All change?

Saturday was Ferragosto - the big summer bank holiday here in Italy, where everyone closes up shop and takes off to the beach or into the mountains, or just enjoys a day of spending time with their family. Indeed, for many people and businesses, Ferragosto is more than just the single day holiday and it's very common for people to close up shop for 2-3 weeks or even the whole of August (if you want something fixing/need anything from the builders' merchant/require some form of service during August... it's often a case of having to wait until September). If this weekend's weather is typical of August (which indeed it seems to be), we decided that "Ferroluglio" might be a better bet! It almost seems as if the moment the calender clicked over into August, the weather became unsettled, and the storms began - we haven't suffered too badly so far (unlike just down the road in Florence where they had an almighty storm a couple of weeks ago that brought down trees, flooded river banks, etc.), and we're not complaining: after more than 8 weeks of scorching sunshine and temperatures in the high 30s (as mentioned yesterday, the hottest July in 150 years), a bit of fresher air and some rain to replenish the water tables comes as a welcome change - but for Italian families heading to the beach for their Ferragosto celebrations, we couldn't help but think, as the heavens opened, that they would have had better weather for it last month!

Since the supermarket shopping had already been done (and neither of the supermarkets would be open on the bank holiday), we had the luxury of a Saturday without the food-shopping chore. We decided to try our luck with getting a coffee somewhere in town, hoping that we might find an establishment open that would serve us coffee on Ferragosto. As we headed along the road into Pescia, enormous splats of rain started falling slowly on the windscreen. We turned into the square to find the majority of shops and cafés closed, but the ever reliable Bar Pulter was open for business. Just as we were parking up, there was a flash, the most almighty crash of thunder, and the slow, heavy splats of rain turned instantly into a deluge. We made a dash for it along the pavement, running between the shelter of shops' awnings until we reached Bar Pulter and ducked inside, only to find it heaving - the people who just minutes previously had been happily enjoying their drinks and cakes at the outside tables had all made a mad dash for cover and sought refuge inside, meaning that we were hard pushed to find a free table. Thankfully we found one, right at the back of the room, and sat down to enjoy our cappucinos while listening through the open window to the rain pelting down outside and the thunder crashing around.

One coffee later, the rain and thunder were still going strong, so we decided a second round was in order. By the time we'd supped our second cappuccinos of the day, the thunder seemed to have rumbled into the distance and the rain had eased off, so we paid up and headed back to the car.

Next, we drove out to Montecatini. We were hoping to find Decathlon and the pet shop open - but we have been caught out by this complex of shops before. It gives all the impression of being the sort of out-of-town shopping complex that you would expect to be open 7 days a week and even on bank holidays (at least you would in the UK). Here, however, things are a bit more random - which is not without its charm, but it still manages to confound us. The indoor complex of shops, which includes cafés, several clothing chains, a Euronix, and the large "iperCoop" hypermarket, only opens on two out of the four Sundays in the month (we've never managed to remember which ones), whereas the large superstores that are situated next to the indoor shopping complex: Obi, the shoe shop (Scarpe & Scarpe - literally shoes & shoes) and Decathlon, ARE usually open on Sundays - as is the pet shop. Today, however, we found the entire complex was a ghost town with the one exception of Obi. We felt sorry for the staff in Obi - while everyone else gets their Ferragosto holiday off to head for the beach, they have to slog through a day's work as usual. We decided not to stop at Obi (for a change), and instead took a scenic route home, driving through the centre of the tiny towns of Ponte Buggianese and Chiesina Uzzanese.

By the time we got home it was sunny and warm and you wouldn't even guess that it had rained, so we ate lunch on the patio and pondered what to do with the rest of the day.

In the end, with Stuart's day at Donatella's still fresh in our minds, we decided we ought to pay some attention to our own wood pile so, after having changed into work clothes we headed to the wood cutting area with chainsaw and splitting axe.

First things first, Stuart gave me a lesson in how to use a chainsaw - having felt inspired by Donatella getting to grips with using one this week, I decided it was time to have a go myself (if allowed). I watched carefully while Stuart explained the safety features and showed me the recommended technique, before somewhat trepidatiously taking the saw and having a go. I cut up one small piece of tree trunk before handing the fearsome weapon back to the responsible adult - I deemed that it would be both safer for the two of us and more efficient if Stuart did the chain sawing.

So, while Stuart chopped up logs with the chainsaw, I wielded the splitting axe. This was only the second time I'd attempted splitting wood. My first attempt, last winter, had mixed success, with maybe a 55% hit (and split) rate - but I was keen to give it another go and see if, with practice, I could improve my work rate. I was thrilled to find that on this occasion I seemed to find my rhythm straight away, and I happily worked my way through the pile of logs Stuart was producing with something more like a 95% hit (and split) rate. I loved it, it was such a satisfying task and I was delighted that I had seemed to master the technique. Splitting wood looks like hard work, and clearly the repeated lifting of the heavy axe above your head does require some effort, but actually the hardest part I found was the constant bending down to pick up each new piece of wood to position it on the chopping block - which soon had my back complaining. If someone could invent a piece of kit that did the positioning of the logs on the chopping block, now that would be something worth investing in!

We worked away at the wood pile for a couple of hours, and Stuart even turned his attention briefly to the wood chipper he'd borrowed from Donatella to try feeding the noisy machine a piece of acacia branch. Just like the old food mincer I used to watch my Mum feed leftover pieces of meat into when I was little, this (somewhat larger and noisier) machine gobbled up the acacia branch that was fed into it and spat out a bucketful of wood chips at the other end! By the time we called time on our short afternoon of work, we had made a good dent in the pile of uncut wood and increased our pile of chopped wood by the same amount. We estimate that we now have approximately enough chopped wood to see us through half the winter... So there's plenty more work to be done (not least of which will be working out how/where to store more!).

We ended the day with a glass of delicious Prosecco courtesy of Donatella's Dad. We sat on the patio in what must have been the coolest temperature we have experienced in the last couple of months - so much so that I felt the need to put one of Stuart's t-shirts on over the top of my own vest top (not quite cardigan weather, but I certainly felt the need of something).

Overnight we were treated to another storm. Memories of last July & August came back to me as I lay trying to shield my eyes and cover my ears in an attempt to block out the sound-and-light show enough to be able to get back to sleep. Of course, the problem is that there is no comfortable makeshift way to cover your eyes and ears, so either you cover them with arms/hands/pillows/duvet but are too hot/uncomfortable to sleep, or you don't cover them and are too disturbed to sleep! We have no curtains (or shutters) in our bedroom and while we've grown used to (and fond of) waking up with the sunlight in the morning, with dual aspect windows, there's no escaping the brilliant flashes that light up the room in a storm, even with your eyes closed. Add to that the crashes of thunder echoing around the valley and the pelting of rain on the skylight outside the bedroom door and you have a recipe for a disturbed night's sleep!

When we got up on Sunday morning, the weather looked undecided. The forecast seemed fairly certain that we would see rain today, but there was nothing falling and in the end we decided to take our chances with the walk we had planned to do with Reggie: the walk from Pescia to Collodi. We decided to brave it without waterproofs and headed into Pescia in the car. We found the side street from which the walk (the Via della Fiaba, or road of the fairy tale - presumably because of Collodi's association with Pinocchio) began and set off. The route was very well defined - much of it was an ancient cobbled path - with clear signage all along the route: they never miss an opportunity to stick a (frankly disturbing) Pinocchio motif on anything associated with Collodi!

An abandoned olive grove.

His nose is HOW long? Disturbing.

A field full of olive trees and.. palm trees. Of course.

It was a very enjoyable 50-minute walk to Collodi, with some interesting new scenery to look at along the way, including an abandoned olive grove, what looked like an abandoned nursery complete with irrigation systems, and a field full of olive trees and palm trees. Our last set of apartment guests, Rob and Cora, had told us that, at the end of this very footpath, they has been surprised to find an ostrich. We were perplexed, but they seemed to be good, honest folk so we somewhat disbelievingly took their word for it - and lo and behold, just as we emerged from the end of the path next to Collodi cemetery, we heard a rustling in the bushes and blow me down if there wasn't a 6ft ostrich staring right at us! It turns out that ostriches don't like Reggies, and Reggies don't much like ostriches - the bird quickly rustled back into hiding in the bushes, while Reggie frantically sniffed around trying to work out what on earth he'd just seen. There was also a field of Shetland ponies and donkeys, and an enclosure containing little goats - Collodi, it seems, really is full of the unexpected!

Yes, there really IS an ostrich in Collodi.

We decided against taking Reggie into the centre of the touristy little town and instead re-traced our steps back to Pescia, the return leg taking only about 40 minutes to complete. At the end of our 1.5 hour walk, we were all grateful to get back to the car and head home for some lunch - despite the gloomy forecast, we hadn't felt a spot of rain and skies looked promising for the afternoon ahead.

After lunch on the patio, we decided that an afternoon on the terraces was in order - the acacias on the upper terraces really have taken hold and we decided today was the day to tackle them. Stuart therefore headed up with pruning saw and secateurs while I fired up the hedge cutters. After a little over an hour at it, we both headed back to the house to down a gallon (or so it felt) of water. It was tempting to call it a day there and then, but instead we re-grouped and headed back outside. This time, Stuart took the chain saw to cut out some of the acacia stumps from the upper terraces (in the hopes that this will help prevent some of the re-growth), while I went to do a quick once-over of the goose enclosure (which, now it is sadly standing empty, has started to look rather overgrown) and then headed back up to the top terraces to attack more acacia trees. It really was quite a soul destroying afternoon, realising just how quickly the acacia has taken hold and how unrecognisable the upper terraces have become - some of which we only revealed for the first time in March this year!

Come 6pm we decided to call it a day, shower, change and get ourselves ready - we were heading down to Pietrabuona for a night out with the Phillipses at the Communist Festa - you may recall that we did the same last year, when we had one of the best nights out we could remember.

We decided to walk down to the festa which, like the cinghiale festival we went to a few weeks ago, was being held at the now defunct (apart from for these occasions) circolo (club) in Pietrabuona - next to the spot where our communal bins are located. The walk turned into something of a hobble down the road for me as my back started to realise just what I'd spent all afternoon doing, but we arrived more or less on time, to find Chris and Sue already waiting at the door.

We wasted no time and went straight in and straight to order our food at the little wooden booth. Having been to several festas, we are now no longer phased by what, last year, seemed like a bizarre food ordering process: we gave our orders to the lady sitting in a little wooden hut at the entrance, who entered the details into a laptop, we paid, and in return were given an A4 print-out showing the items we'd ordered.We then went and found a space on one of the enormous long communal tables in the main dining area, where a server (on this occasion the servers were all youngsters - including Henry and Erik) took our pieces of paper, to return shortly afterwards with the food we had ordered.

Alongside our basket of bread (complete with hammer and sickle motif), we had crostini, penne with ragu, sausages (me) and a delicious pork steak (Stuart), along with beans, chips (I can't even remember the last time I had chips) and a plate of fresh tomatoes. After that, Henry came to take our dessert orders, and on his recommendation I had a chocolate and nut cake while Stuart had what was described as a marmalade roll! Of course we washed it all down with plenty of wine and had a lovely evening chatting about life, the universe and everything. It wasn't quite the raucous affair that last year's festa experience was for us (probably a good thing, given that it was a 'school' night!) - partly because there was no Irish band to dance to (this year Chris and Sue specifically chose the only night of the week-long festa on which there were no speeches scheduled, but it seemed there was no other form of entertainment in its place either - unless you count a few teenagers playing music off a laptop in the corner), and partly because it was so blimmin cold! Yes, it really has started to feel as if summer is drawing to a close and even with a cardigan on (all night), the chill of the evening air seeped through and we all felt cold - even Chris was forced to go and get a sweater to put on partway through the evening.

When Chris and Sue dropped us back at home a little after midnight, it was a welcome relief to walk into the warm house, and we even decided not to turn the fan on in the bedroom - for the first time in many, many weeks. We are still expecting daytime temperatures in the high 20s for at least the next 10 days, with a few rain showers and thunderstorms mixed in here and there, but we are definitely feeling a change in the weather.

Today we have Sheila (Stuart's Mum), Kerys and Ben (Stuart's kids) arriving for a two-week stay, so it will be a day of preparations for their visit followed by a trip to the airport in the evening to collect them. It's been a year since we saw Kerys and Ben, so we're really looking forward to seeing them!