A dry one

Friday night took us by surprise - we were sitting on the sofa watching TV when we saw a flash of light. We literally looked at each other and asked 'what was that?'. It really doesn't take a genius to work it out, but with the day having been clear and bright, and a sunny day forecast for the next day, the possibility of thunder and lightning didn't even occur to us and we were genuinely puzzled - until we heard a low rumbling noise shortly afterwards. It wasn't long before rain was hammering on our sky light, and we went to bed to the sound of clattering rain and thunder. Thankfully the storm didn't last more than an hour or so, and by the time morning broke the clouds were dispersing.

This morning, our guest, Laura, was planning to catch the train to Florence, so we'd offered to drop her to the train station on our way out for our morning dog walk. So we all piled into the car and headed off for Pescia. On reaching the end of the drive it became clear that, for the hills just a little further up the valley from us, last night's thunderstorm had brought snow rather than rain - the hills were all lightly dusted in white. It always amazes me what a difference just a slight change in altitude and a couple of miles along the road makes to the weather.

As we drove into town the sun started breaking through and it seemed like it was going to be the clear sunny day that had been forecast. After dropping Laura off at the station and making sure she got her tickets OK, we stopped at Cafe Delice near to our chicken-run parking spot, where we quickly put away a cappuccino and a croissant each, before finally taking an increasingly impatient Reggie for his long awaited walk along the river bank.

Today was the first time in a while that we'd been able to see the bottom of the river - the water level was still high, but it was a lot calmer and clearer (crystal clear, in fact) than it has been for a while and the water seemed to be babbling rather than raging. Reggie had a great time, as always, and ran off plenty of his pent up energy.

After our walk we decided to pop to Borgo a Buggiano to call in at the agraria there to pick up a large sack of dog food. We'd somehow managed to miss that off the shopping list when we did the supermarket shopping on Friday evening, and rather than facing the supermarket again we decided to buy from the local agraria.

We then headed home and spent an hour or so clearing out and cleaning up in the utility room. Once our guest has left us next week, the plumber will be planning to come in and start on all the pipework for our new hot water system, which will involve running pipes through the utility room and down into the apartment, so it seemed like a good time to clear the room out, which has become a general dumping ground for items ranging from cat travel baskets to walking boots and washing powder.

By the time we'd finished that, it was such a lovely bright sunny day that we decided to have lunch outside on the patio. It was gloriously warm in the sunshine, and sitting in the fresh air with the sun on our faces while listening to the birds and taking in our beautiful view, we were reminded of how lucky we are to be here - we've had a fair bit of wet weather of late, and it's been a while since we've been able to sit back, relax and take our surroundings in.

It won't be long before this house disappears from our view. During the summer months the tree cover is so dense that we can't even see it.

Of course we didn't relax for too long - after changing into work clothes I headed down the terraces to continue to build a set of tyre steps on the bottom of the vegetable bed terraces that I'd started way back last summer, while Stuart turned his attentions to attaching the various connectors he'd bought from Frateschi yesterday to the three rain water collection tanks in position at the end of the house.

Determined to finish the flight of steps to the lower veg garden terrace!

After running out of tyres, and having come across one too many acacia root in the bank I was cutting into, I called time on the steps for one day and headed up to the drive to split some more logs while Stuart continued to connect up tanks.

First of three air release elbows fitted - we won't know whether they work until the tanks are full!

Lower tanks all linked with taps, pressure gauge and t-piece to link in the upper three.

The weather remained bright and sunny, as predicted, throughout the day and the sun was even hot enough on my back for me to work in a vest top while digging steps - the first time I've felt it that warm this year. It was also the first time this year that we've been able to continue working outside until nearly 6pm - the days are drawing out, which means we have longer to be able to get things done. Of course, the changes in the weather and the daylight hours are also having an effect on nature - we have crocuses all along the driveway, snowdrops on the banks, daffodils in the garden, blossom on the fruit trees, all around the valley the mimosa trees are in flower... and the grass is starting to get long and messy on the terraces. It won't be long before strimming season starts again!

We headed indoors at 6pm to get a fire lit - the days may be warming up but the evenings are still chilly, and after Stuart had been to collect Laura from the station we settled down to dinner, wine and a bit of Inspector Montalbano by the fire.

Sunday

On Sunday morning after a short lie-in we decided to take Reggie straight out for a walk, so we put our boots on and headed out. First stop was, of course, Da Nerone for a coffee and a pastry, before heading up the Sorana road for a change. It has been a long while since we headed up in this direction, and it was nice to have the change of scenery. We were heading for the wooded area a little way beyond Sorana - we've tended to avoid woodland walks in the winter for fear of coming across hunters and having to backtrack, but today it was nice and quiet with the exception of a farmer on his tractor. We found the track very muddy and churned up, and littered with fallen trees and branches. Clearly the strong winds of a week or so ago did more damage in this part of the valley than elsewhere. Reggie didn't mind of course, and kept disappearing off into the trees eventually coming tearing back down the track to find us just as we were starting to wonder where he had got to.

Before coming home, we made our customary stop at Amanda's to buy something for our lunch. Once again, Samantha cut up a couple of slices of bread and took them out to the car for Reggie, which he wolfed down with gusto - she's definitely got the hang of how to win him over now!

We then headed home to do a few chores before settling down for lunch. As we neared the end of lunch we both admitted to feeling extremely unmotivated as regards to getting outside to do some work. In contrast to yesterday's glorious weather, today was cloudy and grey, and while it wasn't particularly cold, it didn't feel very inviting. We toyed with the idea of lighting the fire and settling down to an afternoon on the sofa, and were sorely tempted, but our consciences (and those nagging chores) got the better of us so we made a deal that we would go and work outside, but that we would only work until around 4pm, at which point we would come in and light the fire.

Stuart decided to try and crack on with the pruning of the olive trees as it's a job that needs finishing before we get properly into the spring weather, so while he did that, and Reggie looked on from the garden, I got the hedge cutters out and cleared the section of terrace behind the old shed.

Come 4.15pm, true to our word, we packed up our tools and headed inside to light the fire, get showered and changed into comfy clothes and settle down for a relaxing evening - the way weekends are meant to be!