sunrise walk

Well, still no internet in our house.  Maybe tomorrow?  Eventually I'd like to turn this blog back into more of a steady conversation instead of the sporadic one-sided posts that I've come up with in haste recently.  Until then, here are some more photos... and these are fresh from this morning!

I realized today, as Lena began murmuring in the room next door around 6:30am, that up until this point in my life I have been a big sunset person.  Elliott and I loved sunsets from our little studio on Capitol Hill; we took tons of pictures of the sun setting behind the Capitol Dome in the months after we were married.  We went on long walks at sunset and watched the colors change from the National Mall.

Now, however, two things have happened.  1) Our windows face east, not west, and 2) Lena gets up with the sunrise.   This morning, when she awoke as dawn broke over the hills, Elliott jumped up to get her and brought her to our bed for some snuggles.  At that point we both turned our attention to the windows and the rising sun.  So beautiful coming up from the Mediterranean!  Elliott took a few pictures as it crested the hills.

The aforementioned snuggles that happened as the photographer was hard at work:

A lovely view of Mt Etna from our kitchen window:

After awhile, Elliott said sheepishly, "I kinda feel like... going on a walk."

[Note: For those who do not know Elliott personally, Elliott pretty much always feels like going on a walk.]

I was definitely game this morning, though.  It was only 7:30 and the morning light was calling us!  We threw on some pretty random clothes (including a hat I knit for Lena when I was 9 months pregnant and totally forgot about until now) and started off down into the valley.

A path winds down the hills.

This is a view of our town from below.  Our house is the yellow one on the farthest right side of the cliff, just on the other side of the castle tower.

Elliott right about then: Remember when you wanted to live in Italy, Becca?  And now there's our home, built into a 1,000-year-old city wall in a little Sicilian town!  Can you imagine townspeople in medieval garb, watching you as you approach, judging when you were close enough for their arrows?

Wowzers.

We reached the stream ("a river runs through it"... kinda?) in the center of the valley.

Daddy has a couple girls who love going on walks in the early morning.

We turned around to hike back up the hill toward our house.  This is a view of the old city wall from the old stone stairs that lead from the valley to the town.

And now we're almost back home!  Here's a view of our house, the hills, and a bit of the Med.

And if I turned 180 degrees, this is the view behind me.  Hello, old Norman castle tower.

And all the way home.  Time for naps and second breakfasts!