Better.

That's more like it!! After a poor night's sleep on Sunday, last night was the other end of the scale and we both woke feeling better for it today.

Helen went out for a 45-minute spin on the turbo trainer and although I didn't make it out of bed when she went outside, I was up and drinking grapefruit juice by the time she came back in.

While Helen started her day's editing work, I started my day off by calling the mechanic to find out how our car was doing. A lot of the rest of the week's plans were hanging on whether or not we would have our car, so it was important to know as soon as possible. I got through to a receptionist and managed to garble a decent enough sentence to make her understand that they had my car and I wanted it back, so she transferred me to the the mechanic. I say 'transferred', but I'm sure all she did was mute the phone and shout to him, such is the preferred means of communication in Italy.

Unfortunately, I soon got into deep water on the phone as my car-mechanics-related vocabulary is somewhat limited. I knew he was talking about the petrol and methane system, but other than that I was lost. He suggested I call the dealer, which I did, and asked for Maurizio (the English-speaker). Maurizio hadn't arrived at work yet, so I left our phone number and went into the office to start work on the creative part of the VB conference design work. My first job was trying to find a piece of music that said 'Seattle'. Hmm, not so easy! I spent about an hour on YouTube only to find one passable option from 20 years ago - slim pickings indeed. Thankfully, I was soon saved by the phone. It was Maurizio, so I explained that I needed him to speak to the mechanic as I couldn't understand enough of what he was saying.

Ten minutes later, Maurizio called back to let me know that the mechanic had said that it was just a tiny fault with the system that wasn't worth fixing, 'just a contact, there is no problem with the engine,' he said, so we could go and collect the car today. Great news!

I was faced with the choice of either going right away, or waiting until after lunch (3pm), and since the sun was out, I decided now was the best option. I even managed to persuade Helen to down tools for an hour and come along for the ride. She didn't need much convincing to get back on her mountain bike again, and as she was waiting for an email to action something anyway, it was a good time to ride out into the sun.

We were soon winding our way into town, where we made a quick pit stop at a bike spares and repair shop so that I could buy a new pedal crank for my mountain bike, then headed out to Porcari. It was beautiful cycling weather, warm with a gentle breeze. It was just a shame it was a 'school' day - otherwise we could have kept going for hours.

We got to the garage just before noon, got the keys back from the mechanic, loaded the bikes into the back and drove home for lunch on the veranda.

After lunch, Helen went back to work in the office while I decided that I should work outside as the weather looks a touch less settled for the next few days. The first thing I wanted to do was to repair my mountain bike, and then tweak the gears on my road bike as they were rubbing horribly on the front derailleur. I didn't much fancy working on them in full glare of the sun though, and then the idea hit me: I would use a large canvas that I had found in the woodshed to create a shelter at the rear of the house - not only for working on the bikes or doing DIY in the rain, but also to provide a sheltered area for Helen to exercise in the wet! I was thus somewhat sidetracked for an hour while I constructed my canvas shelter, but once that was done I spent a pleasant half-hour tinkering with the bikes under the shade before packing them away and going back to fence-post-driving in the sun.

It provides good shelter for cats too.

It turns out that we're two fence posts short - plus there's one I've turned into firewood by trying to drive it into stone hidden beneath the earth - so another trip to Montecatini is in order for a few extra posts.

I packed up as the clock was approaching 6pm, and Helen was just finishing up in the office, so we sat on the patio with a glass of red wine and a bowl of olives watching the sun go down. While we were out there, Mom called for a quick catch up before she heads off to Canada tomorrow, and while we chatted Helen kept a careful eye on the cats who were both watching a rather sizeable snake that had slithered into a gap between the rocks wall near the patio.

The girls on snake patrol.

After wishing Mom safe and happy travels, we sat down to investigate a couple of walnuts that Helen had picked from the tree. While the majority are still green and plump, some are  now looking rather black and miserable, and on closer inspection beneath the black outer hull there was a nutshell inside. After giving up trying to find our nut cracker in the chaotic (and only) kitchen drawer, I took my lump hammer to it - a little excessive, I know, but it was the first thing I could lay hands on. One gentle tap later and we had our first walnut!!

Walnuts from the garden...

I ate half, Helen ate a quarter, and we both decided they need a bit more time to mature, as it tasted quite 'green' and rather bitter. We later found out through the magic of the internet that the black hulls need washing off, and then they need two weeks of air drying before consumption - so if we can wrestle enough of them from the red squirrels (which now seem to be quite frequent visitors), we should have a small crop of nuts in a few weeks! A lot of the tree is inaccessible due to being overgrown with bramble, so we've decided it will be our mission next year to beat back the undergrowth far enough to make a decent harvest next time around.

Next stop was dinner: a huge quinoa salad tonight with tomatoes, cucumber, toasted pumpkin seeds, salad ricotta and piles of parsely. Helen prepped dinner while I wrote the blog and went for a shower. Next stop, dinner and sofa!