Crops

The events of the last few days - us losing a good friend and the world losing a good person - are never, ever going to make sense, but for the last couple of days we have gone about our routine tasks as best as we can, feeling somewhat numb: office work, dog walking, chicken tending (& egg collecting), supermarket shopping, terrace strimming, lawn mowing and getting the apartment ship-shape for our latest set of guests, who arrived - all the way from Norfolk, by car - this afternoon.

We’re trying to take something positive from what has happened this week – of course, there’s nothing positive about what’s happened at all, but if we can learn anything from it, even the slightest thing, then that will be a positive. We are already talking about making sure we make time to take a break from our routine to rest and recuperate and really making sure we look after ourselves in amongst all of the day-to-day tasks. We've also realised how important it is for us to move our Italian comprehension/speaking abilities on, and we hope to try and address that in some way, shape or form in the near future.

Alex was a great advocate of permaculture and was, for us, something of a role model - we were always in awe of what he and Donatella had achieved since they moved here, often tapping him for tips and advice. In honour of Alex, therefore, today we bring you some photographic evidence of our own crops.

We promise to return to our usual blog regime in the near future.

Lily growing wild on the terraces.

Lily + view.

Gratuitous shot from the guest patio.

That's our compost station. That's a pumpkin growing from it - from the seeds of a pumpkin given to us by Alex & Donatella.

Borlotti beans.

Cucumber.

Broad beans.

Tomatoes.

Beans.

Beetroot.

Onions & shallots.

Artichoke.

Sunflowers.

Forest of potatoes.

Prolific courgette.

Squashes.

Today's harvest! (You'll be glad to know that the potato thief didn't get all of the potatoes!)

Walnuts. (Cheating slightly here as we didn't plant these...)