Just like this year's spring, we are late (again) with the blog. We keep getting glimpses of real, proper spring-like weather - tantalising windows in which we think "this is it", with blue skies and heavenly warm sunshine - but just as we are starting to let our guard down the weather switches back to the grey, wet stuff and we find ourselves holed up indoors again. Admittedly it's no longer properly cold, but with grey skies and torrential rain (and hail and thunder) we still need to be lighting the fire in the house to feel comfortable - and our winter woodpile is in a very sorry state indeed!
In the days of better weather we have managed to push on a bit further with the tractor park, with the tractor itself now under cover and just the final third of the structure to finish - all done with materials from our own land. We've also done a lot more felling of trees, clearing and tidying of the terraces immediately beneath the car park. These sections of terrace are now collectively known as "mushroom land", as this is the area designated for the logs (which have now been cut) into which will be inserted plugs containing mushroom spores and, with any luck, will end up producing our first harvest of mushrooms.
Our English evenings at the local village club continue to be entertaining and have also started bearing fruit in a different, unexpected way. We have forged really good friendships with at least a couple of the people who come to the evenings, and from these we ended up with 21 bargain price olive trees delivered to our door and an invitation for Easter lunch.
The olive trees came from our new friend Luca, who works at the agricultural college in Pescia. He'd invited us to pay him a visit at work, so one day last week we headed over and he showed us around his greenhouses. We ended up buying 21 olive trees at €3 each - a bargain price (the school were looking to get rid of them) - as well some border shrubs, and some of the school's wine. Of course, 21 olive trees (at about 5ft tall) don't fit into a Fiat Panda, so Luca offered to come and deliver them in the school's van the next morning. Poor Luca didn't get the warm welcome he deserved from Reggie (who simply barked and barked at him), but we were delighted to see him and just about managed to converse over the noise of Reggie's barking.
The Easter invitation came from our new friends Roberto and his wife Vicky - the last English evening we held was the first time Roberto had brought Vicky along (or managed to convince her to come) and, having asked in the course of conversation what they would be doing for Easter, they suddenly decided to invite us for Easter lunch! We had a lovely time with them - the conversation flowed in a mixture of Italian and English, we ate so much food that we could barely move, we met all 5 of their cats, and we all learned a bit more about each other's lives. It is humbling to feel so welcomed into people's lives like this.
Otherwise, highlights of the fortnight were a lovely lunch at the nearby Toti restaurant with the full compliment of our valley friends: Donatella, Paul & Kathy and David & Sarah on Good Friday; a visit to our neighbours to congratulate them on their recent marriage (which they'd kept secret and we only found out about because our friend Luca, who works with Rosanna, told us), and a visit to the Fiera di Santa Maria in Selva - a fete in Borgo Buggiano traditionally held on the first weekend of spring every year and which sells all sorts of plants.
We are promised a dry weekend this week, even with temperatures reaching and exceeding 20C, but more rain again next week. Perfect conditions for the grass to grow, the weeds to appear and a load more jobs to materialise!
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| 21 olive trees. |
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| Working on the tractor park. |
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| Trunk with bark. |
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| Trunk without bark. |
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| Tractor park from below. |
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| Chestnut posts ready for cutting. |
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| Ready for transporting down the drive. |
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| Ready for bark stripping. |
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| Bark stripping. |
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| Stripping bark. |
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| Tractor park. |
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| We paid a brief visit to a fete - the Fiera di Santa Maria in Selva - at Borgo a Buggiano. The fete (which concentrates on selling plants) is traditionally held on the first weekend of spring - and it usually rains... |
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| ... this year the sun was out, but the wind was bitterly cold! |
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| We eyed up the unusual breeds of chicken, wondering if they would stand any better chance against Mr Fox! |
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| Lots of colourful plants for sale. |
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| Cutting trees for mushroom land. |
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| The view from the top of mushroom land. |
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| Mushroom land. |
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| Tidying in mushroom land. |
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| Mushroom logs cut and stacked. |
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| From this... |
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| ...to this. In just 12 hours. |
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| In between downpours at the weekend we managed to level out the ground, put some fabric down and start to fill the area with gravel. |
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| And we planted a new hydrangea. |
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| That's more like it - Easter Monday was bright and sunny. |
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| Easter Monday's workplace - this beats sitting in an office all day. |
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| Vicky had made painted eggs at Easter - using leaves (for the pattern), onion skins and a pair of stockings. Beautiful! |
(This blog post covers the week 19 March 2018. - 2 April 2018)
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