Desert Rose

Now arrived the most hot time in south Italy.  Temperature varies from 33°С to 38°С (91,4F to 100,4 F). Last year on my birthday July 13 was 42°С heat (107,6 F). All the grass has dried, there are no flowers in the fields. And the only oleanders bloom with their strange beauty along the roads. 

All around me have beige color  - It's color of dried grass, golden-beige color of the sand on the beaches... Also town is beige because all the houses here are made from beige stone from Lecce.  All this golden and beige dilute splendor has inspired me to create this ring. I called it  "Desert Rose". It remember me about the sand, the desert and dry wind. 
I made crochet flower from sand colored cotton thread and decorated the center with vintage glass bead. Then I connected it to beige leather flower. Together these two different textures make this ring similar to dunes of Sahara with their dark and light splashes.

Summertime

Summer is here and with summertime came a season of sagras which I love. 

Sagra is an artisian food themed festival in a small towns which usually is taking place on the central square. It can be dedicated to a watermelon or eggplant or even pizza! The full list of sagras you can find in a local newspaper so you can always find the one which will suit your taste.

During the festival you can sample 2 or 3 dishes of the local cuisine and sip some wine. The food and wine comes from the town’s butchers, bakers, farmers and vintners. All the cooking is done by volunteers and the wait staffs are the enthusiastic local people. Signs announcing the dates and featured foods of the sagras dot roadways and are posted on stone walls in and around towns.

We have already visited some sagras this summer:

No sagra is possible without the traditional music and dance of Salento. Everyone here knows how to dance pizzika, from toddler to the elderly people. People are learning to dance from the very young age.

This little girl simply charmed me, she is probably just learned how to walk and she is already trying to dance!

This is me during one of the festivals, wearing a traditional pizzika costume. The girl's costume for pizzika always includes a long wide skirt and scarf or shawl. While dancing the girl is flirting with a young man, using her scarf. 

Here are two my costumes for pizzika:

This wonderful skirt I bought in vacance in Greece and I very like it for bright color:

After I learned to make crochet balls I created these two pairs of crochet earrings to add to my costumes. One pair is white as I have white skirt and the second pair is turquoise for my turquoise skirt.

So when you drive through the Italian country side and see the signs along the road inviting you to visit sagra, turn, go in and enjoy!