Snow, and it's nearly June!

Such a lovely photo, but I guess you are looking forward to more stable conditions!

"Stable" is a very good choice of words, Mel. Can I add "Warm" or even "hot" to that?
Hi, Sticki! How are you?

Stunning shot Gattina, straight into my favs :o)

Thank you!

The warmth has GOT to come to you sometime soon Gattina . . . or just pop over to the UK? We have been quite lucky this past week AT LAST, so gardening in shirtsleeves and even (just occasionally) having supper in the garden. I'd read that northern Italy was still cool, so can only send sympathy, but that IS a lovely pic!

lovely pic, Gattina, but it's probably nicer to look at from a distance, given what goes with it.

No doube it'll be "feast or famine" - when summer does come it won't creep in, it'll crash through - there'll be a time when everything's just right, and then it'll go to the other extreme ...

hello gattina im well thank you ~ sorry didnt have time to comment earlier ~ just clicked the like!

that is a stunning view but incredible too ~ in all senses of the word!!

when i was 11 we went to italy in may or june [long time ago ~ cant remember exactly] it was very hot!!

hope you get warm sunny days soon!

Hi Gattina, its been a funny few years all round, its been a chilly 14c here today while not far away its been lovely....
Looks lovely though......

It is lovely to have some "proper" gardening weather here at last. It was a bit cloudy but I spent most of the afternoon outside. There was a large and happy (!) Italian party going on next door - I thought of you.

How lovely to be back in touch with all you gorgeous, friendly people!
We ARE getting lovely warm, sunny days every now and then, but we never really know when to expect them, and nor does the weatherman, and they don't last long enough to get the garden furniture out. We went shopping down in in the valley on Saturday morning. When we left, it was grey and chilly and damp, so I put on socks, heavy jeans, sweater, coat and scarf. As soon as we got down there, the rain dried up, the sun came out and the temperature rose to 28° (that's what the thermometer on the Pharmacy wall said - honest) within the space of an hour. I suppose it's cheaper than paying to go to a sauna. Very uncomfortable.

What an amazing difference between the mountains and the valley . . . how high are you? (no funny answers please!)

Oh that one took some willpower to resist, Sheila!

Our house is only at about 500m (1,600'-ish) and we have to drive further up the mountain to about 750m to escape from the village before going out into the world, but we seem to have our own little microclimate, enclosed as we are on the side of the valley by hills on 3 sides. Our weather is rarely what is forecast except in very broad terms. In winter, we can have lost most of our snow, drive up to see friends who live 10 minutes away up in the nearest town, and they will have had to dig a channel to their front door and put ashes down so we don't fall over. We seem to be sheltered from all but the strongest winds, but all through summer, life is made tolerable in the incredibly high temperatures by a constant little movement of air down the valley. Who needs air conditioning? We can have warm sun and clear blue skies, drive ten minutes down into the valley and be enveloped by low cloud and the temperature will drop by 10°. However, our planting out of seedlings can be as much as a month behind gardens down in the valley: they have wild poppies in April, whereas we have to wait until May. It makes the problem of what to put on in the morning doubly difficult: I always seem to get it wrong. I once went into Bologna, down on the plain, wearing a long sleeved t-shirt and a cardigan, because it had been a beautiful day when I left the house, and got completely frozen and had to come home early. One thing we don't seem to get is that dreadful dampness or humidity that clings down on the plains, and which Britain seems to be prone to. The air is very clear and pure, and the light is incredible. People here seem to live to be much older than normal. Dying before you are well into your nineties is the exception, it seems. We have our fingers crossed!

Here's hoping, Gattina!

We lived at 1,000m in our first married house, Gattina. It was a wooden chalet in a little skiing village up in the Jura, above Lake Geneva. We could see Mont Blanc from the top of the field behind on a clear day. We drove into Geneva to work every day - about 15 minutes to drive round 66 hairpin bends down to the lake, then 15 minutes along the lake road - and only got snowed in once! I don't remember any problems with the climate, but then you don't notice so much when you're very young; but I do love to get a dose of that invigorating mountain air whenever possible!

I thought this year weather in Italy was alike English weather! isn't it ?

what's the name of your village Gattima?

This year, pretty similar so far - mostly cold, Lia, but it is warming up now, it seems. The village is Rocca di Roffeno, the hamlet we live in is called Casigno (all of ten houses, and not even Google earth has been here yet!)

OMG! I've just been on to Google Earth, and they've updated things, and there we are! We can even see our car, quite clearly, we must have been driving home, and there's our friend Leonardo, standing by the roadside, looking out over the valley! It can only have been done last autumn. Well, I never!

Ah - Google Earth finds us all out eventually, Gattina!

But not often on a personal level, Mel. I'm not unhappy about it. It shows we have finally joined the rest of the civilised world :o)

I love exploring places on Streetview. My daughter's mother-in- law can be seen weeding her garden. My wheelie bin is upside down because I had just washed it - it proclaims my conscientiousness for all to see!