I’ve had some trouble accessing my blog in the past few days. In a nutshell, my “login” button hasn’t been working (and still doesn’t work, but I can login a different way now, phew). This happens from time to time but doesn’t worry me at all because I know that eventually the fabbbulous Healthblogs manager will fix the problem. As she did this time, too. But this delay has meant that I haven’t been able to post anything. For example, I now have photos of the 2013 black-winged stilt chicks, the cutest fluffy little things I’ve ever seen (except for kittens, of course!). But right now I don’t have much time…so this is going to be quick.

1. Stefano is going to be 50 years old on Friday. 🙂
2. Tomorrow afternoon after work, we’re heading off on a long weekend (as usual, our lovely cat-maniac friend is moving into our house to take care of our cats for a few days).
3. The birthday boy chose our destination (a 1.5 hour drive from Florence, not too bad): Perugia = the capital city of the region of Umbria…

For any Etruscan fans out there 😉 , Perugia was one of Italy’s main Etruscan cities…we’re talking 11th and 10th century BC, here…

But Stefano’s main interest in Perugia right now is not its history or its attractions. It’s Perugia’s Canon camera repair shop, which has a very good reputation. Since, at the end of this month, we are leaving for Wales (UK) to go see the puffins on Skokholm Island, he wants to make sure that his camera is shipshape. So he’s going to leave it at the Canon shop all day Friday and test it all day Saturday…

We’re staying in a hotel that used to be a Benedictine monastery (parts of it date to the 11th century!), located just outside Perugia…a lovely place with a huuuuuuge park (with beautiful flower gardens and woods and whatnot) and, I hope, also many interesting birds and animals that will happily pose for our cameras…

We also plan to travel around the region on Saturday to test Stefano’s newly calibrated camera…We are thinking of visiting the ancient hilltop town of Gubbio, among others…

Anyway, I hope to take some great photos that I can post on the blog next week. I also have a couple of serious posts up my sleeve…I’ll try to finish editing one today and publish it later today or tomorrow.

That’s about it for now…I must get back to workzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz! Ciao! 🙂