Once I'd had breakfast I decided that, as much as I'd like to continue working on the shed, the cold weather dictated that I turn my attention to somehow protecting the 'agrumi' citrus trees that we bought back in April with the help of Helen's parents - especially as the orange tree has more than half a dozen little oranges ripening and both the lime and lemon are flowering ready for another crop (the lemon abundantly so, with maybe 30 or more flowers on it), it would be a shame to lose out by not taking care of them now, so I took to turning the hazy idea of a greenhouse-come-orangery that was in my head into a reality.
I have been giving this project some thought over recent weeks, mainly when we've been sitting outside eating lunch on the patio where the citrus trees live. The basic shape of the structure has been decided on for a while and the way we are (pruning skills permitting) planning to train the lemon and orange (the lemon as an espalier up the wall adjacent to the front door and the orange in the same fashion along the fence which runs at 90 degrees to it) dictates a certain shape as a minimum.
So after using up all the old wooden batten I'd reclaimed from the old rood of the firewood shelter, I headed out to OBI in Montecatini to buy more of the same as well as a few other bits while there.
By the time I got home it was approaching midday so after another half hour's sawing and screwing it was time for lunch.
 | |
| Time to get the citrus under cover! |
 |
| Mini orangery taking form |
Once lunch was eaten we hastened to head into town with Reggie to give him a walk before we headed up to Vellano to David and Sarah's to meet Johnny for our weekly Italian lesson.
After a very chilly walk along the Pescia river (although not so cold as to stop Reggie charging into the river on more than one occasion) we headed home to grab our notebooks, leaving Reggie and the cats at home while we headed up the valley.
We arrived and walked into a toasty house and were greeted with coconut cake and a mug of hot coffee as darkness fell outside and with it the temperature even further. This week Johnny gave us all a worksheet based around verbs, but this time focusing mainly on irregular verbs - verbs that throw out half of the rules that we all grasp desperately onto as we fumble our way around this new (to us) language, so a slow hour and a half ensued as we ploughed through the lesson.
Before we knew it, and with the worksheet completed, it was five o'clock already and time to head home to shut the chickens in for the evening and get the fire lit before the temperature indoors dropped much further.
As the fire got going we sipped a glass of wine and caught up on some emails before cooking a dinner of what we now call 'Christmas pasta' - it has a couple of versions but always includes a generous amount of pan-fried sprouts of the brussels variety (home grown) and some pancetta interspersed with either a salty cubed cheese or roughly chopped chestnuts.
Tuesday started a bit wetter than the weather man had promised, but not so much that it stopped either Helen exercising or me loading the car to head up to Vellano to do some more land clearing with David - clearing that today definitely required a nice toasty bonfire!
 |
| David working in the new clearing at Vellano. |
As the morning drew on, the skies cleared to a beautiful blue while David and I burnt as much bramble and detritus as the space allowed before retiring to the Bistrot in the village for a glass of wine. We sat on the narrow balcony at the rear of the restaurant which affords wonderful views down the valley towards Pescia in what was now very warm sunshine indeed before we each headed to our respective homes for lunch.
After lunch on the patio I continued with the citrus greenhouse while Helen went up the terraces to light a fire of her own.
 |
| Yet another fire up on the terraces. |
By the time darkness fell I had run out of plastic to cover the greenery and, frankly, enthusiasm for the project - which I had now decided was something of a folly constructed as it was in wood and plastic. Reflecting on just how strong the winds can be here, and have been just in the last week, I will be surprised if it lasts more than a couple of weeks before I need to tear it down and start work on version two (after all, we are now on version 6 of the wood shelter, for those not keeping up, and I suspect another version or two more will be needed before we arrive at a fully Tuscan weather-proof version). Feeling thororughly deflated and as if I'd wasted precious hours on this folly I headed for the luxury of a hot shower (this time last year the water was tepid or nothing, so it stilll feels like luxury to get hot water from the tap in the bathroom), during which I had a sort of epiphany, realising that even if I woke tomorrow to find the thing blown to bits, I had now worked out how to build the structure of what we needed, and I could use what I had built to measure how much material of a stronger sort we would need to re-build it.
 |
| Right, that's the basic shape sorted, now to cover it. |
 |
| Out of plastic and not convinced this is up to our weather. |
 |
| Reggie 'helping' cover the orangery |
I honestly feel like sometimes I'm walking in the footsteps of the three little pigs and the weather is my own personal wolf, huffing and puffing its way through all my work, except on this occasion I think I will go straight from house or version one, made of metaphorical straw, to what I hope will be the final version (which I think needs to be a steel frame contruction). For now at least the precious citrus trees have a little more protection against the cold than they did have, so I can park the project for a few days but must make sure I don't get caught out by the weather!
As Helen watched the bonfire die out, I collected not only wood for the evening's fire but two beautiful white hens eggs from the nest boxes in the chicken house before closing the birds in for the night and heading indoors for another of those hot showers to wash the smell of burnt bramble off me and lighting yet another fire, this time though for the purposes of keeping us all warm!
Wednesday morning gave us the first real frost of the winter and temperatures to match, so I was glad to be starting a fire again this morning up in Vellano with David while Helen retreated to the office with a hot water bottle to do some VB work.
The day remained cold all day, unlike yesterday, and when David and I finished working at lunch time and headed for a glass of wine at the Bistrot, it was too cold to sit outside to appreciate the view.
After lunch at home I lit the fire for the benefit of both Helen and Samantha, who was due at two for another Italian lesson, and once the fire was raging I unloaded the car of tools so that there would be room for Reggie.
When Samantha arrived we gave him a few minutes in her company again, as this seemed to help improve his relationship with her last week and on her arrival this week he seemed slightly less agitated. This week it seemed to do the same again, he even stopped barking for a few short periods and took a treat from her hand - a huge leap forwards. Whatever it was about poor Samantha that he decided he didn't like initially, it now seems we can work towards fixing it, piano, piano as they say in Italy.
Reggie and I left the ladies to their Italian prepositions and went into town for a much needed walk, he missed out yeterday and that had apparently manifested itself in a very barky dog this morning while Helen was trying to work.
I decided that it was time to repeat the 'chicken run' walk along the river that had ended in a dead chicken last week and duly leashed Reggie as we approached the house of the chickens. He didn't make much fuss about being taken past on the lead, so thankfully without incident we got to the point of turning around and then again back to the car death-free with only two short stretches on the leash. It's a shame that the entire stretch of the river bank will no longer be safe to do off leash, but it's a small price to pay for such a good, flat and quiet stretch of river walking.
On the way home I stopped at Frateschi to collect a parcel. Yesterday, the driver of the GLS courier firm that couldn't be bothered to deliver my wormery earlier in the year called me to ask if he could leave a parcel for me at Frateschi. Suspecting it was our little poly-tunnel and knowing that they just pile parcels in the shop by the till in Frateschi, I was keen to get it out of their way - as little as our poly-tunnel was going to be, it was going to be no envelope and therefore would be in their way.
A sizeabale and heavy item it was too I can't quite believe it made it all the way here from Devon in such a timely fashion for the paltry fee of around £25.
Thursday it was back to 'normal', by which I mean I was working at home all day - except it wasn't completely normal as David had offered a couple of hours of his time to us today (in return for feeding him lunch) to help finish burying the mains water pipe that we dug up in the summer.
Another cold, frosty morning greeted both Helen and me this morning, as Helen got her bike and kit outside for her exercie session I let the cats out, let the chickens out and finally let Reggie out before putting coffee on while I checked emails.
After breakfast I dashed to Amanda's to buy some bread and a pudding for lunch before going home to make a long awaited start on the new shed doors.
When the sun finally peeped above the hill to the south of us mid-morning it was time to remove my jacket as it was just warm enough to work in a t-shirt to the sound of chickens clucking behind me while Helen wrangled with VB work indoors.
After a productive morning of cladding the first two doors and making adjustments to their swing, David arrived so we sat down for a coffee, which we quickly followed with lunch. It wasn't quite warm enough to dine out - working and moving in it waround outdoors was fine but I think sitting still in it when the odd cloud passed over was too much to ask.
We tucked into a relatively lavish lunch, starting with fresh bread (that had been cooked in a wood-fired oven) drizzled with our fresh hand picked extra virgin olive oil and seasoned with sea salt and fresh black pepper - it doesn't get much simpler than that. We followed that with pasta with Helen's lentil ragu and rounded the event off with a piece of Amanda's blueberry crostata, a sweet shortcrust pastry tart, and finally more coffee.
After the extravagant lunch, David and I headed down the terraces to pick up where Helen and I left off the other day and started burying the water pipe under piles of stone.
An hour and a half later the job was done - a fantastic but tedious job to have ticked off the list. We just hope the measures we've gone to will stand up to what this winter has to throw at us (stay tuned for frozen pipe dramas!).
When we'd finished, Dave and I sat on the patio with a cold beer, having worked up something of a sweat, while Helen emerged from the office and headed off up the terraces to start yet another fire, one of many more we'll need to have before the burning season is out.
While Helen burned, David left, I collected two more pristine white eggs from our Leghorns (the white chickens) and then loaded Reggie into the car for a walk.
I decided to head into Pescia to try and catch the last of the sun along the river. It seemed as if everyone else had done the same, but thankfully it wasn't so busy as to freak out Reggie, in fact he seemed almost more calm than usual, even allowing a jogger to sneak up from behind and letting him pass without a second glance.
As I approached the later stage of the walk, I bumped into three older Italians that I've now met a couple of times before - the first of which was when walking with Allison and Q in October - lovely people who spoke NO English but who generously made allowance for my poor Italian. We had a nice but short chat that first time, when they were particularly taken with 'bello' Reggie. Being a distinctive-coloured dog, Reggie allowed them to identify me from the opposite side of the river a week or so ago, when they had shouted and waved at us and wished us a good evening.
So this afternoon when I ran into the same trio, my walked slowed right down as the four of us and three dogs ambled slowly along the river, chatting about this and that. We parted company at the railway bridge where they wished Reggie and me a good evening and declared themselves to be our first Italian friends, despite not even having met Helen yet!
It was half four when I got home so I spent half an hour or so working on the shed as the last of the daylight faded, at which point the temperature dropped quite rapidly so I packed up my tools and headed in to light the fire for the evening, Helen having put her bonfire out a little while before and headed indoors.
Friday arrived in the blink of an eye it seemed, and it was another morning on which I was up and out of bed before Helen, albeit only by a few seconds. It has felt good to feel back on form this week, and to be feeling ready for the day - I'm sure it won't last, but while it does I'm enjoying the change.
Yet another cold morning greeted me as I went out to open the chicken house. I could hear the chickens chattering away the house, and the moment I opened the door they came straight out and started pecking at the ground - they are certainly getting more comfortable around us, although approaching them directly is still some way off.
I made a quick check of the nest boxes: no eggs, but it seems they don't lay until around mid-morning so it wasn't really a surprise. We weren't sure how many eggs to expect today - it was white eggs only yesterday (two of them), so maybe one would be taking the day off today and the red one would start up again, we'd have to wait and find out later.
While Helen exercised outside, I sat on the sofa and checked email while Reggie had a snooze next to me. Once Helen had finished and showered and we'd both had breakfast, Helen left in the car to head into Pescia to meet Sue for coffee, leaving me to the first full day's work on the shed that I think I've had.
It was quite bitter this morning, although the sky promised sunshine by mid-morning, so I opted to start my day with some work on the electrics in the shed - not only to get a little shelter from the cold breeze but also because it was the perfect opportunity to be switching on and off trip switches on the consumer unit while Helen was out rather than trying to work in the office.
Electrics isn't my forte, but what was required was strightforward enough for me so I plodded along running cables and fixing boxes then finally connecting the sockets to form a unit of light switch and two sockets in each of the three shed sections, wiring up the last as Helen returned home just before midday.
 |
| No more runnign extension leads out from the house, we have power! |
On her return, she went up to see the chickens and returned with three eggs (two white, one brown)! I think there is still one red hen not laying but it's still early, and today's three took us up to 11 home-produced eggs in the fridge plus what we had bought last week, so it was egg mayo sandwiches for lunch! We ate on the patio in the glorious and even quite warm sunshine, it was quite a tear for us to leave the table after lunch and get back to work but work we must!
 |
| The golden yolks of our very own free range eggs! |
As I went back to the shed and back to cladding doors and fitting the cat flap as well as having a little bit of a tidy up behind the house, Helen checked email and then headed off up the terraces to set to work on clearing some of the coppiced ash trees we have up there.
 |
| Really starting to look the part now but LOTS still to do. |
As four o'clock approached and I climbed the terraces to see how Helen was done, having packed up my own tools for the day. It was clear that any enthusiasm for the idea of going out had vanished from us both so promising Reggie an extra long walk tomorrow morning, we trudged down to the house to collect the evening's firewood before retiring indoors for a long relaxing evening - although as I sit here on the sofa tapping ot this part of the blog, Reggie is snoring next to me and Helen is back in the office tying up loose ends before the end of the working week.
No comments:
Post a Comment