Monterchi and Sansepolcro, 6th April 2010

Day three was the first of the pilgrimages I'd planned the holiday around, to see the great Piero Della Francescas in Monterchi, Sansepolcro and Arezzo.
The lovely market town of Sansepolcro was our first stop, Piero's probable birthplace. The Museo Civico holds his Madonna della Misericordia polyptych and one of the most striking rennaisance paintings I've ever seen, the triumphant, Resurrezione.
Monterchi is a short drive away and Piero's mother's hometown. Another impossibly beautiful, small, hilltop village, above the Tiber valley; there is only one Piero there, housed in it's very own museum, Madonna del Parto is a powerful and movingul image of fertilty, femininity and the glory of motherhood. Ibolya got in free as a long tradition of the town has been that preganant women get in free.

Sansepolcro












Monterchi

San Gimignano, 5th April 2010

It was brightening and warming up by day two of the holiday and there was a big Bank Holiday queue to get into San Gimignano. Another enchanting, hill top, citadel - famed for it's medieval Manhattan skyline. I'd wanted to come here for a long time and it was quite breathtaking. The Collegiata had some incredible frescos and we really liked the beautiful church of Saint Agostino. We had some amazing ice creams and the surrounding countryside was absolutely stunning.

Cortona, 4th April 2010

Here we go, finally, the start of my holiday posts from Italy. This was day one in Cortona.
A typical Tuscan, medieval town, about an hour's drive from where we were staying. Perched on top of a ridiculously steep hill and home to Fra Angelico's stunning Annunciation alter piece, in the town's beautiful Museo Diocesano.
I've put most of the holiday snaps on flickr (click this and have a look) and I'm putting the ones I like best on each post.

Week 29

It was really good to take some pictures of Ibolya and our big bump while we were on holiday; made such a good change from doing them in our back room. The colour, warmth and light of an early Tuscan evening made Ibolya and big bump more beautiful than ever. Ibolya found it very hard to keep a straight face while I was taking pictures and I love the outtakes I have of her cracking up.
Every week is passing at an ever increasingly faster rate and it's getting even harder to pause for a moment and take stock of little bubba's progress and how near the big day is getting. Although I'm now beginning to get moments of 'oh my god, we've a lot to get done'.
Ibolya is still showing no signs of slowing up, still cycling to work everyday, working hard and keeping up all her parental and domestic chores.
We have some more tests and another scan coming up in a week or so to make sure little bubba's development is all on track but all her wriggles and kicks, making her presence constantly known, remain a huge pleasure and an enormous comfort.

Backlog

Still no end in sight for the holiday blog backlog. So here's Ruby again, walking back from breakfast, to our apartment on Thursday 8th April 2010.

Holiday

I've enormous backlog of blog entries after returning home from a week's holiday in Italy. It's going to take me a long time to catch up so in the meantime, here's a little film of the three of us, on our morning walk to breakfast, from our apartment in the villa we were staying at in San Giustino, Valdarno, Tuscany.
Please excuse Ibolya's compulsion to constantly remove boggies.

Cooking Nicely

This is little bubba, at 10.00 this morning, being a bit un-cooperative but giving us lots of comfort that everything's going well.

Other bits from our weekend

Some other bits from our weekend:

David Garrick's temple to William Shakespeare, by the Thames at Hampton, opposite Sarah's house. Ruby playing with Sarah's monkey. Ruby and Maisie playing postmen on Saturday afternoon. A pack of delicious venison and red wine sausages, a gift from Sarah. A goose and duck eggs, gifts from Kate and Dan's trip to Devon. An ideal Mum-Bike that Ibolya admired. Sunday lunch at the Persian restaurant, down the road. And lots of face licks for Ruby at the Mayhew Animal Home Easter Fair on Sunday afternoon.

Rob Blog is 2!

It's a day or two over two years since Ibolya and I found out Ruby was on her way and what prompted me to start writing my blog. I could never have imagined that the little person that would finally emerge could be anything as wonderful as little Ruby has turned out to be or that we could possibly be so blessed and fortunate to have another on the way. So I'd like to dedicate this post to Ruby, who made me start this blog in the first place and who has kept me so motivated to keeping it going. I'd also like to let her know, if she's reading this at sometime in the future, that you have given your Mummy and I more joy, happiness and wonderment than it's possible to know. Everything new that you do (your new words this week are 'apple' and 'shoe' and we watched you for 20 minutes last night, repeatedly climbing up the arm chair in our bedroom, sitting yourself down, opening Mummy's diary and scibbling in it with a pencil) feels like the proudest and most amazing things we've ever seen or heard. I started Rob Blog with a picture of the pregnancy test that told us you were on your way, so two years on, here are a few pictures (from the last couple of weeks, taken by Mary) of what you get up to during the week, when we're at work.