NO TRICKS, BUT MANY TREATS

 Halloween is celebrated, mainly for the benefit of children, more than it used to be here (even when I came in 2005) but less than in countries like Britain and the USA. In my experience, the evening remains peaceful and I haven't seen flour and eggs thrown in the street or been disturbed by trick or treaters that I don't know. Long may it continue in this way - a festival which people enjoy without wasting food in a world in which, particularly this year, there are people starving, and without upsetting others.

On the jolly side, I couldn't resist buying some treats from the Liolà  pasticceria in Modica:

Today is Ognissanti, All Saints' Day, and is a bank holiday. Tomorrow is I Morti, or Day of the Dead, when many people visit the graves of their loved ones and even take food. I think this is a healthy attitude to death, which after all comes to us all, and teaches children that it is part of life. 

I think it's time for tea and one of those biscuits now. 

BEHOLD, THE FERRAGOSTO BUNNIES!

I'm not a "Rise and shine, sing in the morning" type of person. I'm more, "Light, go away!" first thing. Nor do I normally gaze out at the view from my bedroom window at that time of day, as it's all I can do to open the shutters and stumble to the bathroom. But yesterday, perhaps because it was the Ferragosto holday, I did and - still being a bit dopey, you will understand - I thought there were some whacking great bunnies coming to greet me! It was only the shape of the fichi d'India (prickly pear) bush in the field out there, but it cheered me up:

Ferragosto, or the Feast of the Assumption, is when Italy virtually closes down and everybody except grumpy old me heads to the sea. For the past two years, during which we have been in and out of various lockdowns, my local bar closed only for the 15th, not for a week, as before, presumably to try and recuperate some of the takings lost during the Covid emergency but this time they have closed for the full week again. There is a quiet in the streets reminiscent of the lockdowns but happily that backdrop of fear in the air is absent and today I had an aperitivo and a plate of stuzzichini in another local bar with a friend, which helped dispel the memory of those grim times.

In the absence of a celebratory breakfast out yesterday morning, I made myself a granita all'anguria (watermelon granita) and very refreshing it was, too. I had bought a traditional Sicilian brioche for the occasion and Bertie the dog enjoyed a doggie gelato.

I hope you all had a good Ferragosto and look after those August bunnies if they come to visit!

HAPPY BUNNIES

At the Liolà in Modica

I reckon they get to eat all the ice cream at night!