By the time Stuart and Chris both appeared for breakfast, I was starting to feel human again and the three of us enjoyed a leisurely breakfast on the patio. The day was already heating up though, so as soon as everyone had finished their toast and coffee we headed out with Reggie to give him another run around. We went back to the cava track again, as we know it's slightly cooler and shady for most of the path. We had another enjoyable walk, and this time Reggie made us all laugh by playing the fool jumping into puddles and splashing around, before coming back out to shake himself, each time perilously close to us humans - while we'd each have appreciated a refreshing splash of cool water, we weren't so keen on the muddy stuff.
We then returned Reggie to the house - this time putting him in his crate for everyone's (Florence, Lucca, Terry Terrapin and his own) safety (when we returned after having left him home alone and free to roam on Friday, he had been as good as gold, there was nothing broken, nothing chewed, nothing out of place, we were very impressed - but for a longer stint, and with a guest terrapin staying in the house, I thought it would be prudent to keep him safely contained). With Reggie settled, we headed straight out again, this time for Montecarlo. We had another lovely lunch in La Terazza, marvelling and the panoramic view and at the fact that we had the place to ourselves once again. The food was as good as ever and the staff as friendly as ever.
We all rolled out of the restaurant feeling several pounds heavier than when we'd gone in, but at Stuart's insistence we visited the tiny deli 'La Buca del Norcino' in order to buy some meats and cheeses for dinner. I don't think that either Chris or I could even contemplate eating ever again at this point, but Stuart was insistent. Stuart had visited this tiny, friendly deli when he came to Montecarlo with Lee and Rob last autumn and the lovely couple who run it soon remembered him and - alarmingly - swung into action slicing up pieces of proscuitto and salami for us to taste. I looked on in horror as the proprietor cut three slices of everything (one for each of us). I managed to squeeze down a piece of proscuitto and a piece of parmesan, but after that could barely even look at the stuff! Stuart seemed to find room to taste all of it, but did at least tell the guy to stop! It felt like we did our best to buy up the entire stock of the shop, buying a salami, some blood sausage, proscuitto, truffle infused pecorino, aged pecorino, parmesan, some amazing balsamic pearls (which are a little like caviar pearls that burst in your mouth full of balsamic vinegar, a delicious accompaniment to a piece of cheese), half a melon, a punnet of cherries and a bottle of wine.
Laden with our bags of goodies (but unable to imagine when we would ever feel hungry enough to eat them), we headed back to the car and back up the hill to the house. While Chris went off to the apartment for a siesta (he had just had a hard week's work in Venice and he is here on holiday, unlike us!), Stuart and I took the scythes to the goose enclosure which had started to resemble a jungle. While the geese are great at keeping the grass down, they are not interested in eating bracken, acacia, bramble, or several other weeds, so we spent 20 minutes or so trying to cut as much of it as we could. It really needs a full strim to tidy it up completely, but by the time we'd finished it was a lot better.
We then turned our attentions to weeding the vegetable beds. Our vegetables are really starting to become productive - we've already eaten peas, radishes, beetroot, courgettes, rocket and nasturtiums, and there are potatoes, onions, shallots, broad beans, green beans, lettuces and more well on their way to being ready. Of course, along with the vegetable growth, the weeds have also become prolific, and a thorough weeding session was well overdue. Stuart and I had been weeding for a short while when Chris appeared and came down to join us, and the three of us spent a satisfying hour or so turning the veg beds from a tangled mess of weeds to smart, neat-looking beds.
As 6pm struck on the clock in Pietrabuona, we were just finishing up the last bed, so decided it was time to call it a day. We therefore came back up to the patio to open a bottle of wine - although it turns out that as well as being very satisfying, pulling up weeds it quite addictive, and Chris and I continued by pulling all the weeds off the garden wall before finally sitting down for a break.
We enjoyed a well earned bottle of wine before eventually deciding it was time to get the spread of meats and cheeses out. We were surprised to find that, while not exactly hungry, we did all feel peckish, and in the end we made a fairly sizeable dent in what we'd bought!
As darkness fell, Stuart and Chris got the telescope out to do some star gazing, before coming indoors when it finally got a little too cool.
Today (Sunday) is forecast to be a day of thunderstorms. As I write this, the weather is warm and dry, but there are clouds overhead, so we will wait and see what the day brings.
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