Nature Walks, New Year's Eve, and SNOW

Even before we turned the corner into 2026 and I made a careful list of New Year's Resolutions, I started making long walks a regular part of my day. Sometimes, I just leave on foot from our house and go somewhere closeby, but other times I will drive somewhere, park, and then go for a walk in a brand new area. Either way, I always make sure it's for one full hour. 

Most days, I listen to 4-5 conference talks about the Atonement of Jesus Christ during my walk. The last one I listened to was #98 out of 305. Slowly and steadily I'm working my way through them all, and slowly and steadily they are changing my life for the better.


I loved the reflection of the clouds in this seemingly unimpressive ditch . . . (there's definitely an analogy in that phrase + the photo!)


On New Year's Day, Scott and I drove northeast approximately 25 minutes to walk along the banks of the Brenta River. We chose to go over there because we wanted to drop off some homemade salsa to my friend Rachel McGovern, and she recommended this nature trail near their house. The water was absolutely crystal clear and so peaceful and tranquil.

Video here: (21 seconds)



As we walked along the very forested trail, we found a little offshoot that led to a off-season scout camp, with firepits and gathering areas. It's nice to know that other countries also recognize the value of young people learning important life and outdoor skills. 


Later, we found some signs - with English even! - that gave more details of the area in which we were hiking. This first sign describes the local Ruff bird and also the Elderberry tree. 


The next one shows a map of the river and the protected areas that run along its length. It describes how this is one stretch of 64 km, part of the broader Natura 2000 Network, a network of protected areas that are recognized at the European level for their environmental value. This river environment includes gravel banks, floodplain areas, abandoned meanders, lake steppes, and wetlands with rich vegetation. 


Of the species identified by the European community as rare, or at risk of extinction, are the following (according to the sign above):

~ 17 mammal species
~ 14 fish species
~ 145 bird species
~ 7 amphibian species
~ 8 reptile species
~ 8 plant species

And the last sign from the trail talks about the history of the industrialization of the area, with mention of the 1600's. 


In total, we walked for a little over 90 minutes along the river. We made it all the way south to a bridge in a tiny little community called Carturo after about 45-50 minutes, and then we turned around and trudged back to the car. The whole stretch was quite enjoyable. 




On our way back, I spotted three pairs of swans a-swimming . . . sadly, they always steered clear of our side of the river and I never got a good closeup photo of them. 


They are really far away in both of these photos . . .


Video of one of the pairs of swans: (8 seconds)


After our New Year's Day walk, I finished putting away our Christmas decorations. While I love Christmas very much, I also love the simpleness and cleanness when everything is all put away afterwards. 



After several dry days in a row - after all the rainy days prior to that - I felt it was safe enough to go for a walk through the fields across the street again. I'm referring to the gravel trails that offer several loop options adjacent to Del Din, the base where Scott works. Even though the trails are mostly gravel, there are a few spots that can get muddy and mucky if the weather turns sour.


But this time, it was pretty dry. Just a couple of spots I had to pick my way through on the trail.


The farm fields are primed and ready for whenever planting season begins again . . .


I always love the wide canals that wind through the fields and trails. Sometimes there might also be a lone heron or two scavengering on the banks.


On December 29th, I chose to walk to my doctor appointment. It was a little long to walk all the way from the house, so I parked a little closer and then I still got a good 50 minute walk in (round trip). I also met my first OB doctor here in Italy. 

While she was very nice, there was a definite language barrier. My main purpose was to discuss my recent labwork that showed I was pretty low in both estrogen and progesterone. My hope was that she might be able to change my dosage to compensate. 

Buuuut . . . before she would write up any prescriptions, she deemed it absolutely necessary to conduct an exam. Yeah. THAT exam. I told her I didn't need it because A) I didn't have any female organs to speak of since my hysterectomy 20 years ago, and B) I had this exam as recent as 2 years ago . . . but she still insisted. 


In Italy, there is no drape in the form of a cloth napkin or a sheet to lay across you, which would help at least a feeble amount to give you some privacy. I asked her for something to use for cover, and she looked perplexed as she searched for something to offer me. She handed me what looked like a chux pad (like what they use for patients at a hospital) . . . so not very much square footage if you know what I mean. Anywho, I'll spare you the rest of the nitty gritties, but let's just say that it wasn't a very fun experience. 


She also did a 1-minute ultrasound on my belly, perhaps to verify that I don't have any female parts anymore, since all she had was my word. In the process of doing this lightning fast ultrasound, she squirted out maybe a half gallon of blue goo all over my tummy which I had to try to mop up afterwards. I 100% ended up taking a shower after I got home . . .

As I walked back to my car after the appointment, I stopped to check out a new place of interest that I had scurried past earlier. It looked like the main building was maybe a small church or a religious missionary organization of some kind, but the main focus was the several Nativity groupings arranged across their sprawling property. 


The first couple of Nativities were quite lovely and you could tell that a lot of love and work went into them . . .



This one was a bit odd . . . maybe more of a zealous leaning rather than a peaceful Nativity scene. It seems to depict a guy at a station, waiting for a ride. To his left, he could choose to follow the Baby Jesus, who is riding shotgun on the handlebars of the tuk-tuk his earthly father, Joseph, is pulling. The sign indicates that the "House of God" is that way . . . OR . . . he could choose to follow the "House of Man" to his right, portrayed by a soldier sitting on a bench and holding a long rifle. Wow. That's a loaded Nativity scene if I've ever seen one . . .


I loved all the incredible details that went into this next one . . . piecing together each strip of wood to get them all lined up just right . . . Wow.


This one was sweet and simple . . .


And this next one . . . well, I kinda see what they were going for. What I don't understand is the vast number of parrots that were incorporated into the Nativity scene, ha ha. Maybe someone had a whopper sized collection of stuffed parrots that never get to see the light of day and needed some publicity. 


Again, I see what they were going for here . . . but dolls can come across with a, um, shall we say "creepy" element . . . ? And the words on the building translate to: "Enough war, let us grow."


Instead of having Scott come back to enjoy all the Nativities with me, I just showed him my pictures and that was more than plenty for him, ha ha. 

On another occasion, I studied Google Maps for a while, trying to pin down someplace that I could go on my walk that afternoon. I ended up choosing a walking path that was clearly marked and straddled alongside a long canal. There was a designated parking lot, too (BONUS) and was maybe a 10 minute drive from my house (to the north). 


Very quickly, though, I ran into problem after problem and kept having to turn around and go back. First, I chose to walk up the path on the right side of the canal, but it was moderate to moderate+ on the muddy scale. So I turned back and went across the bridge, which is where I took the photo above. I started walking up the lefthand side, but after picking my way for a few minutes, almost hopping from one clumpy patch of weed to the next, so as not to get mired down in the mud, I decided that this wasn't very much fun. So I turned back again.

I went across the main road and followed that section of path that way for a bit, especially as it seemed to be more dried out and less muddy. But a few minutes into my trek, I had to start hopping from weed clump to weed clump again to avoid the squishy mud. Darn it. I turned around a third time, gave up, and made my way back to the car. 

I found a little twig on the ground that was quite useful in digging out the blobs of mud lurking in the treads of my hiking boots before I got inside the car to drive home. 

I did manage to get one other photo on my mud trudge . . . this super bright yellow and orange house that sat next to a large farm.


On my way home, I pulled over to check out an old mill that was pretty cool-looking. The tallest part of the building is actually a dental studio! I'm pretty sure they don't need the mill for any of the work they're doing in people's mouths, but they probably thought it was an interesting place to set up their business.


Video of the water wheel and canal: (5 seconds)


That evening, we had the most gorgeous sunset I've seen in a while . . .

Video of the sunset here: (11 seconds)

I made a yummy soup that night, too. "Marry Me Chickpea Soup with Kale", although I also added some chicken to it because if it doesn't have meat, Scott is just broken and lost.



After my failed attempt for a walk the day before, I decided I needed to find someplace to walk that wasn't MUDDY. And I absolutely hit the jackpot. There is a park on the east side of Del Din that was recently opened to the public with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and a whole bunch of pomp and circumstance. But we hadn't gone to see it yet. 

The park is called Parco della Pace, or Park of Peace. It is MASSIVE. It is also super quiet and full of nature and wildlife, which is surprising because it was built on what used to be the old airfield and runway for Del Din. 

Take a look at how many bodies of water are within the park . . . and the walking trails go on and on for days . . . After looking for more information online, I read that the main outer loop is a little less than 4 km and that if you criss-cross and walk on every trail that you possibly could, it would be more like 8 km. 


I listened to 5 conference talks while I walked around the park . . . it was such a lovely hour.



I saw a couple of swans and some cute little black birds with a white mark on their foreheads. They looked like a duck breed. The water was mostly frozen over on the surface, but there were a couple of spots where the waterfowl were happily swimming around.

Video of the curious black "ducks": (8 seconds)


These swans weren't quite as shy as the ones on the River Brenta.

Video here: (10 seconds)

One of the paths that cuts across from the outer loop has some cool cement stepping stones . . . and interestingly, when I brought Scott here a couple days later, we found a few more shortcut paths with these same stepping stones, but the water level in those places was a little too high and had frozen over with some mud, so we weren't able to go across.



I was in awe of how large this park was, and how peaceful, quiet, and wide and free that it felt. I will be coming back here OFTEN. 


That evening, I was able to *finally* put some family photos up on my dining room wall that has been oh-so-blank for almost a year. In December of 2024, my sister Melanie contributed to my cause by giving me a gift card to MixTiles. But I wasn't ready to order anything yet at that point. We didn't even move into this place until last February, and then I was back in Idaho until May 1st. The summer was crazy busy and then fall disappeared almost as fast as the summer did. In December 2025, my older sister Charmaine was asking what we might like for Christmas, since we always do a sibling gift exchange and this time we were her lucky recipients. I suggested that she could add to Melanie's previous gift card for MixTiles, which she graciously did. So, together with my two sisters' generous donations and all of the holiday sales that were going on, I was able to place an order for 19 frames. 

MixTiles has a really amazing feature for their photo frames. You choose the size of the frame, plus the photo you want to be framed. They then add a magnet strip on the back that connects with another magnetic strip that adheres to the wall. I guess it's sort of like command strips, but with magnets instead of a velcro connection. 

Anyhow, NOW my home feels like HOME. I have all of these wonderful faces to look at every single day, and trust me, I DO. 




The only frame that I still need is one with Benson and Avery together. He'll be coming over next month and we will absolutely make that happen.


It's been very cold in Vicenza lately. For several weeks now the temperatures have been around 40-45 degrees for the high, and as low as 20 degrees overnight. Most mornings there is a hard frost on the ground, and I've seen several of our neighbors with a towel or a small blanket over the windshield of their car at night so they don't have to scrape the ice off in the mornings. I'm grateful we have a garage.

Last week, as I was getting my breakfast ready, I saw snow flurries falling from the sky outside!! They lasted for quite a while, maybe 90 minutes or more.

I have proof of the snow, ha ha. This relatively large snowflake landed on our balcony and stayed there for a long, long time.


Here is a short video of the cute little flurries floating down: (7 seconds)

The following day, I drove into town and found a place to park. I just started walking in one direction, aiming to go roughly 30 minutes before turning around to finish up my hour. I found a little park next to the Coop grocery store, with a walking path that was only mildly muddy . . . ha ha.



After patiently allowing me to creep closer and closer while they cleaned themselves, Mr. and Mrs. Duck ultimately decided they needed a little more space. (13 seconds)


I have no idea what kind of fish this is, but he looked a bit sulky on his bed of ice at the grocery store. I purchased 1 kg of salmon that I baked up with a honey-mustard sauce on top. It was a new recipe and was just "okay".


Two days after my first visit to the Parco della Pace, I brought Scott back with me on Saturday. He really enjoyed the park a lot, throwing out lots of comments like, "Wow, this place is huge!" and "Wow, what a beautiful place!"


We found a gravel path up to the top of a giant berm that overlooks the largest lake in the park, so we hoofed it up to the top for a look-see.


Video of a 360-degree view from the top of the hill - with Del Din on the other side of the fence: 

The same large cluster of interesting ducks were here again, playfully nipping and chasing each other around. We saw 3 little babies, too. They were a little too far away to get a crisp image of them, but here is a picture of the partially frozen surface that the older birds liked to waddle around on.


I've been wanting to get a larger and more functional cabinet/entertainment center for the TV for a long time now. I'm not a fan of glass shelving, where you can see the dust and fingerprints a little too much for my liking. I found a great option on Amazon-Italy and they delivered it a week earlier than we expected. Scott did a great job of putting it together for me.

The old TV stand . . .



And the new TV stand . . .



Just a few days ago, after church on Sunday, we drove to Marostica for a very unique event that is held here every January. Soup Curling. Yeah, that's right. 

Marostica is close to Nove (where they are famous for ceramics) and Bassano del Grappa (the land of my ancestors). Marostica is famous for their live human-sized chess game that they perform every two years with horses and players dressed up as knights and royalty. My sister Charmaine and I got to see this show back in September 2024 together. 



Well, during the coldest days of winter, they set up an ice skating rink in the same square where the huge chess tournament takes place. And then in January, they hold a curling tournament with MINESTRONE SOUP in PRESSURE COOKERS!!!


On a table lined with a bright red tablecloth sits the magnificent trophies for the event . . .


There were several teams participating in the tournament. The ice rink was divided in half, with two teams competing against each other on the left, while two different teams competed at the same time on the right. 

To understand how curling even works, I found a great 2:18 long video on YouTube:

The main difference in Marostica, was, of course, the pressure cookers. Each team only had one pressure cooker with minestrone soup inside, so they weren't sliding multiple "stones" across the ice. I think they still did 8-10 rounds to determine a winner who would then advance within the bracket. Once a winner was determined, then two more teams would come out onto the ice to practice and prepare for their shot at winning a round.


Video #1: I think the brooms being used here were not of the same quality as those that are used in the Olympics, lol. 

Video #2: A stone lands on the "house". 

Video #3: Once, they had to have a referee come over and measure to see who was closer to the house.

Video #4: This shows the amount of time generally between each "throw" down the ice. 

Video #5: A really good throw . . .

Video #6: An attempt to bump the first one out of the "house".

We stayed through 3 rounds of teams and I thought it was very entertaining. While I don't mind being in the middle of a thick crowd, Scott minds this very much. I found a spot where, in not too long of a time, I went from the 3rd row to the second row to the front. Scott found a spot away from the crowd where he just watched video reels on Instagram until I had had enough. *Note: The bright yellow-shirted Gremlins team did very well and advanced twice while I was there. 


Before we left, we walked across the Piazza to take a peek at their Nativity scene still set up . . .


An important lesson that I learned that day is to NOT drink a Coke Zero before heading off to an event where A) You don't know if there will be a bathroom at all, and B) It's freezing cold outside. I lasted about one hour out in the cold before I told Scott I was ready to go. (Home, that is) Thankfully, it was only about 30 minutes to get home, and yes, I did make it. Ha ha


It's not very often that we wake up to such a dramatic sunrise, but this was an incredible Monday morning just a few days ago.



Rewinding to December 27th . . . We wanted to take a drive somewhere so we could send the drone up. Scott researched and decided on where he wanted to take us. I happily sat in the passenger seat and tooks pictures and videos along the way.


We were headed up into these mountains . . . gulp . . . but we didn't anticipate snow for our afternoon outing. 


We went from 8 degrees Celsius down in the valley (46 F) to 1 degree Celsius by the time we got up to the top. (33 F) There was some occasional black ice on the narrow twisty roads that were mostly in the shade, and there were no dotted lines to referee who gets how many inches on each side of the road.

Video as we went around one of the hairpin turns: (7 seconds)

To get to the destination that Scott put into Google Maps, we navigated 15 (FIFTEEN!!) of those hairpin turns to get up to the top. But make it we did. 


Neither of us came prepared for that kind of cold or depth of snow. I had some hiking boots on, but I didn't even bring a hat or gloves. I know now that it was silly of me to be so unprepared, but next time I will do a better job. 

We stayed just long enough for Scott to launch the drone, fly it for a few minutes, and then we drove ourselves home, ha ha. Even the parking lot where we stood was a giant sheet of ice. There were a TON of people up there on a Saturday afternoon, though! They carefully shuffle-skated past us carrying skis on their shoulders, some still had their snowshoes or crampons on, and everyone seemed confident with whatever they were doing (except for us). 


Video of Scott's drone footage here: (2 min, 40 seconds) https://youtu.be/3eeoOfkqJaM

A few families were having fun on the slopes that surrounded the parking lot. Some came with sleds and others just threw snowballs at each other, as seen in this little sneaky video that I took.


For New Year's Eve . . . I made some homemade salsa that was SO GOOD and we had a nice little group of young people over for the evening. We had invited a larger number to come, but I guess we weren't cool enough to make the cut, and that's okay. 



I set out a variety of snacks, including a traditional Panettone cake, store-bought cookies, kumquats (Scott's favorite fruit), chips and salsa, a large bowl of homemade guacamole, and a pot full of homemade popcorn that I enlisted Scott to make. Elder and Sister Sim brought a variety of sodas to share, and Scott had several cupfuls of orange soda, which surprised me. He doesn't usually like anything carbonated.


I set out a few games that we could choose from, including Sushi Go and What Do You Meme? (sort of like Apples to Apples, but the judge gets to decide which photo meme fits the criteria the best) Each winner got a prize. I had a little bowl with numbers written on a piece of paper. Whatever number they drew would correspond to the prize they got. At the end of the night, they could swap prizes with whoever they wanted.

We also played a different version of Pictionary, where instead of drawing an object on paper or a whiteboard, you had to "draw it" with popsicle sticks on the table. We split up into two teams for that one and it was such a hoot. The winners each got a prize. 



Another game that we did was for each person to try to get their ping pong ball to bounce once and then travel the length of the table and land in one of the cups taped to the opposite end of the table. If it successfully landed in a cup, then they would earn a prize. 

Sister Joder's ball made it into one of the cups, but immediately bounced out. We decided to count it anyway, to her joy.

Elder Sim was the first one to actually stick the landing: 

Sister Quilter (from Northern Wales) was the final winner of the night: 

It took a long while and a lot of attempts before those 3 that I mentioned finally had success. They earned the last prizes of the night. Sister Quilter drew the Mystery Prize number, which was a little cup with random euro coins that added up to like 7 euros or something like that. She was ECSTATIC!!

Our little New Year's Eve group included, L to R: Elder Sim, Scott and Me, Shayne (in the back), Sister Joder and Sister Quilter in the front, Sister Sim behind them, Elder David and Elder Dandanneau - both from France. 


Elder Dandanneau was so happy when he traded to get those warm gloves. I didn't know when I bought them earlier that they would be in such high demand! When the missionaries arrived that evening by bus, they had been out in the cold at various stages leading up to our evening of fun, and they were utterly cold. We made several cups of tea to warm everyone up over the next 3 hours, but those gloves were a lifesaver for Elder Dandanneau. He still thanks me for those gloves when I see him at church! Who knew that such a small gift would turn out to be so monumental?!!

Something we learned later that night as we tried to go to sleep was that ALL OF ITALY loves their fireworks!!! Holy Moly. The entire city of Vicenza was aglow with fireworks everywhere. We had a front row seat from our balcony to what the neighbors were launching up to celebrate the New Year.



True to form, the city went silent almost exactly at 12:30 a.m., just as someone told us it would. It was a solid fireworks show from 11:55 p.m. until 12:30 a.m. What fun!!

In my next blog post, I'll be sharing all about our upcoming weekend in the Netherlands. We leave tomorrow (Friday) and we'll be back on Monday. I'm so excited!! Buon Viaggio. 


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