Wet and wild

After getting up to let the geese out at 7.15am this morning, I attempted to get back into bed for another hour or so's snooze, but by the time I'd got up, gone into the fresh air, opened the goose house, put their feeder in and cleaned the sawdust, I was pretty wide awake, and sleep wasn't forthcoming.

We had a slow breakfast and did a few admin-type tasks, before drawing up a shopping list and eventually heading out at about 11am.

Our first stop was Atum - the tool shop. The shop was busy and there was a lot of waiting - various people behind the counter were otherwise engaged either on the phone or in other conversations. When we first went in, however, there was a chap behind the counter who seemed free and said something to us. Stuart tried to explain that he'd ordered a particular tool and wanted to know whether it had arrived yet. However, the man said something in response that neither of us could make head or tail of - he spoke quickly, and mumbled his words, and we both felt frustrated that we couldn't communicate with him. In the end Stuart told him he'd wait until the other man had finished on the phone, and would ask him instead. After another five minutes waiting, the first man suddenly burst out laughing - seemingly at us - and left the shop via the 'counter' side door and came straight back into the shop on the 'customer' side door. He then started saying something to us and laughing. It didn't take us long to work out that this chap had just done exactly what Stuart did the first time he visited the shop - he'd used the wrong door and ended up on the serving side of the counter instead of the customer side, and while Stuart had been trying to ask him for something, he had been making exactly the same mistake and, thinking that Stuart worked in the shop, and was asking him for something!! We all had a laugh and then continued waiting.

After what seemed like an age, we were eventually served - the tool Stuart has ordered should be in the shop on Monday, and while we were at it, he ordered a spare part for his chop saw, which hopefully he will be able to collect next week as well.

Next, we decided to try the cafe opposite the flower market for a coffee. Going for a cappucino seems to have turned into a bit of a weekend treat for us - and with two rounds costing only €4.80 in total (for 4 coffees - which came with complimentary biscotti), it's a nice way to unwind, away from the distractions of the house.

Coffees dispatched, it was time to hit the supermarkets. First we went to Esselunga and then on to Lidl - somehow managing to do one of the smallest shops we've done in a long time, despite catering for extra people this week!

With the car full of shopping, our last errand was to drop in at Chris and Sue's to drop off a slightly belated birthday card for Henry. Chris was unfortunately laid up in bed with a bug, but we had a coffee and a long chat with Sue, before leaving and finally setting off for home at just gone 3pm!

By this time, the rain had started to come down in earnest. We unloaded the car running between the raindrops and once inside got straight to heating up some leftover soup for a very late lunch.

After lunch, I washed up then started preparing yet another vat of soup for the freezer, while Stuart lit a fire, brought the puppy cage downstairs in preparation for tomorrow and settled down to do some puppy training research.

Once the soup was bubbling away on the hob, I retired to the office to do my Italian homework - and got so engrossed in it (while Stuart was engrossed in reading up on dog training) that at about 5.50pm, I looked up and suddenly thought GEEEEESE!! Yikes, we had both completely forgotten and not only was it pouring with rain but it was also properly dark. We both quickly put shoes on, grabbed an umbrella and a torch and headed out to Goose Island with some lettuce. The geese seemed a bit perturbed by the torch and almost seemed to be a bit put out that they hadn't had their usual going-to-bed routine. Nevertheless, we managed to get them into their house relatively quickly, then skidded our way back down the wet terrace to the house.

We are hoping for an early night tonight - we are due to collect Jeremy at 9am tomorrow from Lucca, but we have been asked to call the courier at 7am to make sure all is on schedule. The guy from the re-homing centre has called us so many times today to make absolutely sure that we will be in the right place at the right time (they have asked us to arrive early), and has even asked Claudia to meet us so that we actually get to the right place - we will therefore meet her at Frateschi's at 8am tomorrow morning and drive in convoy!

As I write, the wind has really whipped up - a few moments ago we heard an enormous crash and smashing of glass in a particularly vicious gust of wind. Nick has just come up to let us know that one of the large wine vats/bottles outside the apartment has blown over and smashed, so he and Stuart are now out there trying to find shelter for the remaining ones. Nick and Tess had been planning to go out this evening and give Mimmo's porchetta van a try, but the wild weather has put them off, so we're going to throw together a bowl of pasta that we can all share. Let's hope for some calmer weather in the morning!!

And then there were four... but only just!

Today promised better weather, and I'd decided to give our helpers a change in task as I thought that a third day of walking up the driveway to climb the donkey track to drag wood down, then cut it, load it onto a barrow and wheel all the way back to the house might be a bit demoralising. Besides which, they'd collected so much wood over the last two days that any more might actually block the driveway.

So, after breakfast, I set Tess and Kathryn to work cutting up and stacking the kindling in the new wood storage area, and took Nick to work with me on the garden fencing - to start with, digging the post holes while I went out shopping.

I had an email yesterday telling me that my special order carbon monoxide alarms had arrived, so I needed to collect those for a start, but I also needed new inkjet cartridges, some more fence posts, 50m of wire fencing and some wooden pallets.

After I had bought everything but the pallets, I went home to unload and have a quick coffee with the guys - all three of them were now cutting wood as Nick had already dug all of the holes he could. It seems the ground on the outer edge of the lawn is much easier to dig and has much less by way of gravel, ceramic tile, old nails and large stones in it - so it was a very pleasant surprise to find out that what I had expected to be a murderously long job was done already. (On the flip side, it does look like we'll need extra concrete to make sure the fence posts stay put in this soft ground.)

I told our trio of helpers that we'd have lunch early today, as Kathryn had to leave at 12:40 in order to catch the train to Pisa in time to get to the airport for her flight to London. So, at 11.45am, I made a quick dash to Frateschi's to acquire some old pallets (or bancale as I now know they are called in Italian).

I found Paolo serving just one other person, which was a relief, as having already asked him for pallets last week - and having already forgotten the word for pallets in the meantime - I was hoping I wouldn't have to try and explain it all over again to one of his staff.

Paolo took me to the yard and showed me a couple of piles of old pallets from which I could help myself, and when I asked him how much he wanted for them, he said 'nothing'! Result!!  So I crammed as many pallets as I could into the car (it seems a Fiat Doblo is the perfect pallet size - a fluke?), and for good luck, I also piled four on the roof.

How many pallets can you fit into a Fiat Doblo?

When I got home, it was time to get lunch sorted - on the menu today was our first ever batch of Tuscan white bean soup that Helen had made last weekend and when I had tested prior to it going into the freezer it had blown my socks off! I could not believe how tasty it was, and sure enough, it didn't disappoint today either. As I've said on this blog before, I've never been the world's biggest soup fan, but this has become my new favourite by far - knocking chicken soup off the number one spot down to number two. I wasn't the only one who enjoyed it - our helpers exclaimed that it was the best soup we'd given them yet.

After lunch, it was time for Nick and Tess to take Kathryn down to Pescia train station in their campervan so that she could get on her way to Pisa. We were sorry to see Kathryn leave - like the others, she's been a great help, hard working and a real pleasure to have around.

Kathryn, Nick and Tess.

While they were out, I went to do a bit more with the fencing from yesterday by way of fixing wire netting and top rails to the posts.

The garden fence takes shape.

It wasn't long before I  heard the arrival of a vehicle on the drive, and was surprised to see Nick running towards the house shouting 'Change of plan! The trains are on strike!' We know that Italy is notorious for being plagued by frequent strikes, so it wasn't a complete shock, but this was the first time we have been caught out by them (albeit indirectly). Nick and Kathryn had a quick look on the internet to see if they could go to Lucca station instead, and to check that the flight was still running, then Nick dashed out with Kathryn to drive her all the way to Pisa airport - all trains were off!

As Tess stayed behind to work, I could see we'd soon be at the point where the larger wood would need cutting and stacking, so I left the fencing and went to play around with the pile of pallets to construct walls not only for the new wood pile area but also the existing one so that I could stack the wood higher and further under cover.

In the meantime, Helen had appeared in 'proper' work clothes and took Tess with her up onto the terraces for a change of scenery so that Tess could rake down yet more piles of bramble that Helen had been cutting from clearing yet more terraces over the course of the week.

After about an hour, the hand-held hedge trimmers decided that they had done more than enough and the starter cord broke - not the cord itself, but the cord wouldn't retract... again. This was the same problem as we had the first time they were repaired, so we've given up with them and relegated them to the scrap heap (and we'll be needing to acquire a second, much better pair to the fold very soon).

Helen battled on with the backpack hedge trimmers, but using this piece of kit is much much harder and heavier work, and after half an hour she turned to lopping acacias instead.

Nick finally got back at around 4pm and was keen to put in an hour's work until darkness fell, so I set him up with the chop saw to start cutting and stacking the larger bits of wood while I finished on the pallet work and then went around collecting all the tools that get scattered far and wide when there are five of you working all around the house!

As darkness fell, I called time on work and announced beer o'clock, so after Helen had put the geese to bed and Nick and Tess had changed, they appeared with a large packet of turkey and cranberry crisps and we had a couple of beers, which then rolled into dinner (home-made Tuscan ragu with pasta). We had a great evening and much discussion on the differences between Italy, the UK and New Zealand, amongst other things, and before we knew it it was gone 11pm. Tess jumped up and did the washing up - refusing to leave until she'd done so - and then we all retired to bed after a long day at the office.

Healthcare admin, arches and wood pile 2.0

Stuart and I both got up at 7am this morning - this time, though, I made it out to the geese before he did, so I took my turn at giving them their morning greeting and letting them out into the fresh air.

After an early breakfast, I headed out in the car to Pescia. That makes it twice this week that I've driven on my own and, with the exception of a bit of wheel spinning on the soggy drive (on both occasions), I've managed the drive quite happily. Hopefully this is the start of me no longer giving driving a second thought and being as comfortable with driving a car on the 'wrong' side of the road, with the steering wheel on the 'wrong' side of the car, and a car that's the size of a small bus, as I was driving my little C2 back in the UK.

I turned up at Sue's at about 8.30am. We were girls on a mission today: we were to visit the CUP and get me (at least) registered with a doctor/for healthcare, with the hopes that I might be able to get Stuart registered as well. Sue was coming along for moral support and better Italian comprehension/speaking.

Unlike the last time Stuart visited the CUP, back in September, it was all but empty when we walked in, and we went straight up to the counter. After whispering to Sue to ask what I needed to say, I strolled confidently up and said 'vorrei registrare per dottore'. The man behind the desk understood me, and asked to see my documents. That's when things started to get a bit complicated as I didn't already have a 'tessera sanitaria' (health card). I started pulling various bits and pieces of documentation out of my bag - the translated version of my UK freelance contract, my Italian national insurance registration, my tax registration... It all got a bit complicated, and Sue had to step in to help - I really don't think I could have managed it without her, nevertheless I was pleased to realise that I understood at least some of what was going on. In my somewhat flustered state, I managed to tell the man that Stuart was my wife (idiot!), which made us all laugh - I realised my mistake as soon as the word had come out of my mouth. The chap behind the desk was actually very friendly and joked with us as he went about his business of looking at papers, photocopying documents, talking to his colleague, talking on the telephone, and finally producing two pieces of paper: one showing my registration with a doctor in town and the other a photocopy mock-up of my tessera sanitaria - the actual card will come in the post within the next month, as it has to be processed and sent out from Rome.

When we'd done all that, we asked if I could also register Stuart. The man told us that he will need to come and register in person, but he gave me a form for him to fill in, so that when he does come, it should be a pretty straightforward process for him to get his tessera sanitaria (and register with a doctor) as well.

Phew, we walked out of the CUP feeling very pleased with ourselves and went to the café in the main square to celebrate with a cappucino each and a good long chat. It was great to have a proper catch-up with Sue - between school work, HelpX-ers, birthdays, visitors, Italian lessons and work, we've haven't really had the chance to talk properly for what feels like weeks, and it felt great to have a good old natter.

After our coffee, I left Sue in town then walked back to their house to pick up the car and drive home - stopping at Amanda's on the way to pick up some more bread.

I got home just in time for the HelpX gang's coffee break - they'd already shipped a load of wood from the donkey track down the drive ready for processing. I sat with them (and Stuart) on the patio, before they headed back off up the drive, Stuart headed back into the garden to carry on with the archway he has been building to go into the puppy-proof fence that will surround the garden, and I headed to the office to do some work.

Not long after that, it was time for lunch - today the weather was mild enough and dry enough for us to have lunch outside on the patio. Spicy carrot and lentil soup today - I think that's my favourite one so far!

Atmospheric misty views - at least the weather was dry and mild today!

After a leisurely lunch, Tess, Nick and Kathryn headed back to their wood-collecting duties and Stuart went back to concreting in fence posts. There was nothing else for it but for me to head back to my office work.

After another hour though, I decided to put office work on hold in order to make the most of the remaining hour of daylight, and head back out up the terraces to continue the bramble clearing I'd started yesterday. I reasoned that I could come back to office work once it was too dark to work outside.

I therefore spent an hour with the hedge trimmers, rake and pitch fork, gradually making inroads on the brambles to widen the terraces above the house.

The hedge trimmers ran out of fuel at about the same time as the sky started to get a little darker, so that seemed like a good time to call it a day and pack up. Stuart was also packing up his tools at that point, so we headed indoors.

Stuart has grand plans of training jasmine to grow around the archway.

I'm told that the horizontal pieces are just to hold it in place while the concrete sets...

When we went in, I was thrilled to find that Tess had been up (after they had been stood down for the day) and done the washing up of the lunch dishes - what a star! Apparently the three of them had washed up all of the dishes from last night after they'd finished their breakfast this morning as well - talk about striking gold! Our wood pile v 2.0 is also really starting to take shape thanks to their hard work:

The beginnings of wood pile 2.0.

After putting the geese to bed and calling the cats in, we settled down for the evening to write the blog, light a fire and prepare dinner (mushroom risotto this evening). I can't quite believe that Friday has nearly come around again - I don't know where this week has gone! Tomorrow we will be sorry to say farewell to Kathryn, who will be heading back to London where she starts a new job on Monday. We are also hoping to receive some more news on 'Jeremy' tomorrow so that we have an idea of when and where we will be able to collect him. We have already started preparing the cats for their new house mate by placing their food bowls out of puppy-reach on the work top that still exists in the office (this room was the original kitchen) - it's taking them a little getting used to, but they're getting there!

Slightly confused cats - they thought they weren't normally allowed on work tops...

Bridging the gap!

Everyone stop panicking, everything is OK and no drama has unfolded (except that of a non-functioning internet service... AGAIN!).

When we last blogged on Monday, the internet had been off all day but had reappeared in the early evening in time for us to post about our day. On Tuesday all was fine until around mid-morning, then it disappeared again and so it stayed, all day... and all night!

Our apartment guests checked out on Tuesday morning after a slow start to their day - we all had a nice chat about life over here, what we've been doing, what they're trying to do with their property, the various challenges etc., then we dragged them up the terraces to look at the view from up high. We also let them feed the geese with some lettuce, as they were keen to see them up close, before the time came for them to head off in the general direction of the airport. We were thrilled to find that they had very kindly left the apartment spotless - meaning that only a linen change was needed for our next set of HelpXers. The two Richards and Marissa were certainly excellent and very friendly guests and we look forward to having them back over the next few weeks when they return to do some more work on their own house.

After lunch, I headed out to buy a pile more fence posts so that I could start on 'Jeremy's fence' (puppy-proofing the garden) soon, weather permitting. I'd planned the fence out on the lawn with bamboo canes, so knew exactly what I needed, and headed to the ever reliable and economic agraria in Castellare.

61 fence posts loaded (another 25 to go), I drove back home in time to gently hammer them into position as the daylight faded.

Soon enough, Helen was coming to ask me for the car keys, clutching arms full of stuff so that she could head to Chris and Sue's to bestow a belated birthday present on Chris and then head out for another Italian lesson with Sue.

While Helen was out, I finished a few jobs as part of the kitchen 'remodel' so that everything electric had somewhere to plug in, etc. and then lit the fire and sat down on the sofa with a book until Helen came home.

With a quick, no-fuss pasta dinner (pasta and pesto), we watched an hour of TV (DVD) and then retired to bed to put an end to a frustrating day of having no internet. It's amazing how many things we rely on the internet for - blogging, keeping in touch with friends and family, work, emails about important things like when and where to collect our puppy and what time our HelpXers would be arriving, research about training puppies and introducing one to a household of cats, research about various other things, TV... and the list goes on.

So today started nice and early. Helen was determined to beat me out to set the geese free today but she wasn't quite as determined as I was, and while she was brushing her teeth I dashed out into the rain and skated across the terrace towards the gate. As usual, the geese were standing at the door waiting and came dashing out like greyhounds from a trap the second I lifted their door.

Helen was up when I got back in, so we had breakfast and cursed the satellite modem that was still telling us that we wouldn't be connecting to the rest of the world any time soon. I called Brad, the installer, and left a somewhat desperate message on his voicemail - not quite saying that my wife was preparing to hang me and then come after him, but I definitely added a touch of urgency to the request to GET OUR INTERNET WORKING soon.

We had no idea what time our helpers were due today, as we had no email connection yesterday. The last we'd heard from them was that they would stay 'nearby' in their camper van and arrive first thing in the morning, ready for work. Sure enough, it wasn't long before Nick, Tess and Kathryn rolled down the driveway in Nick and Tess's VW camper (purchased from the Netherlands and to be resold before heading home). After introductions and a coffee, we all went for a soggy walk around the property by way of orientation and to talk through the jobs we'd like to tackle over the coming couple of weeks.

That done, they dumped their bags and got changed, we had mid-morning coffee, then I set them to work collecting wood from on and around the upper donkey track while I went back to see my new friend Paolo at Frateschi's to acquire some concrete for the fence posts and another wheelbarrow to speed the moving of this new wood collection back to the new storage area near the house.

I got back in time to head to the donkey track myself before lunch and, with my Silky saw courtesy of my father-in-law, took down a few small trees along the donkey track.

As was heading back to the house for a length of rope, Brad called me back on the mobile phone (yes, the mobile phone that now HAS signal and WORKS at the house!).

I explained the problem - his first advice was to check that the cable ends were OK, and he gave me a test to work out if the cable was connecting the LNB and the modem. If the cable was OK, then he would talk me through setting a computer into alignment mode so that I could tweak the dish itself in case it had got blown out of position.

After gaining access to both ends of the cable, it was immediately obvious that the satellite end of it had rusted and the decayed to the point of snapping when I touched it. Fortunately, I had some spare ends for the cable, so I trimmed it back and fitted them, reconnected it all, and as if by magic... it worked! I was very happy to have fixed it so easily, although a bit annoyed that I hadn't checked the cable myself earlier, rather than make the assumption that it had been installed well in the first place and not with what must have been second-hand cable - and pleased to see that Helen had taken down the noose.

Soon, the damp HelpXers arrived back at the house for lunch (did we explain we have three of them for the first couple of days? Tess and Nick asked if their fried Kathryn could join in the fun and sleep in their camper before she headed off to London).

Everyone seemed to enjoy Helen's leek and potato soup - just what the doctor ordered on a damp day like this. It wasn't cold really, but definitely damp, all three of them were covered in mud, and Nick had already ripped his trousers.

After lunch I washed up while the guys went back to work collecting and ferrying wood to the house and Helen went back to the office to check in with work to see what she'd missed out on over the last 30 hours now that the internet was functioning.

By the time I joined our Kiwi trio, it was already 3pm, so with both barrows and some bungy cords we made a concerted effort to clear the pile of wood from the drive before they clocked off. We now have a very good new pile of kindling and starter logs, all in need of cleaning up and cutting before stacking, but for a few hours' work, a good effort.

While they went for showers in the apartment I started constructing an archway from fence posts, ready to start the fencing either tomorrow or Friday, while Helen went back up the terraces with the hedge trimmers to attack more brambles in the last hour of daylight.

The rain started again in earnest at around 5pm, so with the light disappearing too, we called it a day, put the geese to bed, rounded up the cats and went in to start on dinner for the five of us: vegetable chilli with rice, although with the chilli already having been cooked at the weekend, it'll be nice and easy!

Frustrations and all change

This morning started off with Stuart getting up to let the geese out. He'd offered to do this last night so that I could have a bit more sleep, after I'd spent much of the day yesterday with a headache. I had still been planning to beat him to it, but as the early hours rolled around, my migraine returned and I was only too glad to let him get up and see to the cats and birds - in the rain. I hauled myself out of bed at around 8am, took a tablet and staggered downstairs.

While we were finishing our breakfast, the phone rang - it was the guy from the animal rescue centre HQ letting us know that we have been approved for the adoption of 'Jeremy', the pointer cross! He told Stuart that we would need to send copies of our identity cards by email, and that once we'd done that, we should be able to pick up the dog in six days. Wait, SIX DAYS?! That's this weekend!

So, as it turns out, all being well, we should be adding this face to our menagerie within the week:

'Jeremy'

We're not entirely convinced by the name 'Jeremy' and are thinking we might change it - we're still pondering that one. Of course, if he's already got used to the name, then we may be stuck forever yelling 'Jeremyyyyy' across fields and parks.

Shortly after Stuart had put the phone down, our internet connection cut out. In stark contrast to yesterday's beautiful weather, today it has been nothing but damp, followed by heavy rain, a bit of thunder rolling around, more rain, more damp and ... you get the picture! We were thus not too surprised when the internet cut out - it's usually a case of waiting a little while for it to pick itself up and dust itself down before getting going again.

With rain pounding down outside, and no internet connection available to do any useful jobs, Stuart was at a bit of a loose end. Without being able to log into my work emails I was limited in the amount of work I could get done too - and with my migraine fading, but still not completely gone, sitting in front of a computer wasn't top of the list of things I felt like doing. We therefore decided to do something useful: go doggy shopping. We have HelpX helpers arriving on Wednesday, and with Jeremy potentially arriving as early as Saturday/Sunday, we realised that going to buy some doggy essentials was actually quite an urgent job. So, we hopped in the car heading for Montecatini.

We got as far as the end of the drive, to find another car pulled in on the road side of the gate - we realised it was our guests in their hire car. On winding down the window, we discovered that they had had a flat tyre - caused by driving over a sharp piece of stone at the edge of our drive. They had managed to change the tyre, but were going to have to find a replacement for it and asked for directions to a tyre place in Pescia. We showed them where it was on the map and left them to it, feeling guilt-ridden that it had been our driveway (in fact, a stone laid around one of the newly added drainage channels) that had ruined their day. With such a short stay and lots to get done on their own house, today was to be their only full day here - so to have to add a trip to get a replacement tyre into the mix must have been the last thing they needed. Marissa kindly said that 'these things happen', but still, we were thoroughly disappointed that this had to happen to them on our watch.

We drove through the rain towards Montecatini - our first stop was a large pet store on the back road to Montecatini that we've passed on several occasions, but never been into before. We pulled up, walked in - and felt utterly bewildered. We'd drawn up an 'essentials' shopping list, with the help of our good friend Sarah, and decided first of all to look for a harness, a collar and a lead. Well, even that was a minefield - there were rows and rows of leads, collars, harnesses in all different colours, materials, shapes, sizes... Without having actually met Jeremy yet, we had to guess at how large he might be. We've seen several photos of him, but we're not sure how long ago the photographs were taken, and it's still no substitute for the real thing. We opted for a small-medium sized collar and a small-to-medium sized harness, reasoning that if they're too big, we can use them when he gets a bit bigger. We looked at cages, but I thought I had seen a wider range in the other pet shop near Obi, and since we were feeling all at sea, we decided to buy the collar, lead, harness, a whistle and a clicker from this shop, and then head to the other shop, giving us some time to gather our thoughts on the way.

We reached ArcaPlanet and found a much wider selection of cages. Having chosen one of appropriate size, we then found a mat to go inside it, a couple of toys, some puppy food, some puppy treats, a food bowl and some pooper scooper bags. Wow, this dog lark is WAY more involved than cat ownership! We decided to leave it at that for now - figuring that, as long as we are equipped to bring him home, take him outside safely, feed him and give him somewhere to sleep, then other things can come later.

We made a quick pit stop in Obi for some briquettes for the log burner in the office and a couple of new tarpaulins so that Stuart can construct a new wood storage area, then headed for home. We were shocked to realise that by the time we got home it was lunch time - where had the morning gone? There was still no internet connection, and the weather was still wet, so we ate lunch at the dining table in the kitchen.

After lunch, I headed to the office to do some offline work. That was fairly short-lived though, as something in the log burner (which Stuart had lit to warm the office up a bit) must have caused something nasty in the flue to start leaking out, with black liquid running out all over the floor and unbearable noxious fumes filling the room.

After trying to put up with it for a bit, we decided to get everyone (people and cats) out of the room, open the window, and close the door to give the fumes a chance to dissipate.

So, it was raining - heavily - putting paid to outdoor jobs; the internet connection was down, meaning that we couldn't send emails (in fact we still hadn't managed to email our ID cards to the man at the animal rescue centre yet - having told him, at 9am, that we'd do it within the hour) or do anything that required looking up information on the web, or work on our own website; and the office was out of bounds, meaning that we couldn't even do any offline work. Feeling utterly frustrated with the way his day was turning out, Stuart started moving furniture around while I washed up the dishes from lunch.

Now, Stuart has a thing about rearranging things and organising things. He loves it.

I also have a thing about having things rearranged and re-organised. I hate it. I hate the disruption and messiness that come with major reorganising. I hate the upheaval and, well, really, the change.

I decided to go and check the post, and when I got back, found that the internet had finally sparked back into life, so headed back into the smelly office to do some more work, leaving Stuart banging, drilling, scraping furniture and changing things around to his heart's content.

Thing is, he does, actually, always get it right, and I know that when I leave my desk and wander into the kitchen/living area in a moment, it will look better, things will be better organised and we will have more usable space.

I'm about to find out so, as they say, watch this space...!

Beautiful end of the weekend

Sunday started with the letting out of the geese at just after 7am, but after having done so, Helen promptly climbed back into bed for another hour.

When we surfaced an hour or so later, the first job of the day was to portion up and the fruits of last night's cook-a-thon: Tuscan ragu, veggie chilli, leek and potato soup, and pea soup.

The fruits of many labours!

That done, we both headed downstairs to turn the apartment around. The job took less than two hours between us this time - I think we're coming to realise that it's a quicker job if the place is occupied regularly, so let's hope for a busy season next year! In fact, we already have our first set of guests booked in for the start of spring - Helen's Mum and Dad have booked flights for March already, and this time for a longer stay, we'll be very happy to see them here again.

It was noon by the time we had locked the doors to the apartment and lunchtime beckoned, but once again we were out of bread, so a quick trip down the road to Amanda's was in order to secure her last half a kilo of bread freshly cooked in a wood oven that morning.

Helen made up a batch of hummus, and we sat on the patio with half a beer each to soak up the glorious sunshine that had made an appearance. It was so warm, I almost had to change into shorts but laziness got the better of me and I decided to grin and bear it. It wasn't really hard to bear, after all: I was sitting with a beer, the best home-made hummus we (Helen) had ever made, my wife, the cats milling around, the sunshine, and our amazing view.

Beautiful autumn sunshine.

Our apartment guests were due to arrive in the early afternoon so we had no real plans to go out, and after the phone had rung we definitely couldn't go anywhere - it was Claudia, the lady who we had been told would be in touch regarding the puppy we are interested in giving a new home to. She asked if she could visit us at 4-4:30pm this afternoon, so I of course agreed.

That meant that we were tied to the house - which was actually very nice: we couldn't go anywhere and the weather was lovely. It was the first 'slow' day we've had for many, many weeks, and it was nice to have an enforced slow down. So, while I sat on the patio peeling chestnuts, Helen tidied the house in readiness for our visit and then joined me on the patio to do her Italian homework. We both sat there attending to our respective tasks in silence, it was beautiful (not that we weren't talking to each other, you understand, just that it was so relaxing whiling away the sunny afternoon to the sound of the river down in the valley bottom and the birds all around us in the woods).

While peeling chestnuts, Mom finally managed to catch us near the Skype phone - so often, we're at home, but working outside with noisy toys or on terraces so far away from the house that we just don't hear the phone ringing, so it was nice to catch up eventually.

It must have been around 3pm when our guests arrived, having had their flight delayed this morning. We chatted for quite some time with them when they got out of the car - the geese started the conversation rolling, and things went on from there. Marissa and Richard have stayed at this house numerous times before (with the previous owners) while doing restoration work on their own little cottage across the valley, so it was a great boost for us to hear from them how good they thought the place was looking. On this occasion, they had also brought along Marissa's brother-in-law (another Richard), who was seeing this part of Tuscany for the first time, and he too seemed bowled over by our little spot.

They went out at around 15:45 to go and inspect their cottage - and see just how much weed and bramble clearing needed doing (having not visited it for many months) - and then head off in search of Richard no. 3 in Pescia to collect some items he was storing for them.

After waving them off for the afternoon, we went back to the patio just as the sun was racing all too soon towards the mountain top opposite, threatening an imminent drop in temperature. We were just starting to move indoors when the phone rang - it was Claudia again, she couldn't find our house and her TomTom had taken her all the way up to Vellano. As it was a little difficult to give directions over the phone, we agreed to meet in Pietrabuona at Frataschi's so that she could follow us to the house, so Helen and I hopped into the car and headed down to wait in Frateschi's car park. After a little while, a large 4x4 turned up, containing Claudia, her husband Massimo, and their German shepherd! We introduced ourselves and they followed us back up the road to our house.

As we were chatting after getting out of the cars, Claudia (whose English is very good) mentioned that she knows the area, saying that she has a friend somewhere nearby with a brother who lives in England, and then somehow she mentioned Sheffield. The penny dropped straight away and I immediately blurted out Marco's name - the guy we met in Pescia a few months back who runs his own cycling holiday company and who lives in Sheffield. He is only the brother of Claudia's friend, who lives in Montecatini! Piccolo mondo!!

So, realising that we had common acquaintances (albeit slightly tenuous on our part, having only met Marco once and emailed him a couple of times after that) set us up nicely for when we finally did get to talk about dogs, or puppies. Claudia said it was a beautiful place and that it would be perfect for a dog (as if to demonstrate its suitability, her German shepherd ran excitedly around the garden the whole time we were talking). She then displayed a concerned face as she could see nowhere for a dog to be without escaping off into the woods - we had, however, already picked up on this being an issue and had decided to fence off our lawn and patio area, which immediately got the thumbs up. After Claudia had taken a few photos to send back to the rescue centre HQ, we were cleared (by Claudia, at least) for adoption! We were also left with both Claudia and Massimo's mobile numbers and they insisted we go to visit them at their place in Monticatini Terme. It seems we may have found our first Italian friends, or acquaintances at the very least! It would be good to practice our language skills on them and theirs on us, as they had a decent smattering of English too.

After they left, we bounced (metaphorically speaking) into the house, pleased with our seal of approval, and while Helen set about finishing the Tuscan bean soup she was preparing for the freezer, I headed out with a bowl full of lettuce to feed Mr Grumpy and Mrs Less-Grumpy before putting them to bed, which I finally managed, on my own, without sticks - a feat Helen had been managing solo all week, but today was my first attempt.

As I write the blog, the wood burner is glowing and the smell of the aforementioned Tuscan bean soup is wafting through the house - time for a relaxing evening before the start of another busy week.

A day of domesticity

Knowing that I'd been feeling a bit jaded last night, Stuart encouraged me to snooze my alarm this morning, and as such I didn't get to the geese until 7.20am - by which time it was fully light and they seemed a little miffed at having been left longer than usual (or maybe that was just my guilty perception). To assuage my guilt, I took the last of the lettuce with me and fed it to them as they came, blinking into the daylight out of their overnight house.

My next early morning task was to go down to the apartment and collect up all of the linens that needed changing and set the washing machine going. After that, I set about starting to plan some meals for the week ahead so that we would be able to compile a comprehensive shopping list.

After Stuart had got up, we had breakfast and agreed on a meal strategy for the week. Our New Zealand couple arrive on Wednesday - and have asked if their friend can join them for a couple of days as well, so if I thought that providing three square (and economical) meals a day for just one extra person was challenging over the last couple of weeks, this week will test my catering skills on a whole new level! Thankfully, my wonderful husband has agreed to help cook up some meals for the freezer this weekend, so the mid-week pressure should be eased a little - at least for the first week of these HelpX-ers' stay.

Once we'd compiled two shopping lists - one for Esselunga and one for Lidl - we set out in the car. First things first, we drove to Altopascio to fill up on methane. It was a mundane trip, but it felt good to see the outside world and have a change of scenery. The countryside is really starting to change at the moment - the greens have finally fully committed to turning to autumnal browns, yellows and oranges, and we saw three different sets of people out picking olives, with nets spread under their trees (a rare sight this year, thanks to the vast majority of crops in the area having been decimated by olive fly), as well as a gent tending to his vines, post-picking.

After Altopascio, we headed for the complex of shops situated just after the turning to Collodi on the road to Lucca. With a massive cook-off planned for the weekend, we realised we would need some more containers for the food, for putting in the freezer. For some reason, half of our Tupperware containers seem to have vanished or else lost their lids since we moved from Abingdon. Actually, I'm not sure that that's really the case - it probably has more to do with the fact that we rarely used more than two or three plastic boxes at a time in our old life, and it's only now that we are realising just how inadequate our Tupperware collection really was! Anyway, we thought we'd try a large shop we'd stumbled across there when looking for washing line the other week.

Before embarking on the shopping though, we decided to treat ourselves to a coffee at the incredibly busy café there. We've passed through this complex of shops on a number of occasions, and this café always seems to be full of people, with more people spilling out onto chairs and tables on the pavement. Today was no exception. We chose to sit inside and the noise from the number of people bustling around - friends greeting each other, women coo-ing over a new baby, old gents passing the time of day and families buying pastries - was deafening! We had a second round of cappucino ginseng in an attempt to galvanise ourselves before heading out to start the shopping.

First, we picked up several Tupperware boxes, then Stuart headed to the electrical shop to see if they had any carbon monoxide detectors/alarms. While he did that, I went into the post office to pay our latest Telecom Italia bill. He came out empty-handed, but the shop owner had promised to email him when he found a suitable product.

Next, it was time for the dreaded Esselunga shop. We managed to get around the shop relatively quickly, given the enormous amount on our list, and piled all the shopping into the back of the car before heading to Lidl. Doing 'the double' on the supermarket shopping makes sense economically - there are definite savings to be made, which matter to us a whole lot more in our new lifestyle where we have less than half the amount of money coming in than we used to have - but, for someone who dislikes supermarket shopping at the best of times, drawing up in the car park of the second supermarket of the day brings a certain sense of life draining away... Nevertheless, round two was a necessary evil, so we divided our labour and while Stuart went to find cheese and salamis, I dashed around picking up milk, fruit juice and toilet rolls. We were pleasantly surprised to find that, with two tills open today, there was only one person ahead of us in the queue, and before we knew it we were paying and leaving the shop.

On arriving home, we went back and forth (and back again) to the car to unload all of the shopping, and then attempt to find homes for all of it. Part of our economy-buying strategy is to buy certain things in bulk - and definitely to buy things that are on special offer in bulk. That's all well and good if you have a spacious kitchen, but our excuse-for-a-kitchen can best be described as 'compact'. So that is how you end up with tins of tomatoes and bags of pasta on top of bookshelves in your office...

We were feeling pretty peckish by the time we'd unloaded all the shopping, so we sat at the patio table and had our lunch - it actually felt warmer outside than inside the house today, and with the sun just peeping through the clouds, the last thing we felt like doing was clearing away lunch and heading indoors to do more chores. But, there's no rest for the wicked - and none for trying-to-be Tuscan farmers either, it seems.

After I'd stood on the bottom of a pair of stepladders to stead them while Stuart replaced the 'LNB' on the satellite receiver (whatever that means...), we headed indoors and, while Stuart did some tidying and rearranging to try to find some extra storage space, I made a start on the mammoth cooking session. First, I whizzed up a pea and pesto soup - a foolproof and super-speedy Nigella recipe that I was first introduced to by my friend Lesley. Next, I started chopping up the ingredients for a leek and potato soup. However, I put that on hold after Stuart had finished his tidying spree so that the pair of us could head into town... to buy some more cooking utensils!

We realised that with all of the cooking we wanted to do this weekend, we actually only have one pot that is large enough to cook things in, meaning we could only do one dish at a time. Our enormous Le Creuset casserole was bought at great expense in Abingdon many years ago, but after the initial shock of its price, we can safely say that it has been one of the best purchases we have ever made and has more than paid for itself many times over. Anyway, we were searching for something of similar size - we knew of two kitchen-y shops in Pescia, one at the top of the main square, and one at the bottom.

It was already past 4.30pm by the time we headed out, so we knew it had to be a quick trip so that we could get back in time to put the geese to bed and get the cats inside before darkness fell. We were surprised to find town busy and there was a large inflatable tent at the top end of the square - meaning that we couldn't find a parking space, so we headed for a car park a little way out of town and then walked back in. We tried the shop at the bottom end of the square first, which had a fairly extensive range of cooking utensils, including several pans, but we couldn't see anything that was quite what we were after. We then walked to the top end of the square to the other shop - which proved to be useless for our needs. Rather than selling useful cooking items it seemed to be selling arty ornaments and expensive KitchenAid mixers. With the light starting to fade, we headed back down to the first shop. On entering the shop, the owner asked us if we needed something in particular. We explained that we wanted a large casserole, and she took us to the shelves of kitchen products to show us what she had. Somehow, on our first visit to the shop, we had completely missed a very large saucepan - which was the perfect size for what we wanted!

We bought the pan, and a lid (which we had to pay extra for!), and hot footed it back to the car in the quickly fading light.

We drove home, got the cats in, I got the geese into their house, then we shut the door, drew the curtain and turned our attention back to the cook-a-thon!

This time, both of us donned aprons, with Stuart concentrating on Tuscan ragu while I finished my leek and potato soup and followed that with a vegetable chilli. We'll probably leave it at that for today, with two more soups to make tomorrow. Tomorrow morning's first task, though, will be to turn the apartment around in time for our paying guests who plan to arrive just after lunch tomorrow.

Right, time to head back to the kitchen!