Frustration!

A beautiful crisp morning and cloudless clear blue skies greeted us when we woke today - exactly what had been forecast, and just what winter should be like. All standing water outside was frozen solid, and the terraces were covered in a layer of frost. That hasn't put off a few hardy (or misguided) plants from starting to show signs of springing into life though - spring must be just around the corner:

As our first winter in Tuscany wears on, our supply of porridge oats is being decimated, as is our woodpile. Whereas the latter I can easily fix with a chainsaw and axe, the former is not so easy. Rolled oats, as we are accustomed to in England, simply don't exist here. Nick and Tess, our New Zealand friends, very thoughtfully left us with a couple of packets of Italian steel cut oats - and they will be getting their first try in the form of porridge in the not too distant future as we are rapidly eating our way through the supplies brought to us first by Paul and Marie, then by Dave and Sarah last month.

After breakfast (which was porridge, in case you hadn't guessed), I headed out on a shopping trip, taking Reggie with me so that Helen could have a peaceful and productive morning in the office.

After visits to both Frateschi's and OBI, I returned home laden with the following: batten timber to use in the apartment, a couple of lengths of trim timber to tidy up the joint between the sideboard and the worktop that's now fixed to the top of it, some pieces of pine and a dozen brackets to make some shelving, five litres of chain oil for the chainsaw, another sack of kindling to get us through the last of winter, some sink unblocking liquid and some more septic tank enzymes, two more sets of LED ceiling lights for the bedroom and kitchen (the same as now hangs in the office), some cement sealer to seal the 'grout' in the worktop, and a couple of other incidental items not worth mentioning.

So when I got home to find lunch almost ready I was feeling like today was going to be a good day indeed!

After lunch, I drank a cup of tea in the sunshine on the patio before making a start on moving a pile of wood from the lawn to the wood pile while deciding what to turn my hand to for the rest of the afternoon.

Everything I'd bought today was for indoor jobs, and with such beautiful weather I was reluctant to go and work indoors - but knowing that this weather is forecast to stick around all week, and that we had a meeting with the geometra at 6pm, I decided that a few hours of clean work indoors was the only sensible thing to do.

So while the dog spent the afternoon on the door mat lazing in the sun, I fitted the trim to the underside of the worktop and made and fitted shelves to the rear of the sideboard either side of the wine rack, turning the wine rack (which had looked somewhat out of place when I first fitted it to the back of the sideboard) into the centrepiece of a very neat-looking arrangement that we're both very pleased with.

As four o'clock rolled around I'd finished the shelves except for a couple of coats of stain so I tidied up so that we could prepare for our meeting at 6pm, to be preceded by a walk with the dog.

We gave Reggie a slightly longer than normal walk, strolling up and down along the river for almost an hour in the fading light (and plummeting temperature) before putting him in the car while we went in to see Andrea.

After handing Andrea our third declaration form from ENEL, the electric company (the second form we sent was apparently incomplete and had been filled in jointly by us and the geometra's secretary), we sat down to discuss not only the extension plans/permissions, but the possibility of constructing a pergola and erecting a polytunnel.

We explained (or tried to) that, with regards to the extension, it's now a decision as to whether we want to spend all of our money on the project or use the money to pay off a large chunk of our mortgage instead. The latter is now by some way the favoured option in this two-horse race, and once we'd convinced Andrea that we understood what he was telling us about that fact that this special legislation allowing a 20% increase in property size is a huge opportunity that won't come around again, we moved on to what we thought would be lesser obstacles (and which are now actually higher priority in our own minds): pergolas and polytunnels.

Frustratingly, it seems that both pergolas and polytunnels require some form of approval too. So, believe it or not, we now have to measure out exactly the sizes and proposed locations of both so that Andrea can come and re-measure our measurements and then add them to the plans that will need to be submitted to the comune and to the superintendent in Florence, with or without the extension.

So a really frustrating outcome for what, in England, would be a simple job to do - and what (certainly where the polytunnel is concerned) is a job we desperately want to get on with as soon as possible so that we don't lose out on too much of the growing season - but I suppose at least we have the ball rolling now.

On the plus side, Andrea did say that he would talk to one of the guys at the bank to ask them how we can get hold of the money that the previous owners have (apparently) left in their account there for the purpose of paying the old bills they left behind (and which we have all paid). So who knows, we may see the money that we had all but written off seeing again.

We left Andrea's at 6.30pm and trundled back up the hill to the house, where I made lighting the fire my first priority to try to get some warmth into the place as quickly as possible, while Helen took a torch to go and find and put away the geese in the dark. As the fire crackles into life, dinner is cooking, the animals are fed and it may be time for a sneaky glass of red.