Bonjourno from Tuscany Italy. I am on a sheep and olive farm near a small village of 200 people called Montorgaili. My hosts are a great 50 year old couple named Maurizio and Barbara. Maurizio looks like John candy doing a Robert Deniro impression. They speak in the musical sounds of this 21 character language. My days , when it isnt raining, are spent climbling trees to pluck olives for about 6 hours. We eat pasta almost every day and have been making picarino cheese from their sheep and each time we make cheese a ricotta is made for same day consumption. The food is great. There is nothing to do here, but a nice Spanish girl my age named Mar has arrived to keep me company. Some games of chess with Maurizio and lots of reading and writing have been nice. Its relaxing and therapeutic being here. The couple are extremely knowledgable about life and the world and we have constantly been sharing ideas about culture, government, politics, people, customs, food and everything else we all have the capacity of teaching and learning in this world. Two more weeks here, then I head back to the states for my first turkeyless thanksgiving and PUMPKIN, PECAN PIE and CHOCOLATE FUDGE and maybe a recipe or two to share from europa with my american family.

I have been dreaming an insane amoutn since switzerland and even more in italy. For several nights now, I have written about 2-4 long, detailed vivid dreams per night.

10/26 ( on a train leaving switzerland)
The sun is shining. My cold and rainy days are behind me. I seek the sun, but I will as I always do, react appropriately to whatever the earth sends my way. I am an open book with empty pages.

Cordoroy pants, bald head, white beard, reading a book in between glances outside, this man's mind wanders to a memory of a former life unlived.

A trip to Switzerland in perfect timing to miss much adventure and an unfortunate omission of the famous alps. It feels good however to leave such desired activities as the top of europe, canyoning interlaken, hiking in the alps and snowboarding a glacier to a future return trip.

10/29
An amazing goodbye hug at the train station and Sietske's sincere face and smile and admission of having a really really really fun time together left me with the same 30 pounds strapped to my body and an even bigger smile and thoughts of the importance of human relationships and struggling to know what I truly desire or need and other possible outcomes of spending more time with this girl. We agreed we would see more of each other in the future and I will greet that future when it becomes present with excitement.

I also enjoyed our share belief in the universe's power and mythical world full of an understanding of something bigger and beyond our control. A sweater given as a gift. The article of clothing fit for an elderly Dutch woman with ducks, hearts and apples looking and feeling so well on this young 26 year old male frame. The heart and kindness, of the 25 year old dutch girl's, of gold. I wonder if Neil Young was singing about a girl like Sietske.

10/31
The night has fallen, the wind continues to do what it does best, as the Italian wildlife roams the wet, cold grass looking for a warmth outside of my comfortable four walls with the ticking sound of moments going by, each as long or short as the last. The pages of a 6 week old notebook are filled and closed and placed on the wooden table in front of me. A new one is opened. The notebook with the fancy brand name requiring 10 euro more than its off brand brother tht filled a person's thoughts and flow of the pen just the same....

11/1
In a small sheep and olive farm in the middle of Italy, my taste buds are growing along with my soul and I am excited to share of my gained knowledge, wisdom and belly with those I love.

11/3
A lamp illuminates the room from the corner of a table. The light is bright and hot at one specific center and falls off bouncing on the white walls of the basic guest room. Bugs dance around the bulb, attracted to its heated core. The shade is yellow, enhance by the 32 degree Kelvin temperature of the light, protecting my eyes by the intensity of the Edison invention of modern virtue.

Thats all the gems for now. My notebooks are filled with my thoughts. Ones the universe gave me and I forget until reading again. They are for the world and to be shared.