Bellagio Backstreet

My writing fellowship ends on Monday, and it will be hard to leave this enchanting place. The villa, the people, the food, the quiet, the food – and, I am overjoyed to say, I have finished writing all thirteen chapters of Managing the Wild. Thank you, Rockefeller Foundation.

So now, I can just close the computer, and Elysa and I can start our holiday in Italy. Among othe venues, four days in Venice. 

Study at Villa No. 3

Still here, but just not posting. I am spending a lot of time in the room shown above, the study attached to room V (Villa) No. 3, writing Managing the Wild: Stories of People and Plants and Tropical Forests. The work is going well, and I am on Chapter 7. I still have two more weeks, but I have already started to get sad about leaving this beautiful – and extremely quiet – environment.  What a place.

Lake Como

Well, I made it to Bellagio, and this is the view of one of the arms of Lake Como visible from the balcony of my study at the Villa Serbelloni. Not my room, my study. I can't think of a more beautiful place to write a book.

Pause

Sunday morning of sesshin at the Garrison Institute (see Fall Sesshin, among others). You spend hours sitting, reflecting, observing moment after moment. And then, there are always those times, frequently at the end of sesshin, when your thoughts turn toward "what happens next?"

That's kind of where I am today. Everything is pretty much together for my trip to Italy (see Bellagio) this weekend. And I pause to reflect on the writing project that I will be immersed in over the next six weeks. Not knowing is, indeed, most intimate. [NOTE: Photo by G. DeBrocky (thx, Glynn)]. 

Bellagio

I have been awarded a writing fellowship by the Rockefeller Foundation and will be in residence in northern Italy at the Bellagio Center, also known as "Villa Serbelloni", from August 17 to September 14. I will be working on a book about the field projects and botanical inquiries that I have been involved with over the last three decades; tentatively entitled Managing the Wild. I am thrilled about this. [NOTE: Image above, by Peter Anderson, shows the view of Lake Como from the Villa Serbelloni].