Junefinnigan's Weblog

Welcome and Benvenuti to all my Lovely followers around the World,

Well, the dust has finally settled and we have at last returned to our quiet & idyllic lifestyle in our little bit of Chianti.  Some of our concert going friends are still here, staying in and around Certaldo, and I was delighted to take two of them to visit Anne Shingleton’s studios at Vico D’Elsa near Poggibonsi.  Now I have known Anne for many years but this is the first time I have managed to visit her, see her wonderful paintings & sculptures and to hear her story.  Foto J Finnigan.

 Anne, on the left above, as an artist is way up there with the world’s greatest painters of wildlife, being a zoologist herself, this is the medium of first choice for her.  But Anne can paint anything from portraits to landscapes creating better than photographic images.  Then there are the sculptures and her most recent undertaking was a huge Swan, which is currently exhibited in the beautiful Gheradesca gardens of the Four Seasons Hotel in Florence.  Ask at reception and you will be shown through to the gardens, Anne’s swan is next to the pond.  Hotel Website

Without seeing Anne’s work first hand it is difficult to ‘paint the picture’ well enough to really appreciate just how amazing she is.  However, if you visit her website you will get a good idea and she is always available to discuss commissions, sales or exhibits.  Fotos provided by Anne.  Go to Anne’s website

Well, how does one follow that?  As I was musing over this, my man called out “June, you’ve got to come and see this!”  So I  detached myself from my chair and rushed into his study, where he was watching something on TV.  “You won’t believe this and it could only happen in Italy, but they are showing a recent ‘tug o’ war’ match on a bridge over the River Arno in Pisa!  But they have two teams back to back, trying to push, yes push, each other with their feet in strangely wedged trainers!”  It was a contest called Gioco del Ponte and it had as much action as watching paint dry!  They had been in a gridlock for ten minutes already and it was another fifteen before the sweating big guys in red, finally overcame the red faced yellow ones.  This, and they were all dressed in tudor costume!  Crazy Italians!  Ha ha!  Foto P Finnigan.

Of course, not to forget, I did promise you a Hunk of the Month for July, and guess what, it had to be the latest Armani Man!  I have been saving this picture up, but now I think I should share it, I’ve been gazing at him long enough!  Phew, now I’ve completely lost my train of thought!  Foto Giorgio Armani.

Ah, zucchini or courgettes to you.  No, no, no connection you naughty thing.  But here is a bag of freshly picked Zucchini, which was placed on our lunch table today at C’era uni Volta by the adorable Paolo, before we had even ordered our meal!  These were straight out of his orto, veg patch, which is overproducing the things in this lovely weather, forcing me to once again find our kitchen and cook something!  Would love to have some new recipes for Zucchini! Leave your messages below or write to june.finnigan@virgin.net.  Grazie mille.  Foto J Finnigan.

Anyway, time to get this blog posted off to you.  Got a busy week ahead what with the writing and the day job!

Enjoy and have a great week.

Salute June x

Ps Don’t forget to visit my official author site at June’s website