Author Archives: christinemargerum

It is springtime again in the Umbrian hills, and the green is intense after heavy winter rains and also some deep frost. All pruning, planting, weeding, and mulching is done, so I venture out beyond my roses, geraniums, jasmine, and … Continue reading →

Here I am, back at Calboccia in late April. I hear that it hasn’t rained in the area for two months, yet all is green – the trees, the foliage of our sixty-some rose plants, and the grass of our … Continue reading →

How I Learned to Appreciate Wasps Some years ago, a hornet nest was being crafted diligently and expertly inside our house wall by some of these noisy and frightening creatures.  When I asked our gardener Vittorio, a gentle and animal-loving … Continue reading →

77-year old hidden damask hand towels finally hit the laundry line for the first time! Seventy-seven years ago, in 1939, back when this story begins, my German grandparents were the proprietors of a country store named “Kaufhaus Angeln,” which offered … Continue reading →

I have written earlier that I would report on our planting process at Calboccia, but then I didn’t.  It took me some time to think about this because there is more to say than what  we are planting this winter … Continue reading →

Last Christmas, our children presented us with the most thoughtful gift:  The adoption of a fruit tree of an ancient variety at the “Archeologia Arborea” in San Lorenzo di Lerchi in Umbria (http://archeologiaarborea.org/en/), just a couple of kilometers west of … Continue reading →

  Extremely well-fed and now neutered, stray cat Bianchino has returned to Calboccia after half a year of absence.  Over last fall and early winter, he must have been taken in at a neighboring villa, where the owners stay around … Continue reading →

More winter experiences: One late afternoon in February, my attention was drawn away from preparing dinner to the sound of many bird wings outside.  When I emerged out of the house to the front terrace,  I realized that many thousands … Continue reading →

This winter has been extraordinary:  I have not seen so much water come down our little Monte Calboccia!    Yes, there was lots of rain until early March, so much so that the Niccone River, which is usually hardly more than … Continue reading →

We’re keeping the bees, butterflies and hawk moths (they look like tiny hummingbirds!) happy by letting the lavender flower out before harvesting it.  When the blossoms dry up, we’ve been picking them, and letting the houses fill up with their … Continue reading →