Favorite Time of Day

Briatico, Calabria, Italia

At sunset time, this little old lady named Vittoria (or la nonna Vittoria as we know her) comes over to the farmhouse where we are staying to feed the chickens. She is small and bent over, has frizzy hair that is dyed light brown, and is always dressed very elegantly, skirt and blouse. She is a very smiley lady and she really loves animals, so when she walks into the chicken and goose pen she is beaming, holding a plastic bag full of food scraps from lunch, and hobbling down the pathway. She talks really lovingly to the chickens and then throws the food down and tells them to go eat. She confronts the ones who aren't eating and tries to get them to eat (much like she does when we don't feel like eating anymore) and she fills up their waterbowl. I have never seen anyone behave so tenderly towards chickens. It is my favorite time of day. Yesterday i took a photo of her throwing the food down, she waited until i counted to three and then flung the food down, again with a huge smile.

The other day we were eating lunch at her house and there was this chicken wandering around by our feet. She told me her name was Gabriella and then hand fed her watermelon, while talking to her and telling her she loved her. I couldn't contain my laughter because this chicken looks so silly, but their relationship is so serious and she has such a serious human name. The chickens little head flap is falling over her eyes so she looks like she has a comb over, and her one eye is always glaring out from under her red head flap (the other one is well covered).

Also that same day we watched Vittoria's 85 year old sister, whose name i forgot, eat an entire melon by herself after lunch. Well she cut me off a small piece but then went at that melon for about 20 minutes.

While I am talking about old ladies, i guess i should mention Antonello's mom. She is about 80, had three teeth (to my knowledge) and always seems to be yelling about something, even though she's not mad. The other day i talked about wanting to make pesto and i asked her if she liked pesto and she screamed "PESTO!! NO!!!!!! NO PESTO!" and then turned around and walked inside the house, muttering curses about pesto. This is a common occurance, this random screaming fit. But she is not angry, i think that is just how she communicates.
She has given birth to 17 children. That means she has spent the majority of at least 30 years of her life being pregnant and breastfeeding infants. This I cannot wrap my head around.