Preparing for chickens... and friends

Since returning from our washout of a mini-break, we have kept ourselves busy and have felt fired up about getting things done around here with a wave of renewed enthusiasm. Within hours of our return, Stuart had started tinkering with the re-modelled goose house (now to be a chicken house), and by Friday afternoon, the new chicken house was finished - complete with nesting boxes, roosting perches and easy access front doors for cleaning and feeding.

The remodelled front-opening shed, with feeder and roosting bars.

Nesting boxes for easy access at the back.

Ever adaptable veg crates, this time used as nesting boxes.

We now just need to finish reinforcing the perimeter fencing (when I say 'reinforcing', I mean making it taller and more fox-proof) and then we will be ready to get our chickens. We are both really excited about getting chickens - while the geese could be a pain (literally drawing blood on a number of occasions!), we do miss having additional 'farm'-type animals around, and having livestock makes us feel like we are really doing this small-holding thing properly. How long it will take chickens to start producing eggs will depend on what age of bird we are able to get at this time of year, but we don't mind waiting if that's what it takes (after all, it took the geese 4 months to start laying) - and once they do start laying, they should (in theory at least) be a lot more productive than the geese were, and by all accounts a lot more friendly and less aggressive!

Friday also saw me have a long overdue catch-up with the lovely Sue Phillips. What with me having been away in Prague for a week, then us having Louise to stay for a week, then going away on our mini-break, it felt like an age since I'd seen Sue, and I spent a lovely morning catching up with her over a couple of coffees and generally setting the world to rights.

I also had my next Italian lesson with Samantha on Friday afternoon - Samantha is lovely and very patient, and I have already learned things from her (some of them very basic) that I hadn't previously picked up on, but for me, every lesson is tinged with an overwhelming sense of failure and frustration - there is still SO much I don't know, don't understand, and it is clear that I am woefully lacking in vocabulary. After going through some basic grammar, we finish each lesson with some conversation so that I can practise speaking. It is at this point that I realise how little vocabulary I have stored in my head, which is very frustrating! From this week, though, I will be doubling up on my learning opportunities as both Stuart and I will be starting a new lesson, together with David and Sarah, with a teacher they already know, so we will see how that goes. As far as I'm concerned the more opportunities to learn the better!

Saturday saw us doing our usual weekend routine of dog walking, cappuccino drinking and supermarket shopping as well as cleaning the apartment to prepare for the arrival the next day of our friends Allison and Q. By the time we'd done all of that, we were surprised to find that there was still a good chunk of the afternoon left, so Stuart headed up the upper terraces to start another bonfire and do a little more clearing, while I occupied myself with bringing some cut logs down from the upper terraces to the wood chopping area then getting the splitting axe out and splitting the logs. These ones were fairly freshly cut logs though, so they have gone towards the beginnings of a woodpile for NEXT winter, as they need time to dry and season before they are ready to burn.

Sunday morning turned out to be something of a rush - after getting up at a fairly decent time, we headed out with Reggie for a dog walk. We decided to head for Sorana in the hopes of finding Sandrino's café open for a coffee and pastry for breakfast and were pleased to find that it was indeed open - and buzzing with locals. We each indulged in a coffee along with a deliciously unhealthy croissant filled with white chocolate (Stuart) and Nutella (me), before carrying on, zinging with caffeine and sugar, to the track a little way beyond the village where we walked Reggie. Reggie had a good run around off the lead, but we didn't have long as we suddenly realised how much time had ticked on and we had an airport run to do!

We headed home, put Reggie in the house and headed straight back out to the airport. We arrived at Pisa just as Allison and Q's plane was landing and only had a short wait for them to appear at the arrivals door. It was lovely to see them.

We brought them straight back to the house, where we caught up over a cup of coffee before cooking up some lunch (a fresh tomato and garlic pasta, with tomatoes fresh from the plants). Of course, Reggie barked at both Allison and Q when they arrived, but they followed the 'meeting-Reggie brief' to the letter, ignoring him, sitting down, and not making eye contact with him, and within a few short minutes he had stopped barking and was tentatively approaching each of them for a sniff, which soon progressed to a quick lick of the hand.

After lunch, we all changed into suitable dog walking clothes and Allison and Q completed the bonding process with Reggie by joining us in taking him for a walk (yes, TWO walks in one day - what a lucky puppy!). By the time we'd walked along the river and back, Reggie was as comfortable with Allison and Q as he is with all of his other friends around here, and he spent the evening happily sitting next to Q on the sofa and being fussed over by Allison. We finished the day with another roasted tomato, mozzarella and cima di rapa risotto (as the one we had with Louise last week had been so good), washed down with plenty of wine and accompanied by a good dose of chatting and catching up, before we all retired to bed looking forward to the week ahead.