Isn’t it just THE BEST to read great news first thing in the morning while you are sipping your cappuccino (or whatnot)? That is what happened to me today. I had a message from my friend Don waiting in my e-mail box, telling me to rush to his blog and check out his news. Well, well, it turns out that his most recent tests are very good if not excellent!, see: http://myelomahope.blogspot.com/2007/10/excellent-test-results.html Congratulations, Don! I will drink a sip or two of red wine in your honour this evening at dinner! 🙂

I have something else to celebrate. Yesterday morning my parents landed safe and sound in Boston. I am not celebrating their departure from Florence, of course, since it will be some time before I see them again (I hope, not TOO long!), but I do celebrate their safe arrival back home!

This has nothing to do with celebrations, but I wanted to mention that I tried a slightly different method of taking curcumin this morning: as usual, I dissolved four grams of curcumin powder in a bit of melted butter, then added melted dark chocolate. No milk, no cream. Well, the flavour of course was more intense compared to the milk drink, and the consistency was that of a rather liquid pudding, the kind that cooks might consider to be a failure 😉 , but it was certainly palatable. I forgot to take a photo.

Speaking of photos, yesterday I went to a friend’s website (a professional photographer) where I practically drooled over all his amazing photos of puffins. In response to my glowing fan letter, he suggested that Stefano and I go to Skokholm, a small island nature reserve off the south-west coast of Pembrokeshire, Wales. He also suggested a couple of other places. Last night, Stefano and I talked briefly about going to the UK for a week this summer, early summer, which is the best time of year to view puffins. This summer!?! That would be one of my dreams come true. You see, I am puffin-mad. Absolutely, completely mad! (No idea why, really, except I think these little birds are the funniest creatures I have ever clapped my eyes on.) Stefano is almost as obsessed as I am. Two years ago, we spent part of our U.S. summer holiday in Maine mainly to see puffins (Eastern Egg Rock, and off the coast of Acadia), but we arrived late in the breeding season, and most of these fantastic birds had left for the Atlantic. We managed to “see” a few, but they were nowhere near our tour boat so all that our photos show (when completely enlarged) are tiny fuzzy dots with an itsy bitsy dash of orange (the beak!)…very disappointing. Too embarassing to upload those photos here! 😉 I told Stefano back then that I wanted to travel to Wales to see one of the puffin colonies there. So 2008 may turn out to be our puffin year. Yes!

After days of rain and gloom, it’s finally what I consider to be a perfect fall day in Florence (earlier this afternoon I took the above photo, which shows part of the view we have from an upstairs window): a bit sunny, a bit cloudy, a bit windy, a bit chilly. Earlier this morning I went to the greengrocer’s to buy some salad, broccoli and fruit, and admired the leaves turning red and yellow. Not as spectacular as the New England fall (I was born in Massachusetts, and spent several years there, off and on), but pretty enough for me. Yes, it’s a very good day. For many reasons 🙂