It's official!

It was a prompt start this morning: Helen, Reggie and I left our helpers eating breakfast while we dashed out in the direction of Montecatini Terme.

 

We had a 10:30am appointment with someone at the canine registry office in Massa e Cozzile on the edge of Montecatini, but before that we wanted to pick up some more tongue and groove wood and a tin of wood stain from Obi (for making more cold frames), so we were leaving the house before 9am today to fight our way through Pescia rush hour (I joke of course, that doesn't seem to happen around here).

 

We were soon parking at Obi, and half an hour later we were strapping 30 lengths of tongue and groove to the roof rack and heading for Massa e Cozzile.

 

We parked the car and, while trying to encourage Reggie out of the car were approached by an African chap trying to sell his wares. This is not uncommon in Italy - due to its geography, the country has become one of the main entry points into Europe for Africans fleeing poverty or political unrest and seeking a better future for themselves and their families (normally in another country beyond our borders once they have been 'processed' by the government on behalf of the EU).

 

I told him I didn't need anything but gave him a coin and bade him a good day. He was by far the friendliest African immigrant I've spoken to here, and we talked a little more before I took down his mobile number for future reference in case we needed any heavy help at the farm - he was quite a unit and looked capable of some very physical work and while we try to do everything by ourselves around here, you just never know when an extra bit of hired help might come in useful.

 

We quickly gave up trying to get Reggie out of the car as he seemed to be feeling particularly scared this morning, so we left him in the car with the windows open and went for a quick cappuccino outside a café facing the car park with one eye on Reggie in the car and the other eye on the office we had our appointment at. We could see through the window that there was already a couple in the office with their dog, and another couple was waiting outside with a couple of tiny crates - we assumed that they housed cats, but when (after finishing our coffee) we joined the queue, we saw that one contained a pug, and some other small fluffy dog was squeezed into the other!

 

It wasn't long before we were in the office and only half an hour behind schedule (not that we minded waiting outside basking in the glorious sunshine). In the end Reggie had to be carried from the car in his crate - he was so reluctant to leave it today that we simply closed the door and carried him in between us, all 21.5kg of him (plus crate)!

 

Once inside the office, he came out of the crate of his own accord and busied himself sniffing around the room while the lady doing the paperwork took herself off to the toilet - at least that's what she said she was doing. In the end, she was out of the room for almost 15 minutes, leaving us feeling like we were on some kind of hidden camera program and waiting for someone to appear with a camera after a series of seemingly unbelievable events happened around us. Thankfully, that didn't happen and when the lady finally came back through the door she earned herself a little growl from Reggie who had clearly forgotten she had ever been in the office with us at all.

 

A flurry of photocopies and signatures later, we walked out into the sunshine the officially registered owners of our enormous (and still growing) puppy, the latest addition to the Smith clan but not the last.

 

We hopped in the car to head home, only to find that it wouldn't start... again! This had happened a couple of weeks ago when we were leaving the refuge track and again yesterday afternoon as we tried to leave for doggy school. Yesterday, it started a few minutes later (as it always does, once it feels like it). Today, however, it seemed to be quite happy parked where it was in the lovely sunshine and didn't want to start at all. After a few fruitless attempts, Monday (that was our African friend's name) appeared, along with a friend. He had seen me having trouble starting the car and had noticed that it was a methane-fuelled car so suggested we try starting it on unleaded first. He explained that he used to work at a fuel station for a while and he had seen this happen before more than once. Unfortunately, his suggestion also proved fruitless.

 

At this point, Monday and his friend offered to give us a push - which we gladly accepted. Before Helen could finish the sentence 'shall I get out?' we were already going slowly in reverse, a not inconsiderable weight and slightly uphill too. Once we were out of our parking space they flanked us and pushed from behind, I let the clutch out and the engine sprang into life as they waved and walked off. I had fully expected this push to cost us a couple of Euros - well, it did in the end as we stopped the car (with the engine running, of course) and called Monday over to give him another couple of euros which was greeted with a handshake and broad smile.

 

By the time we got home most of the morning had disappeared and it wasn't long before we were all dining on the patio in the lovely sunshine with both dogs floating around for scraps.

 

After lunch, Helen went indoors to start her office work while I went with chainsaw in hand to help Zach and Holly finish edging our vegetable patches with tree trunks. It wasn't long before all seven vegetable beds were done and they were clocking off for the day, leaving only one more day of work for them here on the farm before they head up to France this weekend.

 

When we came up from the terraces, we found Helen and Reggie on the patio - Helen taking advantage of the sunshine and peace and quiet to do some paper-based editing outdoors and Reggie quietly dozing at her feet. The three of us left Helen in peace on the patio while we went to have a beer down on the guest patio before Zach and Holly retired indoors and I went upstairs to distract Helen from her work so that we could take Reggie for a romp around the woods. Tools in hand, we wandered along the drive and up the donkey track, pruning as we went! When Reggie disappeared into the woods and started barking at something we couldn't see, we called him back - he arrived with his tongue hanging out of the corner of his mouth having had nearly an hour running around the woods.

 

When we got back to the house, Helen busied herself with making our second cold frame under my instruction, which was very nearly finished by the time it got dark at which point went indoors to repeat our familiar routine.