Rain in the main

(This blog post covers the period of 4-17 September 2017.)

The last fortnight seems to have taken us well and truly into autumn. While temperatures remain in the low to mid 20sC during the daytime, we are now regularly waking up to mist-covered hills (sometimes even no view at all, a complete white-out until the breeze moves the cloud on) and the sound of rain doing anything from gently pattering on the skylight to full-on deafening hammering.

After what felt like the longest, hottest, driest summer we've ever experienced, it seems like a series of challenges trying to remember how to dress appropriately for cooler, wetter weather; trying to time the laundry cycles to coincide with brief spells of sunshine to dry the washing on the line; trying to recall our fire-lighting skills; and we're back to the autumn/winter battle of forever wiping up muddy paw prints from the floor before turning around and finding fresh ones where we've just wiped...

But we are embracing the autumnal weather, loving the fresher, damper smell of the air, and the magical, atmospheric views that the clouds and mist create.

Sunshine after the rain.

Magical mists.

More cloud and mist and rain.

Mist rising.

24h of rainfall.

On the left - bottled water. On the right - tap water the morning after the mother of all storms. Which would you prefer?

Suddenly it's this time of year again.

The cyclamens are out in force.

Hawthorn berries.

We've been amazed and pleased to see that the vetiver we planted a couple of weeks ago seems to be enjoying the autumnal weather and is already showing signs of growth - we never got around to getting the irrigation set up for them (the pipe you see in the photo is not plumbed into anything), but as it happened we didn't need it!

We are already seeing some growth in the vetiver.

A cm or two of new growth on some of the plants.

In between the rain, various computer-based work duties, and some lovely social evenings with Mara, Franco & Donatella (at ours for a Thai curry); with Paul, Veronica, Donatella, David & Sarah (at Paul & Veronica's for an amazing beef/salmon dinner courtesy of Paul); and with Samantha & Mario (at Mario's nephew's restaurant in the pretty mountain village of Cutigliano about an hour's drive away - such a treat!), Stuart started work on replacing part of the flue of the main wood burner and repairing the plasterwork above it, we had a mammoth joint effort at spring (ok autumn) cleaning our own room (the one room in the house that always tends to lose out on any cleaning efforts!), and we've completed the new herb garden.

New piece of flue in place.

Spring (autumn) clean!

Work progressing on the herb garden.

We also did some end of the season tidying in the orto at the weekend, cutting down the spent plants - although there are still veggie growing, and we picked beetroots, aubergines, peppers, tomatoes, lettuce and even a perfectly ripe melon. We also harvested the seeds from our enormous sunflower heads - and probably have enough to keep the birds happy this winter!

Stunning head of sunflower seeds.

Nature's beautiful geometric patterns.

Should be enough to keep the bird feeders topped up this winter!

The week ahead promises to have a little more dry weather and sunshine in store (after a wet start, that is) so we're hoping for a little more opportunity to get outside and get stuck in!

Despite the cooler weather (and perhaps because of the damper conditions) there are still mosquitoes around - and it turns out the cats don't like to be bothered by mozzies either!

Big hands!

In tummy-rubbing seventh heaven.

Experimenting with boundary games.

End of the week aperitivo.