the babies. I got some photos – not exceptional – but I was thrilled and totally entertained throughout the complete meal.

"blinded by the light"

GringoGene (http://expatbrazil.wordpress.com/) has made several comments to me about how ‘dark and dreary Nova Friburgo’ is. Well it is. I have no argument there. The summer, or the rainy season and its days upon days of clouds and fog and monsoon like downpours can bring your spirits down – that is for sure. BUT! when you wake up one morning and the sun IS shining, the air is clear and bright (the birds are squawking in the attic), the sunlight is the most glorious site you can see. Course if you've driven up here for a 3 or 4 day weekend to escape Rio’s heat and noise and you have to spend all the whole time in the pousada (B&B), watching the TV’s farmer’s channel because cable TV (local basic channels only) is the only thing working – No cell phone service in these mountains and Internet service is down after most heavy rains – IF you are lucky the electricity will stay on so you can relax and watch TV or play cards with your kids or 'whatever'. If you live up here, though, you know that if you can hold out for the inevitable you will end up with 2 or 3 hours or maybe even a day of being ‘blinded by the light’

Organization - Tags and other issues

No pictures today, today is a clean house day and I have a lot of that to do. Aparently I have not been very good at tagging (labeling) my blogs in a way that will make sense to you, my reader or to those searching information about Brasil and therefore finding my blog by accident.

I have been putting tags such as aggressive green in Brasil which has a lot of meaning to me, but may not help you find anything if you are searching..... Camillo's father came to visit a long time ago and as he stepped off the plane said, 'the greens in Brasil are so aggressive'. Being from Italy, a country of the drab gray-green of an olive tree, and the light browns of limestone clifts, the colors of Brasil are agressive. So I used this tag (label) when I was writing about the forest, about color, about landscapes and as I looked back, aggressive thoughts and a hodge-podge of other entries. Well it must have made a lot of sense at the time. (I'm sorry!)

Over the past few days I have tried to go back and edit the blog entries and put in tags that would make sense to my readers and potential future readers. Let me tell you this is a JOB. There is no way to sort, add a tag and then save. NO! I had to go through the list of posts (185 of them), find one I wanted, enter additional tags, re-publish, the go back to the beginning of the list and start searching again..... Just so you'll know - I do not have the type of patience it takes to do this task... so I will just make you a promise that from now on I will do better and you can, in a spirit of adventure, go through my labels and see what they mean - good luck to all of us.

By the way photos of Carnival are under colors of Brasil not under Carnival in general - there is also a Carnival revival.....which is about the city going back to the street carnivals of old - okay so being organized is not one of my strong suits..... just work with me a bit.....

“…. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet ….”

	No matter where we are traveling, when I see a rose growing on a fence, in a private garden or in formal gardens I cannot resist taking a photo.

I do not have a favorite color, although to me the Hybrid Tea is the most elegant. I never see the flaws. Sometimes after downloading I will notice a bug, or bee or a petal that a bug has enjoyed – but when confronted by their beauty I never see these things – and I don’t use any fancy editing programs to remove them later …. their natural beauty is without flaw.

For some reason I have trouble getting a good photo of pure red or pure white. The camera just cannot pick enough variation to give good detail.