Just like yesterday, it was a chilly start today. The outdoor thermometer (a leaving gift from our lovely friend Wendy - a gift that has proved to be very well used, with barely a day going by without us checking it) read just 3C when I first ventured out to do all the usual chores. There was a fine layer of frost coating the surface of the terraces, and when I went to open the cold frames I was surprised to find a very light sprinkling of tiny round balls of ice - they looked like tiny polystyrene balls, but they melted when touched, so I can only assume that despite the relatively bright sky and scarcity of clouds, there must have been a light hail shower just before I went out.
Today it stayed chilly. I think that the drop in temperature overnight must have caused the house temperature to lose a degree or two, and I sat in my office wondering why I was feeling as if we were back in the middle of winter, despite the sunny skies outside the window. After two hot water bottles, multiple hot drinks, two jumpers, a scarf and some fingerless mittens, I finally started to defrost at around 3pm.
Come 4pm, I decided to pack up my office job for the day and try and warm up a little further in the sunshine outside, so I took a pair of gardening gloves and a fork and started to weed the herb garden and the garden steps. After that, I got the strimmer out and made a start at strimming the garden. The grass on the lawn had become very overgrown in patches, as well as around the edges of the fence, so off I went with the strimmer in hand. I had to re-thread the cord twice, but had managed to do about half of it by the time the car drew up outside and Stuart arrived back from his day's work.
Unusually for him, he mentioned how chilly it had been up at Lanciole all day - saying that he hadn't even taken his fleece off all day (this coming from someone who wears a t-shirt through most of the winter), so it clearly wasn't just me that felt the chill today!
On seeing me manhandling the strimmer, Stuart offered to finish off the job (I think he was just itching to do a proper job of it), so I relinquished the strimmer and let him get on with the tidying, while I went back to weeding.
By the time we'd finished doing that, it was time for a quick drink in the sunshine on the patio. From my point of view, it felt warmer outdoors than I had been all day indoors, and from Stuart's point of view, the temperature here in Pietrabuona was pleasantly mild compared with the wind chill he'd experienced further up the valley, so we sat and enjoyed the last hour or so of sunshine before packing away all of the tools, collecting firewood, feeding the cats and dog, putting the geese away and cooking some dinner.
A day of little news, but still a couple of jobs ticked off the list.
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