RAIN!!

Kristen's getting a lot of use out of her cute rain boots! It's been raining and/or foggy almost nonstop since coming back to Italy after our trip home for the holidays. Seriously...some of the worst weather ever! I think the sun has come out on three days this year, and never for a full day. Last winter everyone here told us: "the weather is never this bad for this long." Well, I think maybe they forget how bad the weather gets in winter in northern Italy...unless this year is another unusual year.

My grand plan to do more photography in 2014 has been made very difficult with all the bad weather. I guess I could be practicing photographing in the rain, but it's so tough to get motivated in this weather. The coastal fog usually gives you good opportunities for interesting photos, I actually like photographing in fog, but not this kind of fog. There's been just no light piercing through the fog at all...it's just been this solid, grey, thick fog. Ugggh!

The rain has been so continuous that all the rivers are swollen to the top of their banks. One of my favorite locations for photographing birds, Riserva Naturale della Foce dell'Isonzo, has been under water. At the mouth of the Isonzo River, this sanctuary is subject to frequent flooding. With all this rain, we've heard that the flooding is really bad this time...a car apparently was washed away! So we haven't gone over there at all this year.

As I'm writing this blog post it's pouring outside. "Piove cani e gatti" (raining cats and dogs)! To pass some time today we're going to go to Koper, Slovenia to see an American movie (Slovenia plays movies in English...Italy does not...there's a silly Italian law that foreign movies must be dubbed in Italian). Maybe there will be some sun on the big screen.