It was a groggy start today, although my cold is definitely giving in quickly now. Noah admitted that he's not much of a morning person either, so breakfast was quiet, especially without the fireworks of peanut butter jars smashing.
We were soon out in the fresh morning air under a cloudless sky, leaving Helen to her computer. I set Noah up with the chop saw to cut up the larger pieces of wood from the terraces while I went back up for a second pass over the piles of debris we'd discarded yesterday to make sure we hadn't missed anything decent... we had!! I think it was more a case of the stuff we left behind having looked useless next to the bigger stuff we collected yesterday, but with fresh eyes and nothing bigger to compare it with, there seemed to be endless piles of kindling still on the terraces so I set about it with a bill hook to the sound of the chop saw whirring angrily below.
By coffee time, Noah had made a rather nice pile of wood and I'd done similar up on the terraces.
After a very enjoyable and well earned coffee along with some more of Helen's ginger biscuits, we went to the wood pile area - we needed to make space for all of the wood we were collecting.
It was clear that the ancient mechanical cultivator was in the way, so after rocking it to check its weight might be moveable, we decided to try and remove it, flat tyres and all.
We collected up all of the old bottles that had been left in the back of the little trailer - which smelled somewhat boozy - moved all the stones from around it, and with much straining and sweating, managed to 'walk' it out onto the path and then push it onto the rubble pile.
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| For once, these aren't OUR empties! |
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| The cultivator finds its new home/resting place. |
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| A tidy wood pile! |
We now had a lovely empty wood storage area that we could use to start getting ready for the fast-approaching winter. We stacked the small bits that Noah had cut into the left-hand side, then went back to trimming stuff on the terraces.
At lunch time, Noah and I make a quick trip to see Amanda for some more cheese and bread while Helen (who had surfaced from her chilly cave) heated through soup number 2: her home-made pumpkin soup, the pumpkin having come courtesy of Alex and Donatella. Both Noah and I had worked up quite an appetite today and tucked in heartily to soup, fresh bread, fettunta, three types of cheese and salami, all under the hot autumn sun. The soup was delicious! I've always been happy enough eating soups but without being a huge fan - I wouldn't miss them if they vanished - but this one was truly lovely. I'm sure the worker's appetite and the sunshine helped, but it's definitely one I'll be returning to again throughout the autumn and winter.
After lunch it was back to endless trimming of kindling again, and before we knew it 3.30pm chimed and it was time to stand Noah down. By now though, Helen had clocked off from the desk job to come and play on the terraces and was attempting to make a dent in Allison's collection of rakings from last week.
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| No wonder Helen and Allison ended up looking like they had been scrapping with tigers! |
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| Look at that lovely neat pile of kindling. |
We both worked away solidly until about 6pm and then put the geese to bed before we lost the light. The geese are becoming quite comical and seem to be really settling in - there was a noticeable increase in honking today, along with some other strange squeaks. The best is when the gander hisses at us when we arrive with lettuce at lock-in time. I'm not sure if it's a normal hiss, as I'm not well versed in goose hisses, but it makes me laugh each and every time because he wants us to go away but wants his lettuce - I can only imagine the internal turmoil going on in little Mr Goose's head!
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| 'GO AWAY, no I want the lettuce, no GO AWAY, no I want the lettuce...!' |
Once darkness fell, we retired indoors. Helen spent some time browsing the internet looking at different dog breeds, while I tried fixing Sue's laptop, but to no avail - I tested both RAM chips, the battery and the power supply but it still keeps freezing. While I went for a shower, Helen made a start on dinner and then, while I attempted to light a small fire to lift the room temperature a couple of degrees, I chatted on the phone to Mom and also Ben - my now 5ft 11in son, who was staying with his Nan for the night.
Noah arrived mid-call and amused himself with a beer and my book on wood fires until dinner was ready. Tonight's dinner was a lentil and mushroom ragu, which was actually very tasty. We've promised Noah there will be some animal protein on offer at some point soon, but he seemed unfazed by the lack of it and said that everything we (er... Helen) has cooked so far has been delicious, I have to agree!
After dinner, I persuaded everyone sit down in front of the first episode of Brian Cox's new TV series - which seems to be some kind of anthropological work. It was as enjoyable and informative an offering as ever, which we all enjoyed. Once it had finished, we enlightened Noah on the workings of the British (and Italian, come to think of it) TV licence - which actually seemed to amaze to him far more than anything Brian Cox had to say!
It was soon bed time though, and we all retired for the evening with another sunny day of work ahead. Tomorrow, Noah and I plan to put our efforts into digging drainage channels in the drive.
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