tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6770248786883931686.post4138000138862168076..comments2024-03-25T22:45:57.560+00:00Comments on Transalpine Redemptorists at home: Cut and Dry...almostAgapitushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13605989610215366446noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6770248786883931686.post-44366222206182347642009-07-16T15:05:19.065+01:002009-07-16T15:05:19.065+01:00I always think of the pictures in the Duc of Berry...I always think of the pictures in the Duc of Berry's Tres Riches Heures of the (rather well dressed) peasant women in the fields out turning the drying grass with their long wooden rakes. The fields between my home in Santa Marinella and Rome where I work, have been a kind of pageant of agriculture as I go back and forth on the train every day. The fields in Lazio seem to get at least two or three crops of vegetables a year, with the second ploughing just having been finished. The big round hay bales have been sitting in the fields awaiting pick up for some time. In early April all was green green green with grass and flourishing fields of Carcioffi (artichokes). Then one day, the mowers came out and suddenly there wasn't a carcioffi to be found in any Roman shop or restaurant. I'm looking forward to the second crop. <br /><br />I think I might be the only person I know who watches the local agriculture the way some people watch television. It's diverting to know what's going on out there in what I like to think of as the 'real world' of the farmers. And there is something deeply comforting about seeing it all going on. If the farmers are still out there ploughing, planting and harvesting, the world' can't be in <i>that</i> bad shape. Not yet, at least.Hilary Jane Margaret Whitehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03771332473693479830noreply@blogger.com