The last seven days of hard graft took their toll this morning, and I was not in the mood for a day's strimming at Lanciole again - but needs must, so I left Helen at home as she finished her morning's exercise and headed up the valley with all my usual tools plus a waterproof coat, as rain was due at some point today.
The morning disappeared to the sound of the four-stroke engine strapped to my back along with a curious goo splattering me from time to time. My forearms were spattered, and even my face caught the odd bit through the very fine mesh of my face guard. It was odd stuff - different colours and very sticky. It took me until lunchtime to realise that it was slug innards! Yuck. It was damp underfoot today, despite no rain actually falling, and the damp had clearly brought out all the slimy creatures - it's safe to say that I had at least halved their numbers by the time I finished...
When I called home to check in with Helen at lunch time, she was still busy working, but today she was doing so in a warmer-than-usual office, courtesy of the fire I lit in the mini log burner in there before I left today (it still didn't stop her making a hot water bottle though!).
After a quick lunch break, I went back to strimming. I desperately wanted to throw the towel in and was almost praying that rain would stop play, but it never came. Mid-afternoon, I switched tasks in an attempt to help me limp through the final furlong, but it was still a struggle and I was very glad to hear the church bells of Lanciole and Crespole across the way chiming time to go home. I loaded the tools and a pile more wood into the bus and rolled back down the valley home.
As I drove down the driveway, I met Noah walking in the same direction - when I had spoken to Helen at about 12:30pm, she said that he still hadn't surfaced. He knew that he had been planning on staying up until the wee small hours to watch the Denver Broncos play the New England Patriots, and it was his day off after all, so who are we to judge (and we we're both 19 once... I think!)?
When he did surface, after coming up to the house to make himself a packed lunch, he went for a walk up to Vellano, and then from there down to Calamari and back to ours. He was out walking for about four hours so certainly made up for his lie-in. He said that three people had stopped to offer him a lift, not realising he was out for a walk by choice and not just trying to get somewhere! He said that his patchy Italian failed him and he had to resort to gesticulating to explain he was OK!
As Noah headed back to the apartment and I started unloading the car, I heard Helen up on the terraces behind me finishing work for the day - after finishing her office work, she spent an hour and a half back on the hidden terraces again. She came down and helped me unload the car, then I went indoors to call Antonio about the problem with the chainsaw. He's going to call in at ours tomorrow after work, so I'd better make sure I have small coffees at the ready!
Helen and I then went to feed the geese and put them to bed - they really are getting quite vocal these days, especially when it comes to lettuce time! I's really quite funny seeing the gander going nuts.
Then it was time to call the cats in and catch up on our respective days while translating an email we had received in response to one of our enquiries yesterday about a puppy. 'Jeremy', the extremely cute pointer puppy who had apparently been found wandering the countryside all alone, was being advertised by a rescue centre in Bologna via the Italian eBay site. He looked like he was just crying out for some owners, and while we have some reservations about re-homing an abandoned dog, it's how we've always added new pets to the family in the past, and it's how we like to do it. We've emailed some questions back this evening, so will wait to see what comes of it.
Squash and feta risotto tonight, and an early night, I think. Tomorrow is Noah's second day off , so I'm looking forward to a day catching up with admin and doing slightly less physical work.
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