I was planning to head up to Vellano to do a bit of strimming with Dave after breakfast, but at that time it was still raining - not heavily, but earnestly enough to make strimming potentially unsafe if not unpleasant, so we postponed for a couple of hours to keep an eye on the weather as it was meant to clear up sometime around midday.
I then dashed off to Maionchi, which was always the plan as I needed to replace the drive shaft on the strimmer regardless of weather - without it I wouldn't be doing any strimming at all.
By the time I got home it was just before ten and still raining, so Dave and I checked in and said we'd talk again around 11. With that, I decided to head into Pescia to buy some wood to make a new dining table. The gate leg on our existing table had given way (thanks to some broken dowels) last week when Helen and I were working on the laptop (the laptop thankfully survived the fall with the exception of a broken SD card port), so this seemed like a good time to put my plan for a new dining table into action.
When I arrived at the wood yard the ever helpful Elena rolled her eyes as if to say 'what now!?' but I explained that this particular project was simple and gave her the list of what I needed: 3 planks and 5 lengths of timber, all planed. After paying the €69 I waited outside for the guys to get and plane the wood and cut it to length before loading it into the car. Despite the damp start it was a pleasant morning, which meant the 40 minutes I had to wait for the wood was easily passed by looking around at the neighbouring fruit trees and at how they'd been pruned - not a bad way to spend the time, pruning fast becoming a new interest of mine with our very young orchard now behind the house.
With the wood on board I headed home getting back around 11 - there wasn't much time until lunch, so I decided to make a start on the table, having just agreed with Dave on the phone that as the weather seemed to be drying up and getting much brighter, we'd start strimming after lunch so long as it stayed this way.
With my trusty mitre saw set up outside I started putting the table together, having pretty much decided exactly how it was going to be constructed.
A happy hour and a quarter was spent chopping wood in the now sunny morning and as lunchtime approached I'd finished the table ready for our first meal of many on it.
After we dispatched a plate of farm fresh scrambled eggs on toast, Helen went back to the office and I loaded the car to head up the valley for a couple of hours of sweaty strimming in the sunshine before heading home to ease into the evening with a fire and dinner, pleased with the day's efforts despite the damp start.
On Tuesday I took Reggie for an early morning walk as he'd missed out completely yesterday so as Helen had gone to the apartment to make use of her bike and turbo trainer I loaded Reggie into the car and headed for the chicken run, discovering along the way that Pescia does indeed have a rush hour and it is at 7:45am. This took me a little by surprise as I had assumed after almost two years here I would have known if there was a rush hour - it just goes to show that we've never been through town at this time of the day before and won't be planning to again if we can help it (not that it was anything comparable to a UK rush hour).
I got home just before 9.30am in time to pass the car keys to Helen so that she could head into Pescia to meet with Sue for coffee while Chris came here in their car to spend another session in front of the laptop working on the Pescia Rugby Club video.
As lunch time approached, Chris packed up and left, shortly after which Helen returned home. I'm sure there must have been a better way to plan this logistically, but that's how it fell into place and we did little to think it through.
It was a beautiful day, allowing us to have lunch outside on the veranda, which we didn't rush, before finally retiring indoors to make an attempt at tidying before Samantha arrived.
After Samantha had given Reggie one of his twice-weekly bread snacks she came indoors to kick off the lesson, which began with me having my homework checked - homework that I confessed to finding a real struggle. Having gatecrashed this lesson of Helen's (unintentionally, I hasten to add), Samantha has been giving me homework without fully understanding what level I'm at. Having only taught Helen she understandably had been making the assumption that I was of a similar standard to Helen, but that was proved wrong this week and after wrangling for over an hour with the homework, I left Helen and Samantha in peace with a plan for some easier homework, involving a couple of backwards steps, for me next week.
I then dashed up to Vellano again to meet David so that we could build a couple more garden steps at the property we're working on. However, on getting out of the car I realised that in the panic to get to Vellano I had forgot not only the concrete we needed (from Frateschi), but also my wallet to pay for it, so I left David removing the old steps in readiness for new ones while I dashed back home for the wallet, then into Pietrabuona for the materials, then back again to Vellano.
As David and I worked away in the warm afternoon, the wind started to pick up, getting stronger and stronger as the afternoon went on. As the evening went on the winds continued to strengthen, bringing back memories of the big storm the region endured last March - so much so that Helen barely slept.
Thankfully, it turned out that despite the strong winds here we had been sheltered somewhat by the hill behind us and there was no damage to report in the morning. There was less good news from Donatella though, who'd suffered the worst with the storms last year - there were no trees down this time, thankfully, but her poly-tunnel had been uncovered, the rood of her wood shed had partially come off and her pergola had been damaged, so together with David and Sarah we arranged to all descend on her after lunch to help put the place back together.
Before that it was our group Italian lesson in Vellano - even on getting out of the car up there we could feel how much windier it still was just another couple of miles up the valley and how cold the wind was here, - it felt like the coldest day we've had yet this year.
After a lesson on the uses of the word 'da', of which there are many, Helen and I headed home for lunch which today was definitely NOT outside - what a difference a day makes... just 24 little hours...
After lunch, I left Helen at home - despite wanting to pitch in and help at Donatella's, she had yet to turn her computer on today to check emails and work, so I headed off with a boot full of tools and screws to see what David, Sarah and I could do to fix the place up.
Fortunately the damage was not as severe this time and we soon had the place back in order and were sitting down for coffee under the pergola before we all headed home for the evening.
There was another complete change in the weather again on Thursday - back to beautiful clear skies and sunshine - and with such a lovely sunny start, I managed to persuade Helen to join Reggie and me on a walk along the river.
After getting home, Helen went into the office and I dashed to Frateschi for another car load of cotto tiles, concrete and steel before going home to make lunch - which was most definitely eaten outside on a day like today, it was glorious and felt almost like summer.
As we finished lunch David and Sarah arrived, having been out shopping for compost to get their seed planting started. We sat out on the patio with coffee for a while chatting before showing them how our seeds were doing in the poly-tunnel.
Once they left for home I spent the remainder of the afternoon in the utility room getting ready for the next section of repair before we settled into a bottle of wine to herald the start of the four-day weekend known as Easter...
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