These are the babies of the family.
Oscar, the balck and white cat is two and tries to be the man about the house - but is afraid of his shadow!
Mimì, a female is one year old and is quite shy but determined.
She is Oscar's playmate but also his prey!

This is Tingy, a very elderly and temperamental Siamese cat.
Se is 17 years old and does not get on at all well with the other tow cats, especially Oscar. He weighs 6 kgs and she is very fragile!

This is Sasha, our dog. She is 13 years old|

This is Francesco and Anna, my son and daughter-in-law on their wedding day in July last year.
They lived for a time in Pescara, which is on the southern Adriatic coast, but a year ago they decided to move to Novara and are now renovating an old house in a village nearby.

This is my family - or most of it.
My brother, Theo, my daughter, Giulia ,Michael, the tallest one is Jennie's fiancè.
Jennie is pushing Granny, my Mum, then on the right there is my sister-in-law Barbara and my nephew, Robin
It was taken in England this summer.

This is a picture I like a lot. it was taken in Edinburgh in June when my niece got her degree in European studies with Italian and German - she as the only one on the course to get that combination.
The other person is my brother, Theo.
She is now doing a post-grad course and is getting married on 27th October.
I will add the photos!

OK This is a photo of me taken overlooking Lake Orta, which is not far from Novara.
I don't like having my photo taken, so I don't have many of me.
In the background you can see the lake and the Island of St. Giulio where there is a religious sanctuary. It is one of the picture postcard
places you see on the front of travel magazines!

Dear everybody,
I have decided that I too need to have a blogspot, so that I can show people who I am.
I am English but I have lived in Italy for 30 years. I have two children, Francesco who is 29 and got married to Anna last year, and Giulia, 24 who lives with me. My husband, who was Italian, died three years ago. We live in Novara, which is a small city between Milan and Turin at the foot of the Alps. It is not what you imagine an Italian town to be like - no sun no sea and so on but it is a very clean city and despite being cold in the winter and humid in the summer, it's not a bad place to live.
I teach English conversation in an Italian High school and my pupils are aged 14-19. It is a school for languages and business studies. They all study English and another EU language.
I now want to try and add some photos, but will send this first.
Catherine.