Team work

Today was all about team work and helping out a friend. Donatella had mentioned recently that she really wanted to clear a couple of terraces below her house - when she and Alex first moved to the house, the brambles had even got as far as encroaching on the house itself. Between them, they had cleared them all, and the couple of terraces beneath the house had been Alex's 'forest garden' - with apple, pear, plum, hazel, raspberries and all sorts of other fruits growing there. Recently, however, the brambles had started to show signs of making a return and Donatella was anxious to get on top of things before all of Alex's good work was undone. We had therefore decided that this was a job for team Smellis and the Strimming Women. A.K.A Stuart (Smith) + David (Ellis) (= Smellis), Helen, Sarah and Donatella (=the Strimming Women).

We'd agreed to convene at Donatella's at 8am this morning, so when the alarm went off at 6.30am, I tumbled out of bed, fed the cats, did a quick round of watering the pots before harnessing Reggie up and setting off for a short walk up the road. We managed about half an hour's walk before heading back to the house to make sure Stuart was awake. He was just getting out of bed as we got in, so together we loaded the car with tools before having a quick bowl of cereal and then saying our goodbyes to Reggie, telling him to be good while we were out, and before heading up the hill to Vellano.

At Donatella's we were greeted by Donatella herself, her Mum, David and Sarah. We had a quick cup of coffee before deciding on a plan of action and hitting the power tools. I dug straight in with the hedge trimmers (of course), while David and Stuart followed with their bladed strimmers. Sarah focused on clearing the terraces of wood, moving piles and piles of branches and logs (which Alex had cut from the fallen trees in the storms back in March) from the terraces up to the house, while Donatella set off with her own strimmer.

Team equipment ready to go.

That's pretty much how the morning went - a lot of petrol-powered motor noise, enough combined sweat to fill an entire swimming pool, a good dosage of horse fly bites for every person, and plenty of dust, dirt and flying vegetation debris.

By 12.30, we had made brilliant progress, but not quite finished the job. Nevertheless, Donatella insisted we stop for lunch, and at this point none of the rest of us had the energy to put up any arguments. We therefore all took a welcome seat under the pergola and were served a wonderful lunch by Donatella's Mum, starting with a pesto lasagne (an absolute revelation, totally delicious), followed by melanzane parmigiana (sliced aubergine cooked with tomatoes and cheese) and breaded slices of beef topped with tomato and garlic, followed by a moist chocolate chip and apple cake. An absolute feast of a meal that was just what the doctor ordered after a hard morning's work.

Team Hot and Sweaty.

After a quick coffee, Stuart and I jumped into the car and sped back to our house to reassure Reggie that we hadn't abandoned him. We let him out for a toilet visit in the garden, kicked a ball around for him for 5 minutes, spotted the most enormous caterpillar in the world ever (see photo), before giving Reggie a bone and heading back up the hill back to Donatella's.

By the time we got back, David, Sarah and Donatella had already got stuck back into the work and there was a little less left to do in the afternoon than there had been in the morning, and once David had given the last bit of terrace a final going over with the strimmer, Donatella called time on the day's work. That didn't stop Stuart going off to strim one of Donatella's overgrown olive terraces though, while the rest of us sought refuge from the beating sunshine under Donatella's pergola.

When we finally all downed tools, we sat for a while sipping cold drinks under the pergola and reflecting on our day's work before packing up the cars and wending our way home again, this time heading straight for much needed showers!

Tonight we feast on a salad made with our own home grown potatoes, along with rocket and mizuna from David & Sarah's vegetable garden. I think we might sleep quite well too!