DANISH COUNTRYSIDE

On our way to BERLIN from VÅLER we had one over night stop, and that was in SORØ in DENMARK. We stayed at a nice place called SORØ STORKRO ..it's not really a 'kro', but a conference hotel ..with a nice restaurant, but most importantly, surrounded by very CHARMING nature. On the night we arrived we went for a walk as the sun were setting ..and it was so nice. Even though the nature was beautiful in itself, my favorite thing was when we met this flock of sheep with little black LAMBS ..I also really loved the big white house on top of the hill:)

I FOUND SPRING

After 3 weeks in NORWAY, without seeing as much as a tiny little hint of SPRING, I finally found it yesterday ..but not in Norway. It turns out that I had to leave the country, more precisely to go to SORØ in DENMARK, to find it. It was really fascinating to watch the landscape turn from BROWN and BEIGE to more and more GREEN as we drove from VÅLER in Norway through SWEDEN and DENMARK. When we arrived in BERLIN late last night, we had reached something close to summer; 20 degrees, vibrant  ORANGE sunset, CHERRIES in blossom and radiant GREEN trees. The whole drive was such a buildup; seeing the landscape around us evolving from dead winter to lively summer through a two days DRIVE was magical. Even though we have had beautiful warm weather already this year ..in both SPAIN and ITALY.. I realized as we were driving that half of the MAGIC of spring is to see it UNFOLD in front of your eyes, and to me I think especially; to see a place I know, transfer into something NEW, but still familiar, that brings back a feeling that I had kind of forgotten, but still recognize; this amazing feeling of HOPE and HAPPINESS that all these, C O L O R S and SMELLS and LIGHT brings to life. I think the seasons will continue to surprise me, good and bad, for as long as I live.

PALAZZO Il CAVALIERE, OUR B&B IN MODICA

OCCHIPINTI

 _________MAYBE THE MOST IDYLLIC WINERY IN THE WORLD_________ 

.. and they have great wines too...

I will write some more about the winery OCCHIPINTI tomorrow ..but right now I just want to say that this place was for me a childhood DREAM come true ..not the wine part.. but the GARDEN, the FLOWERS and the TREES around. As I was taking the pictures I realized that it looked just like these fairy tale like fantasies I had as a CHILD. The shape of the trees, the gate, the meadows, the shadows. As a child I used to rent this book at the SCHOOL LIBRARY over and over again ..it was about a magical garden  ..and I really wished I could visit it and spend time there. In a way taking the pictures were not like my childhood dream ..because then I would have been wearing a beautiful DRESS, I would have a PUPPY ...and a basket of delicious fruit... and hang out there all day ..BUT it was a real life glimpse of a dream, a memory of childhood MAGIC.