Family reunions

This morning started with the realisation that we made a rookie error yesterday. Somebody left a black plastic bin liner full of rubbish outside the house. To be fair, I don't think either of us meant to leave it there, but it just kind of got forgotten about in amongst the activities of the day. Won't be making that mistake again:

The beastie that has been stealing Reggie's football and attempting to steal his blanket must have thought all its Christmases had come at once last night. That's certainly not the first thought that went through my mind this morning though, and I had to add litter picking to my list of tasks to complete before I could set up my bike and start my exercise for the morning.

After that, my morning was a lot less eventful. I got my head down to plough on with some office work while Stuart cleaned the bathroom, washed up, swept - oh and took the rubbish to the bins - in preparation for his Mum's arrival later this afternoon.

After an early lunch, therefore, he headed off for Florence airport, leaving Reggie and me to an afternoon of work interspersed with jumping up to let the dog out/in/out/in and so on.

Happily, Sheila (Stuart's Mum) had a much less eventful trip over this time than she did when she last came back in July (when terrible weather meant her flight had to land in Milan, which was then followed by an arduous coach trip to Florence), and not long after 3.30pm, as Reggie and I were taking a walk up the drive we were met by the car coming in the opposite direction. Time for Reggie to meet Nanny Smith!

After the usual volley of barks, and a few looks to us for reassurance, Reggie seemed to take an immediate shine to Sheila, licking her hands and offering his chest for a good scratch.

We all retired indoors so that I could get a little more work done while mother and son caught up over a cup of tea and Reggie continued to bond with his latest house guest.

We all headed out at around 5pm to take Reggie for a proper walk along the river in Pescia. The day was much milder than it has been of late, but there was a very stiff wind, which made us all pull our coats tight and thrust our hands into our pockets. After a good walk up and down the river bank, we put Reggie back into his crate in the car and popped into Bar Poulter for a quick drink - Aperol spritzes all round (well, Sheila is on holiday and I will be on holiday later this week... what more excuse do you need?!).

We then headed back up the hill to the house, Stuart went to put the geese to bed (in the dark), I lit the fire and we all settled down to an evening of catching up over Tuscan sausage and beans in front of a warm fire.