The Irish have their day... so do my Italians!!

We will be celebrating "St Pattys Day" soon and being half Irish and half Italian I felt the need to celebrate my Italian heritage by going to my favorite Italian store... I mean they have 'good stuff' there...  "Mazzaro's Italian Market" here in St. Petersburg, Fl... is the next best thing south of the Bronx! 

                              The front of the store does not tell the story of what is inside... so come on in and smell the food.. feel the atmosphere, listen to the talk of the Italians .......

             The religion greets you when you enter... although they don't push their thoughts on their customers they do celebrate their feelings on the subject.... 

 

Then you enter the world of the "Food"... raw, cooked, spiced, boxed... so much food!

This is the worlds largest "Provolone".. yes this is a 1200lb chunk of cheese! They can't cut it for another  year.. it's got to age more!

There is also two refrigerated cases of cheese... imported cheeses from all over the world.

Walk around the corner and you will smell your way to the bread ovens.. they make every kind of bread my Italian ancestors love... 

Then we come to the "Sweets"... and the one that has me doing a dance for is the "Rum Balls"... 

I could just eat one of each sweet in this case!

But knowing it's going to lay on my hips at a very fast rate I was so good and ordered a Ciabatta, with butter and a really good cup of coffee.

Being the good Italian that I am I had to order a bit of Gelato... Spumoni to be exact! My will power just went out the window.. but it was so worth it!

 

My sister and I spent about two hours in this wonderful store.. we were good and did not eat alot.. we did spend a bit of time checking out the bread baking area.. it had many people working there and it was fun to watch... I did try to 'pan' the photo...not too bad! I hope it posts here on my blog for all to see.. (no it was cut in half, sorry).


Time to say good by to this wonderful store... I celebrated my Italian heritage this day.. so now I can say "Happy St Patricks Day" with out guilt!

 

Ok...Ok... had to share one more photo.... The Pepperoni... how can we leave without the Pepperoni?

Bye Italian store... bye .......

  

For the Irish in me and for the Italian in me!!

And to all of you, celebrate your heritage in style!

The Seasons are changing..... thank you!

I took a walk outside today.... my yard needs a team of people to clean it up!  As you all know the cold and freezing came to my part of Florida,, it really did alot of damage to my yard....How happy I was to see my 'yellow rose bush in bloom'.  
I also have a new toy... a made for TV toy.. this new 'tool' is a blower, vacuum and makes the leaves into mulch... I can't wait to get outside and use it.  This was a gift from my sister.. everyone needs a sister like my "Dolly".

 

I wish all of you could have heard the 'bull frogs' in the creek out back last night. Was a symphony going on out there, loud too!

My little Angel friend sits in the front of the house.. greeting the critters and the humans that may come by.

 

 

For some reason I get a kick out of the 'metal dragonflies' scattered around my yard!

Some of my friends don't understand them... but I do!

 

I have a neighbor... you know the ones.. who look at your yard and make comments! This one told me "Your yard looks like a trailer park"... I did not know if I should 'laugh or cry'! Now I don't have alot of 'stuff' around my yard.. the front only has a bird bath and one little angel? The back, now that is another matter.. but it's so large back there you really miss most of the little statues and things... awww,, this guy is just an old grouch!

   

The bench sitting way back in the 'south 40'... (as my husband calls it!) I found the bench several years ago sitting on the side of the road.. for the trash man!.. well, it ended up in the back of my car and I bought some new seat wood to repair the broken slats.. I'll tell you the back of the bench is made of a really nice metal floral motif and could be used for wall art when the bench wood has finally seen it's last day!

     

Take a look at the large 'crack' on the side of the 'chiminea'... Yep, I found this in someones trash, cracked in three pieces... it came home with me and I got out the 'liquid nails' and it's been holding up for about 5 years now! I love it in the back... but, I don't use it for a fireplace... I'm sure the whole thing will crack and be very dangerous!

I have been pushing the season.. Think Spring, Think Spring.. but we here in Florida will go right into summer. Any day now it will be in the 80's and I will be happy along with my friend, St Francis...he does not like the cold!  I have been wheezing and sneezing for weeks now.. I can't believe it but I had an old fashioned 'head cold'... you know the one where you need a tissue every 20 minutes... well.. this is Florida.. I have not had a head cold since leaving Illinois 15 years ago.. Texas had no colds??

Anyway... "Think Spring"!! I know it's coming cause my "Easter Lilly's" are all coming up out front!  Think Spring!