july is burning

I've waited to write July's Monthly Musing until the very end of the month--hoping that I would develop more positive feelings about it as July marched on.

Unfortunately with each passing day, more and more of our gorgeous rolling hills have gone from green and brown to charred black, and there's not much positive I can take from that.

You may have read about the fires throughout central and southern Italy (as well as Greece), and believe me, the stories are not exaggerated.

Some say that many of the fires have been set deliberately but to be honest with you, I don't really buy into that. Sure people burn off their land here all the time, but they're pretty good about controlling it, and not many are doing it in 120°F--most of that was done in June when temps were reasonable.

They say the motive is to clear the way for new hotels, villas, and pastures
but from where I'm sitting, it's just a whole lot of beautiful olive trees that have been taking the hit around here--and if any hotels or villas sprout up on the hillside, I'll let you know.

I'm sure that there *are* some pyromaniacs around, but I personally feel that blaming arsonists for the rash of fires is just another way for the powers-that-be to shake their heads in derision toward central and especially southern Italy and to draw attention away from the fact that they haven't been very successful in managing the fires.

But maybe that's just me.

Anyway, we have been lucky to escape any damage up until now, but the hill just across the road from us wasn't so lucky; yesterday afternoon it went up in flames as I was down at the beach swimming near where a helicopter was dipping into the sea for water to take up there. A couple weeks ago, our neighboring village lost two houses, although no one was injured.


I posted here about the planes fighting the fires, but things have gotten so much worse since then. Tourists have been killed in Puglia and one of our pilots died in Abruzzo when his Canadair crashed into a mountain near L'Aquila.

Greece lost two of its own in a similar way.

And so I sit here on another scorcher, although it's certainly cooler than it has been, waiting for the wind to pick up as it normally does at this time of day and then continues to increase until it reaches what feels like hurricane force.

And I'm sorry to say that I smell smoke.

Smoke, flames, blackened earth
July two-thousand seven
I'll never forget.

On a different, more cheerful note, do check out my post entitled "What's the Deal with Lycopene?: Health Benefits of Tomatoes" on TomatoCasual.com.

And let's hope for a better August.