Sarah and Ollie were treated to the full Numero 182 experience: sunshine, wind, rain, hail, thunder, lightning, a power cut, lots of dog walking, gardening, egg collecting, a ride on a tractor, an evening in front of the fire pit, lunch at our friend Michelle's restaurant, a trip to a bee-keeping (apicoltura) shop, a ride on a funicular, ice cream and an afternoon in a play park!
The reason for the visit to the bee-keeping shop was that, on Thursday, we took delivery of our first ever swarm of bees. Our friend Mara had called the week before: a neighbour had found a swarm on the window of his house and had asked if she would take it. Since Mara and her bees are organically certified, she wasn't able to take the swarm for herself (as its origin was uncertain), but she offered to collect it and give it to us. We were thrilled at the opportunity, having written off the idea of having bees for this year, thinking we would likely have to wait until next spring to get our hive set up. Mara therefore arrived at 8am on a very wet and windy Thursday morning (apparently the perfect weather for moving bees) with the bees in a portable (polystyrene) hive. We placed the hive on the terraces to the left of the chicken enclosure, placed a brick on top of the lid to keep it secure, and left the bees to it.
Having taken delivery of the bees we decided we needed to make getting some proper equipment a priority, so Sarah, Ollie, Stuart and I bundled into the car for a wet drive over the hills into the next valley to find our local 'bee shop'. The shop was fascinating and a wonderful smell of beeswax permeated the air. Not only do they offer candles, honey, pollen and various honey-flavoured liqueurs for sale, but also the more practical items for which we had made the trip: smokers, gloves, protective hats and jackets, sheets of wax for the frames in the hive, wire for the frames, levers for getting the frames in and out of the hive, as well as a multitude of other items that, for now, are beyond our needs.
From next week, we will gradually introduce, one by one, frames from our hive into the temporary hive, and once the bees have made their cells and populated our frames, we will be able to transfer them into our hive. Mara has offered to come over next week to check the hive with us and give us a much needed lesson!
We saw Mara again on Saturday night as she and Franco had invited us to a party at their house in celebration of Franco's birthday, the birthday of their neighbour Sylvia, and Franco & Mara's wedding anniversary. It was a 'bring a snack' party, so we made humus and a satay dip, and went along at 5pm feeling somewhat apprehensive at the thought of a whole party in Italian! Needless to say, we had a really lovely time: Mara and Franco and all of their friends without exception are kind, warm, welcoming and - importantly - patient people, and they put up with our stilted Italian and made us feel truly part of the gathering. They even had us country dancing. Yes, us. Dancing.
We left Mara and Franco's, along with all the other guests, at around 10.45pm - utterly exhausted (it's hard work for the brain trying to concentrate to keep up and make oneself understood!), but happy to have enjoyed such a fun and friendly evening and met such lovely people.
We took a mini "holiday" on Sunday morning - having had a taste of different scenery while driving to the bee shop during the week, we decided to explore some previously unchartered (by us) territory. We drove to Collodi and then all the way along the valley in which it sits, as far as Bagni di Lucca. It was a gloriously sunny day, and for a couple of hours we really did almost feel as if we could have been on holiday - enjoying the sunshine and seeing new scenery for the first time.
Of course it was back down to earth once we got home: strimming, hedge cutting, weeding, watering, planting, and we made the discovery that, in a re-run of last year, something has stolen our potatoes again - something of a crushing disappointment.
There are yet more urgent tasks to turn our attentions to for the coming week - a return to more solid office working hours for me, as well as strimming that urgently needs doing (with our next guests due to arrive on Sunday, it'll take the best part of the week to get our terraces looking neat again), a problem with the septic tank to get to the bottom of, a sound-proof flooring to source for the office and utility room, a pergola to start building (with 30-31C forecast for the end of the week, we are quickly realising that we are in need of some shade!), plants to water and tend to, bees to inspect, a dog to walk, other people's gardening work for Stuart to do, and much more besides. Business as usual then.
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