Beautiful end of the weekend

Sunday started with the letting out of the geese at just after 7am, but after having done so, Helen promptly climbed back into bed for another hour.

When we surfaced an hour or so later, the first job of the day was to portion up and the fruits of last night's cook-a-thon: Tuscan ragu, veggie chilli, leek and potato soup, and pea soup.

The fruits of many labours!

That done, we both headed downstairs to turn the apartment around. The job took less than two hours between us this time - I think we're coming to realise that it's a quicker job if the place is occupied regularly, so let's hope for a busy season next year! In fact, we already have our first set of guests booked in for the start of spring - Helen's Mum and Dad have booked flights for March already, and this time for a longer stay, we'll be very happy to see them here again.

It was noon by the time we had locked the doors to the apartment and lunchtime beckoned, but once again we were out of bread, so a quick trip down the road to Amanda's was in order to secure her last half a kilo of bread freshly cooked in a wood oven that morning.

Helen made up a batch of hummus, and we sat on the patio with half a beer each to soak up the glorious sunshine that had made an appearance. It was so warm, I almost had to change into shorts but laziness got the better of me and I decided to grin and bear it. It wasn't really hard to bear, after all: I was sitting with a beer, the best home-made hummus we (Helen) had ever made, my wife, the cats milling around, the sunshine, and our amazing view.

Beautiful autumn sunshine.

Our apartment guests were due to arrive in the early afternoon so we had no real plans to go out, and after the phone had rung we definitely couldn't go anywhere - it was Claudia, the lady who we had been told would be in touch regarding the puppy we are interested in giving a new home to. She asked if she could visit us at 4-4:30pm this afternoon, so I of course agreed.

That meant that we were tied to the house - which was actually very nice: we couldn't go anywhere and the weather was lovely. It was the first 'slow' day we've had for many, many weeks, and it was nice to have an enforced slow down. So, while I sat on the patio peeling chestnuts, Helen tidied the house in readiness for our visit and then joined me on the patio to do her Italian homework. We both sat there attending to our respective tasks in silence, it was beautiful (not that we weren't talking to each other, you understand, just that it was so relaxing whiling away the sunny afternoon to the sound of the river down in the valley bottom and the birds all around us in the woods).

While peeling chestnuts, Mom finally managed to catch us near the Skype phone - so often, we're at home, but working outside with noisy toys or on terraces so far away from the house that we just don't hear the phone ringing, so it was nice to catch up eventually.

It must have been around 3pm when our guests arrived, having had their flight delayed this morning. We chatted for quite some time with them when they got out of the car - the geese started the conversation rolling, and things went on from there. Marissa and Richard have stayed at this house numerous times before (with the previous owners) while doing restoration work on their own little cottage across the valley, so it was a great boost for us to hear from them how good they thought the place was looking. On this occasion, they had also brought along Marissa's brother-in-law (another Richard), who was seeing this part of Tuscany for the first time, and he too seemed bowled over by our little spot.

They went out at around 15:45 to go and inspect their cottage - and see just how much weed and bramble clearing needed doing (having not visited it for many months) - and then head off in search of Richard no. 3 in Pescia to collect some items he was storing for them.

After waving them off for the afternoon, we went back to the patio just as the sun was racing all too soon towards the mountain top opposite, threatening an imminent drop in temperature. We were just starting to move indoors when the phone rang - it was Claudia again, she couldn't find our house and her TomTom had taken her all the way up to Vellano. As it was a little difficult to give directions over the phone, we agreed to meet in Pietrabuona at Frataschi's so that she could follow us to the house, so Helen and I hopped into the car and headed down to wait in Frateschi's car park. After a little while, a large 4x4 turned up, containing Claudia, her husband Massimo, and their German shepherd! We introduced ourselves and they followed us back up the road to our house.

As we were chatting after getting out of the cars, Claudia (whose English is very good) mentioned that she knows the area, saying that she has a friend somewhere nearby with a brother who lives in England, and then somehow she mentioned Sheffield. The penny dropped straight away and I immediately blurted out Marco's name - the guy we met in Pescia a few months back who runs his own cycling holiday company and who lives in Sheffield. He is only the brother of Claudia's friend, who lives in Montecatini! Piccolo mondo!!

So, realising that we had common acquaintances (albeit slightly tenuous on our part, having only met Marco once and emailed him a couple of times after that) set us up nicely for when we finally did get to talk about dogs, or puppies. Claudia said it was a beautiful place and that it would be perfect for a dog (as if to demonstrate its suitability, her German shepherd ran excitedly around the garden the whole time we were talking). She then displayed a concerned face as she could see nowhere for a dog to be without escaping off into the woods - we had, however, already picked up on this being an issue and had decided to fence off our lawn and patio area, which immediately got the thumbs up. After Claudia had taken a few photos to send back to the rescue centre HQ, we were cleared (by Claudia, at least) for adoption! We were also left with both Claudia and Massimo's mobile numbers and they insisted we go to visit them at their place in Monticatini Terme. It seems we may have found our first Italian friends, or acquaintances at the very least! It would be good to practice our language skills on them and theirs on us, as they had a decent smattering of English too.

After they left, we bounced (metaphorically speaking) into the house, pleased with our seal of approval, and while Helen set about finishing the Tuscan bean soup she was preparing for the freezer, I headed out with a bowl full of lettuce to feed Mr Grumpy and Mrs Less-Grumpy before putting them to bed, which I finally managed, on my own, without sticks - a feat Helen had been managing solo all week, but today was my first attempt.

As I write the blog, the wood burner is glowing and the smell of the aforementioned Tuscan bean soup is wafting through the house - time for a relaxing evening before the start of another busy week.