Birthday weekend part 2 - summer is here(?!)

After yesterday's birthday excesses, I left Stuart to sleep in this morning while I got up to tend to cats, dog, cold frames and geese. When he eventually stumbled downstairs, sometime after 9.30am, I was happy to be able to announce to him that it was warm enough (and lovely enough weather) to have our breakfast outside. And so, we had our first al fresco breakfast of the year. There was still a cool breeze, so I kept my layers on, but there was definitely the promise of a lovely day's weather in store.

When I went to open up the cold frames and check on progress in our veg beds this morning, this is what I found (exciting progress!):

Peas/broad beans.

Radishes.

Onions!

After breakfast, we got ourselves and Reggie ready for an excursion and all got into the car. First, we headed back out in the Alberghi direction to the same garden centre as we had visited yesterday. Over breakfast, we'd decided that we would create a bed of lavender against the fence that separates Reggie's lawn from the guest garden (the lavender being guest-side) - but having only bought four lavender plants yesterday, we needed a few more. We were unsure as to whether we'd find the garden centre open. While it would be a safe bet back in the UK, the opening days/hours of the tiny, independently owned garden centres over here can be a bit hit and miss - but happily, we found this one open again. We therefore relieved them of another 12 lavender plants and headed back towards Pescia.

Next on the agenda was a cup of coffee. I have recently dramatically reduced my coffee intake - while I love coffee, it doesn't necessarily always feel the same way about me (or perhaps it's my body that doesn't feel the same way about coffee as my mind and soul do?) - so I have started to ration myself to just the odd cup here and there, maybe even as little as once a week. It has now been over a week since my last coffee, so I was looking forward not just to any old coffee but to a (heavenly) cappuccino ginseng at the café in town. Since the weather was really warming up, we decided we ought to take our coffee somewhere where we could sit with Reggie outside (rather than leaving him sweltering in the car), so we were making a beeline for Bar Poulter. 

We turned off the main road to turn into the square only to find that there were barriers stopping vehicles going into the square. Not only that, but there was the sound of drums beating and some sort of noisy activity going on at the top end of the square. We were intrigued, and had we been on our own, we would have found somewhere else to park and walked to the square for our coffee, but we knew that the noise and commotion would be far too much for little Reggie to cope with, so resigned ourselves to another day without cappuccino ginseng.

From town, we drove up the valley but instead of heading straight home, we took the fork in the road that takes you down the middle of the valley and to Sorana. We'd decided to give the footpath we tried a week ago another go. Although we had thought we were heading for Lignana then, we subsequently realised we were on a different path, possibly the one heading for Castelvecchio - but either way, it was a lovely quiet walk with beautiful views, so worth a repeat today.

Once again, it was a lovely walk, although this time we deviated from the route we'd taken last time and tried a turning that looked, to all intents and purposes, as if it might actually be the direct route to Castelvecchio. As is often the case, we started out in this direction feeling confident, as a red-and-white marker reassured us that we were on the public footpath. After a little way, though, the red-and-white markers disappeared and we felt very much as if we were about to walk right into someone's private yard and along their drive. We thought that it was possible that the path carried on past the house, but didn't have the nerve to investigate at close quarters, and instead retreated back up the path, deciding that we would check the road map/Google maps/footpath map when we got home so that we would know for next time.

It didn't really matter though, the weather was beautiful and the scenery pretty as a picture, and Reggie had a great time, throwing himself down on the grass every few steps to roll around on his back (much to Stuart's consternation as he had to untangle the lead from around Reggie's legs every time he did so).

After a 45-minute walk, we got back to the car and headed for home.

There must have been some sort of classic car rally going on today as the whole time we were out and about (both out Alberghi way and Sorana way) we kept being met by a steady stream of classic cars - from old Fiat 500s to Ferraris. It has to be said that they weren't the most courteous of drivers (while Stuart pulled over to give way to a stream of 5 or 6 of them coming across a slightly narrow bridge, not one of them offered any sign of thanks), but perhaps they were in some sort of road race or perhaps we just missed the point...

Anyway, by the time we got home it was 1pm and time for lunch. Naturally, we chose to have lunch al fresco on the patio, and we dined on leftovers from yesterday's birthday lunch, with bread, cured meats and some peppers and artichokes. We took our time over lunch, enjoying the lovely weather and the feeling of the warm sun on our skin, before turning our attention to some afternoon productivity.

After changing into shorts and dosing up on sun cream (both for the first time this year), we headed down to the fence to begin digging our lavender bed. We both dug, taking out the top layer of turf, then Stuart turned the soil over, before handing the trowel and the trays of lavender to me. So while I planted the lavenders, Stuart found spots for the two hydrangeas that we bought yesterday and dug those in.

After that, I dug out a little triangle of earth in the corner of the fence by the house. This is a little difficult to explain, but the earth needed digging out because Reggie has been using the height of what was effectively a mini-mound to stand on and then get himself over the fence (to chase geese/cats/cars/cause mischief). Once I'd dug all of that out, I handed over to Stuart to finish the job by piling stones up against the steps to the terrace, while I went and did a spot of weeding outside the guest apartment.

This fellow was hiding beneath a stone. (I almost picked him up, thinking he was another stone!)

Mini-mound of earth dug out.

Yes, it's a new washing line.

By the time I'd done that - and Stuart had concreted in our new washing line - it was getting on for 5.30pm and we decided to call time on our afternoon's work and enjoy the evening sunshine on the patio.

We sat on the patio with a glass of wine until the sun went below the hill opposite, when we came indoors to start on our regular list of indoor chores. We were both a little shocked that today, for the first time this year, it was actually colder inside the house than outside (even after the sun had disappeared) - a true sign that summer is on its way if ever we saw one!!

And so we come to the end of a lovely, relaxing summery weekend - back to work tomorrow, although the good weather looks set to continue for a while yet.