We had a leisurely breakfast and coffee before making contact with the guys downstairs to find out whether they wanted a lift anywhere on their day off and what their plans were for the day. In the end, we decided to all go for a joint dog walk, after which we would do our own thing with the rest of the day.
We loaded up the car with two dogs and four people and headed for the refuge track. Having walked the cava (quarry) track yesterday, we decided to give the refuge track a go today - which, as it happens, is almost exactly opposite the cava track on the other side of the valley.
All went well for the first couple of hundred yards of the walk, after which we realised that we wouldn't be able to get much further along the track thanks to the enormous trees blocking the route and currently being chopped up by men in high vis jackets. We had expected a lot of trees to be down over here, but were not prepared for quite the level of devastation that we found. The ground was a carpet of fir branches (which smelled amazing) and there were monster-sized trees uprooted everywhere we looked.
Clearly a change in plan was in order, so we decided to get back in the car and cross to the other side of the valley to go back to the cava track - at least it gave Zach and Holly a chance to see a bit more of the local scenery!
It seemed to take an age to get to the opposite side of the valley, but once there we all enjoyed the fresh air and both dogs scampered around up and down the track until they were exhausted.
By the time we got back home again it was gone 12pm. Holly and Zach went off to cook up a pasta lunch of their own, while Stuart and I had our first truly relaxed lunch-in-the-sunshine of the year. We sat and enjoyed the warmth of the sun on our faces and the beauty of the view in front of us. We dragged lunch out for as long as we could by following it up with a cup of coffee, after which we could procrastinate no longer and reluctantly cleared things away in preparation for a bit of work on the terraces.
While Start started digging around the septic tank to investigate the state of the pipes and the drain-offs, I got the hedge trimmers going and continued to tidy up around the side of the top two terraces, releasing our large walnut tree from the brambles around it. I have to say that our hearts weren't really in it this afternoon though - after such a lovely leisurely lunch, and with the deliciously warm, yet not too hot sun shining down on us, we each had a yearning for an afternoon spent at a more relaxed pace. We carried on the work for a couple of hours, after which we agreed that enough was enough for this day of rest and compromised by deciding to sit on the patio with a glass of beer and a notepad and plan out our vegetable planting strategy.
Zach and Holly, who had been enjoying a bottle of wine and their own relaxing Sunday afternoon, came up to join us on the patio, and we all sat and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon's sunshine, drawing plans of vegetable plots and being entertained by the antics of Reggie and Winry.
As soon as the sun dipped behind the hill opposite it was time to get back indoors though - while the daytimes are beautifully warm when it's sunny, it is only a matter of minutes for those temperatures to plummet once the sun has gone, so it was time to collect wood for the fire, collect the cats, put the geese to bed and settle down for the evening.
We have a busy week ahead - a visit to the geometra's office, another afternoon at doggie school for Reggie, a day's work at Lanciole, possibly the fitting of our new windows, and possibly going to look at stoves with Sergio - so tonight will be a chance to charge our batteries in preparation!
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