I hauled myself out of bed at the slightly later-than-usual time of 7.40am, but still feeling like I would much rather turn over and go back to sleep. After feeding the cats, I ventured outside for a rather grumpy and unmotivated exercise session - although it got better once I got into the swing of things. Once I'd finished that, I decided that, while I was already hot and sweaty, I would be proactive and tick off one of the jobs on this weekend's to-do list and mow the lawn.
I got the lawn mower out, plugged it in, managed to get the apartment lawns nice and neat and tidy, and managed a single stripe all the way across the main lawn before the mower coughed and gave up. At this point, Stuart was just settling himself down on the patio with his morning glass of grapefruit juice and his tablet PC, but on hearing the mechanical/electrical fail, he came to have a look. The grass had been slightly wet with dew, and it looked like the blade had got clogged up with wet grass. Once we'd cleaned off the blade, we tried the mower again, but it was dead as a dodo. Clearly the motor had given up. Brilliant. So, instead of getting ahead of things and getting a job ticked off the to-do list, I had both failed to complete the job AND created a new job: going to buy a new lawn mower.
I stomped inside to go and have a shower.
We then had breakfast and coffees on the patio in the beautiful morning sunshine, Stuart put in a call to his mum, while I pottered about for a bit, then we decided it was time to head into town. On the list for this morning were: posting a parcel to my nephew and nieces, collecting our pictures from the framing shop, visiting the hardware shop where we thought we might be able to get a new lawnmower, and getting some prices for chicken wire.
As we were driving down the hill, I suggested we stop at the post office in Pietrabuona to do our posting - to save us having to queue up in the big post office in town. We duly did that, and managed to get the parcel posted off for the grand total of €19. Time will tell how long it takes to reach its destination - hopefully before the girls' birthday in the middle of September!!
Next, we drove into Pescia, parked in the car park opposite the old flower market, and walked up to the framing shop. It was closed. There was a handwritten note on the door saying 'back at 15.30' (it was about 11am at this point).
So we trudged back to the car empty handed and headed for the hardware shop just outside of town. We'd visited this shop on a couple of occasions previously and knew that the owner is very friendly, but that he not only speaks no English, but he also speaks Italian very quickly!! He saw us perusing his stock and came to ask if he could help.
First, we asked how much he was charging for the two different types of chicken wire we were after - simple question, simple answer. We then started asking about lawn mowers. We had been a little disappointed to see only two models on show in his shop, but after asking us whether we wanted a petrol powered one or an electric one (we said electric), he quickly raced to his computer, called up his lawnmowers page and beckoned us behind his counter to have a look. He was only showing us the EXACT same make and model as was currently sitting abandoned in the middle of our lawn at home!!
We explained that we had already bought one of those, a couple of months ago, but that today it was broken. He asked us where we had bought it. When we said 'Obi', he rolled his eyes and gave us a look as if to say 'well, what do you expect?!'. We all had a bit of a laugh at that and we said 'never again' (or what we hoped were words to that effect), and asked if he had anything that was a better make and model.
He quickly leafed through his printed catalogue and found a couple of options that he assured us were a much better brand (with a slightly more expensive price tag, which is what we were expecting). There followed lots of gabbling in Italian and hand gestures, of which we only understood snippets, but next we were all racing back out to the front of the shop to have a look at the two models that were on display out there. These were both petrol powered, but he explained that a petrol powered mower would be stronger and would cope a lot better with long grass (and, presumably with slightly dewy grass...). The petrol-powered model in his shop was only €8 more expensive than the electric one he was showing us in his catalogue, so we decided that it was probably worth the extra and decided to take the plunge. Fully expecting him to unchain the mower from outside the shop, put it in the back of our car and take some money from us, he surprised us by saying that he couldn't let us have it until it had been checked over and filled up - which would be Wednesday. It seemed that buying a lawn mower was going to be surprisingly like buying a car! We agreed that we would come back in the week, and resigned ourselves to the fact that the mowing-the-lawn task would not be one we would be able to tick off our to-do list this weekend.
From the hardware shop, we turned up a back street in order to get back onto the main road, but as we followed the back street around, we became intrigued as to where the road led. So we followed it.
It turned out that the road went up the hill on the west side of Pescia, to the tiny village/hamlet of Monte a Pescia. There were some beautiful views from the road - on which were also several restaurants (with lovely views) that we hadn't heard of or seen before.
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| View across Pescia (looking to the east). |
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| Looking towards the plains. |
After gawping at the view for a while, we retraced our route to get back down into Pescia. Our next stop was the agraria in Santa Lucia that we had found closed last Saturday afternoon - we wanted to see how much they were selling chicken wire for, to compare prices.
We must have arrived just before they were about to close, as the clock in the car read 12.30pm, but the gates were still open so we went in. We managed to find out that their rolls of chicken wire were slightly dearer than those at the hardware shop, so we stored that useful piece of information and just bought a pair of ear defenders (so that we have a spare pair that Stuart can take out when he goes for a day's strimming work).
Before heading home, Stuart decided he'd like to try to get to Uzzano - a village perched just above Pescia that he had attempted to cycle to a few weeks ago, but hadn't quite found it on that occasion. We drove there and had a brief wander around. Another pretty village - perhaps not as beautiful as others we have seen recently, but that's only because we are getting spoiled. It was beautiful, with some stunning views!
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| Uzzano. |
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| More Uzzano. |
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| View across Pescia/the plains from the other side of the hill (looking west). |
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| Piazza in Uzzano. |
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| Church in Uzzano. |
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| How about that for a view? |
By the time we had finished wandering the cobbles of Uzzano, it was definitely lunchtime, so we got back in the car and sped back up the valley towards home and an al fresco lunch of bread, cheese and salami in the sunshine.
We were very sensible today (check us out!) and, despite it being the weekend, we didn't indulge in a small glass of wine or share a beer over lunch. We had work planned for the afternoon and, with the sun beating down, we needed to give ourselves the best chance of being as productive as possible!
Lunch cleared away, we both went to change into 'work clothes'. It being so warm, Stuart lent me a pair of his work shorts to wear - and then lent me his steel toe-capped boots to wear as well. We must have looked a right pair of loons in his-n-hers work shorts and boots. Well, you can see for yourself:
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| His... |
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| ...and hers (although really also his). |
So once changed, doused in insect repellent and kitted out with gloves/goggles/ear defenders etc., we headed for Goose Island.
First, Stuart gave the bottom terrace a final going over with the strimmer - it was very nearly almost finished by the time I left it last night, but still in need of a final once over to get all the niggly bits of ivy and bramble up.
While he was doing that, I made a start on raking up all the clippings that had been dumped on the drive over the course of the last few days. Of course, just as I was making a dent in that, Stuart finished strimming and raked a whole load more clippings over the side to me.
Next, I decided that I would have a go at tidying up the edge of the bottom terrace, by attacking it (or as much as I could within my reach) with the hand-held hedge trimmers from the drive. I got the hedge trimmers out (which I had been using quite happily yesterday evening), got them started, and they coughed, spluttered, and stopped. Hmm. I tried topping up the fuel, as it was a little low, then started them again - once again, the motor sprung into life, but when I squeezed the trigger the thing coughed, spluttered, and stopped. The exact same behaviour that the hand-held strimmer is exhibiting, in fact.
So, the hedge trimmers made it out of the repair shop for an incredible two days before conking out.
To recap, we now have a broken strimmer... from Obi, a broken lawnmower.... from Obi, and a broken set of hedge trimmers... from Obi. The other common denominator, which I don't really like to draw too much attention to, is the fact that the same person (er... that'd be me) has been using each of said items when they decided to give up the ghost.
I was frustrated at this point. Stuart offered to trim the bank using the back-pack trimmers while I went and did some weeding, but I had really wanted to do the tidying. He suggested I gave the back-pack trimmers a go - after all, I am now quite happily using the back-pack strimmer without any difficulty, so I might find I get on with the trimmers OK as well. So I strapped on the backpack and headed off. The difference between the strimmer and the hedge trimmer attachment, though, is that the strimmer is on a pole that is not quite as long - plus, of course, most of the time while strimming you are holding the thing in a downward position. With the trimmers, on their very long, heavy, pole, the idea is to reach up to get vegetation that is otherwise out of reach, and thus you wave the pole around in the air - hopefully with some strength and control so that you actually cut the bits you are interested in cutting. Turns out that I still don't have the required strength to operate the trimmers with enough precision and purpose, and after a few minutes of flailing around waving the pole vaguely in the air while my pathetic arm and shoulder muscles screamed at me, I conceded defeat and handed the job over to Stuart. Not only would he do a much better and more efficient job of things, but he was also far less likely to a. break the trimmers and b. slip down the bank and trim something that really oughtn't be trimmed.
So while he attacked the bank, I continued to rake and dispose of the clippings. He made pretty short work of the job and left the bank looking very tidy indeed.
Once I'd finished raking yet more clippings away, the whole area looked fantastic. We're pretty proud of what we've achieved between us in a few weeks, especially the now very tidy bottom terrace - for a long time neither of us thought we would ever be able to see solid ground underneath all the ivy and brambles there, but now it is all neatly clipped and tidy.
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| Goose Island. |
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| Goose Island. |
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| Neatly trimmed bank from the drive (so the geese will have an uninterrupted view!). |
The next jobs on Goose Island will be: putting the remaining fence posts in (about 6 more to go), putting up the chicken wire, building a gate into the area, building a goose house... and GETTING some geese to live in it.
We were both feeling pretty weary by the time 5.45pm rolled around, as well as feeling pretty good about what we'd achieved in the three to four hours we'd been working, so we downed tools and retired to the patio for a well earned glass of beer in the still very warm sunshine. These days, the sun is disappearing behind the hill opposite us at about 7pm (about 20 minutes earlier than a couple of weeks ago), which is the point at which I feel the need to reach for a jumper, as the intense heat disappears fairly rapidly once the sun dips behind the hill. So we had a very enjoyable hour or so in the evening sunshine before we lost the sun for the day.
After doing the usual rounds of watering all the plants, we retired indoors to do washing up, cooking, blogging and showering. And after all of that we can look forward to relaxing on the sofa with a glass of wine and some dinner.
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