We woke to a dry and mild morning yesterday, which meant breakfast on the patio for the second time this year - we're looking forward to much more of that as the year goes into the warmer months.
After a leisurely breakfast all round, we all got in the car and headed up through Vellano and beyond to the quarry track for a stretch of the legs. We made it a bit further than we normally would and crested looking onto unfamiliar hills. The haziness didn't help us when trying to get our bearings but we think we were looking south eastwards in the direction of Montecatini (not that we could see it, it was hidden behind densely wooded hills). That seemed like a good point to turn back and so we headed back down the track.
It wasn't long before Reggie, who was bounding along a little way ahead of the rest of us came to an abrupt stop and starting barking. We couldn't see around the corner, but guessed that he must have been barking at a person. We soon caught him up just as he came running back past us chasing another small dog, the small dog that belongs to Franco, the nephew of Antonio who sold us the Stihl equipment, and who we first met almost a year ago at the drumming evening in Macchino. It's a very small world around here sometimes! Franco was in the process of grinding his was up the track on his mountain bike and hopped off to say hello.
After a brief chat (in which I quickly exhausted my small talk Italian), we parted company and went back to the car to drop Reggie home for a spell in his crate with a juicy ham bone while we went to show John and Helen the small, but perfectly formed Montecarlo.
After parking on the best slope we could find (in case the car decided not to start later), we ambled slowly into the village and along the main street until we got to the small square where we admired the views westwards before making a beeline for La Terrazza. We're slowly becoming as close to regulars in this restaurant as we're likely to be anywhere - Matteo, who does the serving, certainly knows us now and is always happy to see us.
So, while Reggie gnawed his way through a large prosciutto bone at home, we sat down to a lovely lunch of mixed antipasti followed by pizzas for the girls and amazing pork chops with white beans for the boys. John claimed it was the best pork chop he'd ever eaten, and I can't remember the last time I ate one as good either (it was so good the bone demanded to be picked up with fingers for some gnawing of our own).
After a strong coffee each to try and counter the effects of the wine/beer, we headed out for a stroll around the village in the sun before clambering back into the car to head home.
While John headed straight for the sofa in the apartment for an Italian-style power nap, the rest of us sat on the patio with a tea before all going to amuse ourselves in various ways. I messed with the electric fence, fitting new clamps to join the ropes in the hope that this was the cause of the low voltage we've been getting from it; Helen soiled up the potatoes and weeded amongst the veg while being followed around by Lucca (which wound Reggie up no end, watching his mum from the other side of the fence play with a cat); Mom and (auntie)Helen busied themselves back at the house mopping floors, sweeping the patio and weeding; and before long, John joined me to work on the fence. It wasn't long before rain stopped play though, so we all made a dash back to the house.
Fortunately it was only a short, sharp shower, and I soon found myself helping John who was now tinkering with the old generator and cultivator to see if he could get either to run while Helen weeded around the apartment and Mom and Helen (aunt - these posts could get confusing) chatted with tea and watched us fiddled with machinery. We gave up with the generator - John, who is something of an expert at machines and engineering, said it will definitely get going but probably needs a diesel mechanic to strip and clean a bit of the engine to remove the old diesel (which must be going on for seven years old).
We then turned our attention to playing around with the cultivator for a good hour, by the end of which we had started the old Vickers engine a number of times, but it wouldn't run for very long as there seems to be some problem with the fuel not being sucked through from the tank, so once the fuel we put into the plug port had burned off the engine stopped. It's great to find that the engine works though, and it seems we could soon have a working cultivator for ferrying wood up and down the driveway, which would be great!
After washing the diesel and oil from our hands we joined Mom and the two Helens and on the guest patio with a bottle of prosecco. As the temperature started to cool, I brought the fire pit down and got a good fire started which kept us all comfortably warm into the evening. In fact, we were so settled and comfortable outside that we cancelled the dinner we'd planned to cook and instead brought down some cheese, meat, bread and bean dip and snacked our way through towards dark when the rain made enough of a return to send us indoors for an hour before retiring to bed. A thoroughly enjoyable Sunday!
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