On a beautiful May morning,I convinced my parents and Malcolm to pose for me by the pool.
I took some pictures from the roof, from various angles on the ground … I even got my folks to play badmington and they surprised me by being pretty good at it too …
So here is the result of that fun morning under the May sun
I was lazily messing about on Facebook a while back when I came across this page “la sardegna vista da vicino”. What surprised me most was the amount of pictures taken locally (between 20 mins and less than 2H00′ s drive from the villa) . So I’ m sharing them here .
I would like to particularly thank Danilo Loriga for these stupendous pictures, “Airgallura” (Manca Giovanni Antonio) that enabled all those arial shoots as well as the owners of “la Sardegna vista da vicino” Facebook page that share so generously the beauty that is to be discovered on this amazing Island. Check that beautiful site on www.facebook.com/pages/La-Sardegna-Vista-da-Vicino/291471094257704?fref=ts
The following pictures are mostly aerial pictures taken between Isola Rossa and Valledoria, 20 mins to 35 mins’ drive from the villa :
The following are from Tempio (40 mins’ drive):
The following ones are from Castelsardo, 40 mins’ drive away :
The following are from Bosa, which was voted second prettiest borough of Italy in 2014(nearly 2H00 drive) :
The following are from near Santa Theresa (1h30 drive):
I took the following serie of pictures Mid May. The villa was free and I asked my parents and Malc to “play photoshoot” by the pool. I found some of the colours rather washed out as it was such a sunny and bright day. But you’ll get the flavour anyway 🙂
The front garden was so lovely with with the newly cleared nuraghe (we cut back the undergrowth to show its impressive structure better) and the elderflower tree in all its glory. This year, poppies made their first appearances too. And much to my happiness, my elderflower hedge is growing strong too.
collared dove
Since last year, we noticed a couple of collared doves hanging around the villa . They were regularly coming down to the fountain to drink.
This year, we seemed to see them around a lot more. And Malcolm quickly found out why : they were nesting in the pine tree near the pergola.
And soon enough,we saw 2 eggs ….transforming into 2 fledglings , growing happy and strong.
collared dove fledglings
Until 1 afternoon, I saw a hawk flying low near the pine tree, with a prey in its talons. I just instantly knew it was one of our baby doves. All I could do is shout “no,no,no” in disbelief and horror as the buzzard flew away, pecking at the fledgling, clouds of feathers flying off in the distance.
I ran to the nest and as I feared, I found it empty. I am fully aware of nature’s balance but couldn’t help thinking this was unfair. I obviously grew fond of that bird family and felt for the poor parent I saw sitting quietly on the wire above the now empty nest.
Luckily the story doesn’t stop on this sad tale as I was much surprised to see 3 colared doves flying to a nearby tree. At least 1 of the fledglings made it …
I hope you too will enjoy seeing and hearing them perched on the wire or having a drink at the fountain.
Villa Nuraghe in Sardinia 