Showing posts with label CASCINA COLLINA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CASCINA COLLINA. Show all posts

June 12, 2013

NEW FAVORITE TREE


This is the THIRD year in a row that we spend time at CASCINA COLLINA in PIEMONTE. We started going there because my sister's boyfriend's family had a connection to the vineyard, and this third summer it almost felt like coming back to our SUMMER HOUSE. I think especially since we have been traveling so much ..and not really had a real home in almost a year, a place where you have spent time two years in a row, almost feels like HOME when you return the third time. In some ways I actually almost think of GUNVOR and JOAR, the couple running the place, as some sort of aunt and uncle. I think that part also has something to do with the fact that when I was growing up in BERGEN we only saw my dad's sisters and their families during the summers. They all lived in TRONDHEIM where the weather, at least the way I remember it, was a lot nicer ..and we drove to visit them there every year during our summer break. Thinking about it now, only seeing them during the summers was actually kind of nice because then I associated them with great things; SUN, strawberries, ICE CREAM and holiday; basically almost every child's favorite things. So I guess these last years Cascina Collina has become the grown up version of that, just with wine and delicious food ..instead of just ice cream and strawberries, but still with the sun and the time off.

Last year when we visited I fell in love with an APRICOT TREE that is situated right at the end of the pool. This year when we were there it was not bearing fruits, either because it's just too early ..or because last year was this tree's last time to shine. It had not been bearing fruits for years, but after a really hard winter where it almost died it suddenly last summer came back to life.. in a big way. But so yes, this year I found myself a new favorite tree, a CHERRY tree. It's not quite as magical as the one with the apricots, but still, I really liked it:)

July 19, 2012

July 18, 2012

IN LOVE WITH THIS APRICOT TREE


 I have never been a fan of warm, or even room temperature, fruit so I always keep my fruit in the fridge. STILL I learned many years ago that there is one type of warm fruit that is DELICIOUS: the one you pick straight off the tree. My first experience of this was when my parents were living in IRAN. In their backyard they had a PEACH TREE and one day when the weather was steaming hot and I was freshly cooled from a swim in the pool I picked a peach from the tree and took a bite. To this day that is my FAVORITE FRUIT EXPERIENCE (maybe next to ..or just slightly over, some really good bananas that I once tasted at the 'BEACH HUT LIKE' airport at KOH SAMUI in THAILAND). It was amazingly SWEET, warm and JUICY. I can still remember the feeling of some warm fruit juice running down my shin ..and not being annoyed by it, just totally content. This year when we arrived at CASCINA COLLINA I realized that the one big tree next to the POOL were carrying fruits. I couldn't remember this from last year and found out later that the tree ..that I now know is an APRICOT TREE, hadn't been carrying fruit since 2006, but had made a COMEBACK this SUMMER after a particularly cold winter. I'm glad it did.

SUMMER!