Proserpina's WunderBlog

Good morning everyone. I have not been to my blog for a few days. I had tons of errands that I had been putting off and finally pushed myself to catch up. Not to mention that now I have food in the house to last me a couple of weeks. Yes, I have been too lazy to even go out to get the groceries until yesterday.

GG, it seems that you had a lovely day chatting with a bunch of birds and visiting the neighborhood. I too noticed an influx of birds at my feeders, from woodpeckers, to flickers, to finches, to sparrows, etc. Tons of turtle doves (a nuisance really) but no hawks at the feeders. I have seen hawks here but not at the feeders.
Yesterday I bought several huge bags of birdseed, peanuts, and a new mix of finch food. Koko and I have fun looking at their antics.
I hope that you are well and life is resuming a normal routine.
Awesome back at you!

Bogon, another limerick! I love your visits because I know that you will leave a literary gift on the blog! Thank you for the wishes for Rain. I need to tell him to come visit my blog and acknowledge the greetings.

Dear Sandi, another gorgeous red sky photo! I hope you put it in the photo gallery, I'll go looking for it shortly.
As I said above, I have been busy running errands. I am really tired but some errands just must be done.
Hubby just left for the golf course. He and our friend had gone golfing on Tuesday but it was raining and the golf course was closed. They used the day to bat a few balls and then go out to lunch. Today is not that sunny but it is warm and it should be better for playing golf. I am playing at doing nothing today, nothing that requires hours of walking that is!
I want to work on a new blog idea but the words are not coming easily. It is going to take me a long time to get a little blog together but I'll get it done be it a good blog or not.
Wishing you a pleasant day.
Sandi, I love your limerick. Thank you so much for writing it for me!
There once was a woman from Strood,
Whose joy was the cookbooks she viewed.
For years its been known,
To keep a man home
You provide a plate full of good food.

Hi FOXX, I really love that reading by Madonna. The original reading was done for a film called Il Postino. It is a beautiful movie, in part based on Pablo Neruda's love poetry. Hubby got me Il Postino video and a CD of the poems read. They are read by a bunch of actors and actresses, very interesting. My AP Literature students used to love this particular poem, I suppose they influenced by my love of the poem and Neruda's poetry.
It is good to see you on the blogs, you have been absent too long. Of course we do have contact on FB, and that is nice.

Ylee, as you can see from the photos, we did have enough snow to create a lovely winter scene. Just about the right amount for my tastes! How about you, any snow your way?
I do remember this commercial: "Nothin' says lovin' like somethin' in the oven!" It is true!

Bogon, Beel, GG, Thank you for the B'day wishes for Rain. The years are passing by much too fast!

Plapman, good morning to you, and I hope you enjoy this Thursday. I certainly am going to try to enjoy it!

Janetlee, how exciting! You lived near the volcano, that is a special gift in one's life. How long did you live there?
We visited the Volcano in the 1990s as well and did see the area that you mention, and yes it was gone. Buried by lava. We were on a tour and had a guide who told us quite a bit of recent history and eruptions. The last eruption had been just a couple of months before we were there. I found it exciting to be there! It was a memorable experience. It was spring and the areas around the crater (starting in the foothills) were covered with beautiful flowers, from roses to the abundant pinkish flowers that love lava covered areas. I cannot remember the name of the wildflower (it is also cultivated, I used to have a batch of it in my flower beds).
It is wonderful to see you on my blog, I hope that you will visit again.

I hope that I did not miss anyone.

Have a wonderful rest of the week and weekend everyone!

A lovely WU friend, Jus, pointed out this article to me. I had no idea that Friday the 13 had proved to live up to its reputation, for these people anyways.

The article is form The GUARDIAN:


Italians launch rescue bid after cruise liner runs aground

At least three people are reported dead and more than 4,000 are being evacuated after the Costa Concordia ran aground


Associated Press in Rome
guardian.co.uk, Friday 13 January 2012 20.35 EST

'Rescuers surround the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia after it ran aground off the coast of Isola del Giglio island, Italy

A luxury cruise ship has run aground off the coast of Tuscany, gashing open the hull and forcing some 4,200 people aboard to evacuate on lifeboats to a nearby island early on Saturday. At least three were dead, the Italian coast guard said.

There were at least three more feared dead, and helicopters were working to pluck to safety some 50 people still trapped aboard the badly listing Costa Concordia, said Coast Guard Commander Francesco Paolillo.

Paolillo said it wasn't known if the dead were passengers or crew, nor were the nationalities of the victims immediately known. It is understood there were several British passengers on board.

The Italian news agency ANSA reported that some people had jumped overboard in the scramble to evacuate the ship, which had just begun a Mediterranean cruise.

The evacuees were taking refuge in schools, hotels, and a church on the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, a popular vacation isle about 18 miles (25 kilometres) off Italy's central west coast.

ANSA quoted two Italian journalists who happened to be among the passengers taking the Mediterranean cruise as saying the accident happened during dinner hour.

"We were dining when the lights went out, and suddenly we heard a bang and the dishes fell to the floor," ANSA quoted one of the journalist-passengers, Luciano Castro, as saying.

"It was like a scene from the Titanic," another passenger aboard, journalist Mara Parmegiani, told ANSA.

Paolillo said the exact dynamics of the accident were still unclear, but that the first alarm went off about 10:30pm (2130 GMT), about three hours after the Concordia had begun its voyage from the port of Civitavecchia, enroute to its first port of call, Savona, in northwestern Italy.

The coast guard official, speaking from the port captain's office in the Tuscan port of Livorno, said the vessel "hit an obstacle" - it wasn't clear if it might have hit a rocky reef in the waters off Giglio - "ripping a gash 50 metres (165 feet) across" on the left side of the ship, and started taking on water.

The cruise liner's captain then tried to steer his ship toward shallow waters, near Giglio's small port, to make evacuation by lifeboat easier. But after the ship started listing badly onto its right side, lifeboat evacuation was no longer feasible, Paolillo said.

Five helicopters, from the coast guard, navy and air force, were taking turns airlifting survivors still aboard and ferrying them to safely. A Coast guard member was airlifted to the vessel to help people get aboard a small basket so they could be hoisted up to the helicopter, said Captain Cosimo Nicastro, another Coast Guard official.

A statement from Costa Cruises, the company that runs the ship, confirmed that the evacuation of the 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew had begun, "but the position of the ship, which is worsening, is making more difficult the last part of the evacuation."

Costa Cruises' statement did not mention any casualties, and said it had not yet determined the cause of the problem.

Costa Cruises said the Costa Concordia was sailing on a cruise across the Mediterranean Sea, starting from Civitavecchia with scheduled calls to Savona, Marseille, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Cagliari and Palermo.

It said about 1,000 Italian passengers were onboard, as well as more than 500 Germans, about 160 French and about 1,000 crew members.'

No Sandi, I am still up. I was about to leave the computer and head for bed when I saw the info posted by Jus on my other page. So I have been reading articles and posting on WU.

As I understand it, only three people died and the rest were rescued. If this is so, it is a real miracle. Kudos on the rescuers!

Please let me know what you read/hear about this incident. There were some Brits on the Concordia.

I have been on a cruise, it can be lots of fun but there is always that nagging thought... If you want to go on a cruise, you should go. Accidents are rare, so I like to think. One cannot NOT live because of what might happen, carpe diem!

Jus, my very thought exactly. Those people know every inch of the sea along the coast. Something must have happened to propel them into the rock, it this is what happened.

Now they are saying that there are 70 unaccounted for, and may be still on the ship. They are feverishly searching inside the ship, dangerous for everyone concerned. Of course I am praying for the well-being of the missing.

I do not know how cold it gets there but I do know that on land it does get pretty darn cold in that area. I will have to do a little research, if I find out anything I will let you know.

I hope your head will clear very soon. It is an awful feeling to be all congested in the sinuses and head.

ADD: I could not find much on the temperatures of the waters. I found general descriptions of the area saying that normally the waters are not cold... Here are a couple of sentences from a newspaper article:

"Some of the ship's passengers jumped into the icy waters.

One of the victims was a man aged in his 70s who was thought to have died of a heart attack caused by the shock of the cold water"

Part of the problem for the passengers was that they were wearing party clothes since they were at dinner (Always dress up for dinners on cruise ships! For me cruise dress up means light fabrics.)