Blood Oranges

ok, so they're blood oranges she's talking about. she won't stop talking about them. every time i talk to her. she obsessively talks about them. the trees her father planted. they ate 5-7 at a time, a few times per day. friends and relatives would leave them more and other stuff outside their door if they weren't home. things they've picked from their farms. she said there were so many oranges that so many are wasted, and she carried a knife around so she could pick and eat them wherever she went.
its nice to hear her happy and passionate about something so simple.

DEEP ORANGE RED

i don't get it. the feeling(s) i feel inside have no words really. it goes deep, like the infection behind the wound, my heart floating loosely in my chest, with no strings holding these arms up or lifting my legs to dance...

(and i guess people wonder why i don't embrace it now.. but i can get into that later- about how i don't feel accepted as myself...)

they said they found wild asparagus way up high on the mountain where they went one day. brought them over to my aunt's in Catania, and she and Roberto my cousin said it was the best thing they could've ever brought over there to them. they made omelettes with them- which were a little bitter but good.

the "labor day celebrations" on may 1st were on the fiumi (river), which had a little water in it cuz it rained. (last time i was there, it was all rocks, and we'd drive right thru it as a shortcut to get to the other side.) everyone gathered there. the town my parents are from is named after the Niceto (river*) which used to be filled with water running down to the sea. A battle between the Saracens (Arabs) and Normans (French) was fought on it.
Saracens were at first Fatimids, then Muslim:

the Fatimid Empire

On their last day there, the Madonna statue 'A Madonna di Pompeii was brought into their house. it traveled from the church of the Madonna di Pompeii to the church across the street from them-

(La Chiesa del Carmine). Its tradition for it to travel into peoples' houses so they brought it into theirs after the church ceremony since they were going to be leaving the next day. Lots of people came from the church and prayed and blessed the house.



seems like they have a celebration for everything, every week.

they also went to my great grandfather Nonno Pietro's campagna - land/farm in the country... where he kept bees... and picked lots of oranges and lemons... from the same trees that were there all along.

they said they ate about 10 oranges/day. deep orange, red.

*my mother tells me that "Niceto" means "river", but here its described differently:
Secondo una corrente molto diffusa, esso deriverebbe da San Pier (in quanto San Pietro è il Santo patrono del paese) e da Niceto (vocabolo derivante dal greco, che significa “Vittoria” ) per una battaglia svoltasi nel torrente tra Cristiani e Saraceni e vinta dai primi.
Secondo un’altra corrente, invece, il vocabolo “Niceto” deriverebbe dal nome di un frutto di un albero, una volta molto diffuso: il nocciolo, in dialetto “nucidda”.
-derived from Greek, the word means "Victory" after the battle against the Christians and Saracens and won by the Christians.
-could be the name of the fruit from a tree which once grew in abundance- "nut" pronounced "nucidda"