So, what have we been up to this week?
Well, on Monday evening I made it to the airport without incident (driving in convoy with David and Sarah, who were going there to collect Sarah's sister and her husband), and after a bit of hanging around in a very busy arrivals hall, Stuart's flight eventually landed (50 minutes late) and he came walking through the doors looking as you would expect someone to look after they'd been on a 2-day stag do: tired and dishevelled, but happy to be home. I was just thrilled to have him back!
If anything, despite a lie-in, Stuart looked (and sounded) in a worse state on Tuesday morning, but thankfully he had planned ahead and made sure he hadn't committed to doing anything strenuous that day and was able to take it easy all day as part of his recovery process. We had a visit from the lovely Donatella on Tuesday - in fact, she came for lunch. It was the first time Donatella had visited us here in about 6 weeks and we weren't sure how Reggie was going to react (would he be as excited to see her as he always has been before?), but he certainly hadn't forgotten her, and started wagging his tail excitedly when he realised who it was that had drawn up in a car outside. He adores Donatella, I think she must be his favourite person in the world, and in fact I'm pretty sure that he would trade both Stuart and me in if he thought he could go and live with her instead! Luckily for us, he can't.
Donatella had her dog, Ray, with her in the car when she came, and before she left we decided we would attempt another 'meet and greet' between Ray and Reggie with the fence in between them for safety. We'd tried introducing them once before, at the training classes we went to in Pistoia. It would be so great if the pair of them would get on - it would mean we could go for dog walks together, we could take Reggie with us when we visit Donatella, and she could bring Ray here (and get him out of the car) when she visits us. Alas, just like last time, Reggie just proved too intense for Ray. There is a glimmer of hope though, in that Ray showed some interest and didn't dismiss Reggie straight off, but as Reggie stood there on his hind legs barking (and jumping) at the fence, it seems he's still too much for him at the moment and Ray was only too happy to retreat to the car and get away from the silly barky youngster. It's possible that when Reggie comes out of his adolescence he might be a better friend match for Ray - we hope so!!
While we're on the subject of Reggie, he was a very naughty boy on Wednesday morning. I was outside doing my usual exercise session and feeling chuffed that this was one of the rare mornings on which Reggie seemed happy to entertain himself quietly and I didn't have to keep rushing after him to shush him so as not to disturb Stuart's sleep. When I finished my exercise and took my things back indoors though, the reason for his quietness became abundantly clear: there was a tea towel on the floor, the one that Sarah had used to wrap up the sourdough loaf they'd brought over for me. He must have pulled it off the work top. It was as I bent down to pick it up that I glanced over at the sofa and realised that it was not just the tea towel he had stolen off the worktop but also the entire loaf of bread and there he was hungrily getting stuck in on the sofa. We'd already eaten about a third of the loaf ourselves, but Reggie made damn sure we weren't going to have any more of it (that will teach us not to put the bread in the bread bin)! He even growled at me when I went to try and take it away from him. That boy does love his bread!
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| ALL mine. |
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| Is he hiding because he knows he did something naughty? Or has he got a bread hangover? Or is he just too darned hot? |
Wednesday was yet another punishing hot day, but Stuart went up to Lanciole and spent six hours strimming there - I've no idea how he managed it as I could hardly bare to venture outside the house. I'm not sure that six hours of strimming in the intense heat was altogether helpful with his stag-do-recovery plan though!
On Thursday we finally became fully insured to drive our car - the first time we'd been insured since mid-January, thanks to the flaky car dealer. After some failed attempts at finding reasonably priced insurance online, Stuart went into Pescia to try a couple of local places and ended up coming back, fully insured, very pleased with himself for having managed to get it for the bargain price of €1300. That may sound like a lot of money, but car insurance is very expensive here, and we are onto a loser because of the fact that this is our very first Italian insurance, so it's like taking out your first insurance as an 18-year-old again. When you consider that other quotes we had were for €2000 (Direct Line Italia) and €1800 (from a couple of different places locally), the €1300 really is a bargain price - and it includes roadside recovery to boot.
It was a huge relief to finally have the car insurance in place, not least because on Wednesday evening, as we drove down the road into Pescia to take Reggie for a walk by the river, we passed a police car that was pulling people over to check documents. I can't tell you how nervous I was when we drove back up the road a little over an hour later, and I held my breath as we turned the corner where we'd spotted the police car earlier. Thankfully it had moved on, but it felt like a close call!
It was as I was relaying the good news about our insurance to Donatella (who has helped us a lot with the whole sorry car documents saga) that she mentioned that the must-have documents that the police will check for also includes the revisione (which is like an MOT) certificate and the ACI tax. Er... the what?! We had the revisione document, but couldn't find anything resembling ACI tax - another stitch-up by the car dealer! Donatella told us we would need to go and get it from the ACI office in Pescia, so that was a job for Stuart on Friday morning, which he duly went and did... and so NOW the car is fully legal (we think).
On Thursday evening we decided to have a go at the jungle on the lower terraces - it had become almost impossible to find the potato and courgette plants in amongst acacia and as for the lowermost veg bed, we hadn't even been able to reach it for weeks. We therefore donned work clothes and Stuart went in armed with the strimmer while I went armed with the hedge trimmers to tackle the acacia that was already taller than me. We worked away for a little over an hour - despite it being after 6pm, the heat was still intense and the sweat ran off us in rivers. By the time we called it a day, we'd made a big improvement, and we can at least now find all of the veg beds, but there's still more work to do.
Also by the time we'd called it a day I had created a brand new water feature. Just call me Charlie Dimmock. Yes, despite thinking I was being ultra careful to avoid the irrigation pipes which were entangled deeply amongst bracken, bramble, acacia and other vegetation, I managed to slice into one of the pipes and cause water to come gushing out on the bank of the terrace. Genius. Thankfully, it was something that could easily be fixed with a couple of connectors, so I wasn't in the deep trouble that I thought I might be. It still wasn't my finest hour though.
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| Chick peas! Yes, that's what they look like when they grow. |
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| Looking better! |
Friday was a day of work punctuated with visits. While Stuart went out on a trek into town to sort out the ACI tax for the car, attempt to register us for refuse tax (but failed due to the long queue he was faced with), collect the spare car key we had ordered (which wasn't ready yet), and go and buy some more irrigation bits and pieces (including connectors to fix my water feature), I settled down to work in the office. First to visit was Donatella, who popped in briefly to see Reggie (who once again was very excited to see her). We'd noticed that he'd started to limp a couple of days ago and I had been a bit concerned. In fact, by yesterday morning the limp was a little less noticeable, and Donatella and I agreed that the best course of action was probably to rest him and wait and see how he is by Monday. A while after Donatella had left, Sue came round with Henry and Erik and we spent an enjoyable couple of hours catching up over coffee - what with their having been away on holiday and us no longer needing weekly supermarket shopping assistance, it had been a while (too long!) since we had a good girlie catch-up, so it was good to see Sue, and I was touched that the boys had wanted to come along as well.
After going back to work in the afternoon (me in the office and Stuart baking on the terraces while he sorted out the irrigation pipes), it was time for us to be the ones doing the visiting. We headed up the valley to Vellano first to pick up David and Sarah (who we found in the garage of Vellano's Lambretta enthusiast Mario) before driving down to the house belonging to Paul and Veronica, an ex-pat couple for whom Stuart and David had been doing some work recently. Paul and Veronica had come over from the UK for a short break with their friends Julie and Andrew (in fact, they'd come over for the Robbie Williams concert in Lucca this week), so David and Sarah were going to introduce us to them. Donatella was also there, and the nine of us sat on Paul and Veronica's veranda in a lovely gentle breeze chatting, sipping cold drinks and admiring the view. Paul and Veronica's house is in a beautiful spot and very much has a relaxing, holiday feel to it (at least it did when we visited yesterday) - whereas our house says "working farmhouse" (i.e. a bit dirty, covered in dog and cat hair, and could do with a bit of TLC), their house has a lovely vibe with luxurious furnishings, tidy outdoor area and beautiful veranda. We enjoyed meeting Paul and Veronica and their friends and it felt like a nice chilled out way to end to the week.
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| Mario's amazing collection! |
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| Stunning! |
As I write this, the rain has dried up, but the thunder is still rumbling around the valley, so we shall wait and see whether the soil will get any more of a soaking. Next week's temperatures are due to rise back up to 35C again, so we will be making the most of this brief respite!
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