A hot and tyring day

After breakfast, I left Helen, Zach and Holly to start their respective days' work while I went to see Davide for another pitch fork (the three-tined one he told us at the weekend would be in on Wednesday). The pitch fork hadn't arrived yet though, so instead I left with an impulse buy: a Samurai pruning saw. I was gifted a Silky pruning saw by my father-in-law a little while before we left England, and it has become one of our most frequently used tools while working in the woods and on the terraces - in fact, we used it so much that I have since acquired a further two of the same style so that everyone involved can have one to hand to cut through anything that's too big for the hedge trimmers or strimmer to deal with.

As I headed back towards home through Pescia, I decided to make a quick stop at the tyre place on the bridge, 'Fantozzi Gomme', which regularly has piles of old tyres outside awaiting collection. I'd asked Alex last week where he got the ones he has in his garden as I was hatching a plan that involved old tyres. Alex said that he'd got them from Fantozzi Gomme, and that they had been happy to let him have them for free.

I walked in and waited. When finally asked what I needed, I asked for old used tyres 'for the garden' (in Italian of course). I was promptly taken outside to the pile and told that I could help myself for free. Brilliant! Shortly afterwards, a second chap came out to see me and pointed to half a dozen tyres that I couldn't have, but he said that I was welcome to take any of the rest. We chatted briefly as he wanted to know what I wanted them for. As far as I could understand, he has to do some paperwork in order to dispose of them normally and wanted to make sure they were going to a responsible home. Once I'd explained that I wanted them for garden steps, he seemed satisfied and left me to fill the car.

After doing so I headed for home, making a quick pit stop at Frateschi's for a pitchfork and a propane bottle refill before going home to start work. Andrea, the geometra, was due at 11.30am to measure the exact size and location of the new wood shed, pergola and poly tunnel and I needed to move a huge heap of bramble that was currently sitting exactly where we wanted the poly tunnel to be - not ideal for a man that turns up in cords and expensive-looking trainers.

As I toiled away, the sun continued to warm the air - over the last couple of days the sun has had a definite intensity to it that it hasn't had for months, a sure sign that spring is well on its way now.

After moving the bramble, I put Reggie in his crate in the car - his 'safe place' - before Andrea arrived. We'd decided to try putting him in the car, where he is usually very settled and happy, when people arrive to see whether it would help him cope with strangers arriving at the house. However, as soon as Andrea turned up and parked his car (next to ours, which had all of its windows and back doors open for air circulation), Reggie went nuts. I suspect that being locked up not and being able to see who had come to his house made him worse than usual, so it was something of an epic fail on that front. Back to the drawing board!

I accompanied Andrea around the place for an hour, helping measure all that was necessary before sending him on his way. We now wait a PDF of the revised plans (minus the extension but with pergola and poly tunnel added) to be submitted to the Comune.

By now, it was almost 1pm so we called Zach and Holly up from terrace no.5 for lunch after a strenuous and HOT morning - not only was there a good deal of warmth in today's sunshine, but the fire they were tending down there was a hot one today as it consisted of sizeable bit of tree branch as well as the quick-burning bramble.

After an antipasti-style lunch on the patio we all headed back for our respective jobs again and after a bit of strimming on the lower terraces I made a start on putting in the first flight of tyre steps down the middle of the terraces while Helen had a conference call in the office.

The start of the plan - you'll have to check back tomorrow to see how the steps turn out!

When she surfaced from the office at about 4.30pm I was spent and needed little convincing to down tools for the day, after which we made a short trip to see Amanda for some supplies where we had a nice chat for five or ten minutes.

After waving goodbye to Amanda, we went home to light the fire, feed the animals and get the geese in - the usual evening routine - not forgetting a bit of daily dog/cat interaction training with Lucca and Reggie. We don't want to speak too soon, but things do seem to be calming down on the Reggie vs. cats front - this afternoon, Helen was upstairs when Florence came through the cat flap while Reggie was on the sofa, unattended. Helen came downstairs to find Reggie nonchalantly pottering into the office to find Florence sitting (tail all puffed up) on the windowsill looking scared. Reggie was simply standing looking at her though - no chasing, barking or lunging at her. This is definitely progress!