conversation pit

I have no idea if this architectural feature has a more formal name, but I've always known it as the conversation pit: an uneven shaped small courtyard between the back wall of 962 and the houses on the hill behind and above it - built rather like an Italian hilltown into the steep hillside, and probably just as vulnerable in the event of an earthquake.   It's always (except when people are film editing behind, and playing the same sound loop over and over and over and over again) been a wonderful spot to sit and read: part shaded, very warm.    This, in fact, was taken lying on my back (so much for intending to get on with To the Lighthouse for tomorrow's grad class) and looking straight upwards.    There are the neighborly precariously perched geraniums, their tomato plants just coming into view, a Leaving On a Jet Plane vapor trail in the sky and adding to the count-the triangles effect.   So - yet further memorialization.   I've been wandering around, again, this weekend, storing up visual corners.