The move to Tuscany : Feel the heat

It's been a while... in that time, it's been hot, indeed, it's been unbearably hot, we've had internet issues (yes, 5 years on we are still having issues, although now it's more to do with guests using up our allowance than to do with things not working as they should), and we've been busy entertaining visitors.

In what we now know has been declared the hottest June on record globally, we were affected by the heatwave across parts of Europe and have sweltered in heat ranging most days from 37C to 40C, and have struggled to sleep in a bedroom at 32C. We have relished the cooler evenings and dreaded the heat of the afternoons when performing a task as simple as hanging the washing out has caused us to come back to the house with rivers of sweat running down our faces. Showering before going out has been virtually pointless as within minutes of getting out of the shower and dressed the sweat is running again! We have even entertained fantasies of crowdfunding a summer home for ourselves in the cool of somewhere like Norway. This morning, however, the weather finally broke and as I write this, there are ear-shattering claps of thunder overhead and apocalyptic-style rain hammering down. It has been more than 4 weeks since we had any rain - it seems to be making up for it right now!

The sleeping situation had been semi-manageable for a while, but after three nights in a row of 32C heat in the bedroom and very little sleep, we decided something had to be done. We went on a shopping trip to Obi and Decathlon (both of which were wonderfully air conditioned and we did consider setting up camp for the day there), and bought some pieces of pine and a camping style gas hob. The pieces of pine we used to fashion some internal shutters for all the windows in the house. And the camping stove as a pop-up outdoor kitchen, to try and eliminate the extra heat of cooking from the house.

These stone-built Tuscan farm houses were, of course, built with hot summers in mind - the windows are all small, making it dark inside during the winter, but of course minimising the amount of direct sunlight that gets in during the height of the summer. Of course, when our house was built, there were external shutters at all the windows, and the traditional way to "operate" a house like this during the summer months is to close all the shutters and windows during the day, then fling them all open as soon as the sun goes down and the temperature drops. This way, the excessive heat of the day is kept out of the house, and the cooler evening air allowed in.

Unfortunately, the shutters on our house disappeared some time ago (prior to our arrival), and without even having curtains or blinds, there was nothing to stop the hot sun streaming into the house and heating it up like a furnace. The internal shutters, therefore (for the time being simply tacked to the window frame, but Stuart plans to put hinges on them during the winter so they can be opened and closed), were our first proper attempt at "working" with the house in the traditional way. It seems a bit drastic at times, with the house feeling a bit like a cave during the day, but over the course of a week religiously following the correct opening and closing regime, we have managed to bring the temperature of the bedroom down by 6 degrees. And that's without having to resort to electrical/technological solutions.

Outdoor cooking.

We even made a temporary seating area for ourselves - too uncomfortably hot to sit on our patio with the sun still baking down, we improvised by moving the sun loungers from the apartment garden to the car park, with a chopping block as a drinks table. Not quite the stunning view we'd been impressed by when we bought the house, but the relative cool of the shade underneath the pine trees more than made up for it!

We found a lovely shady area for a drink...

It's not quite the view we bought the house for, but the cool of the shade makes up for that tenfold!

But what about work on the land/property? Well, with Stuart having a gammy elbow and me having lots of office work to do AND the temperature being in the high 30s, there has been precious little progress made anywhere. A cause of much frustration and disappointment for us, but elbows must be rested, work must be done and, really, working in 36+ degrees is not very sustainable.

If you are of a delicate disposition, now is the time to look away while I explain poor Stuart's elbow. About 5 weeks ago, while we were at the circolo in the village on one of our English evenings, Stuart lent back in one of the plastic chairs there (think plastic garden furniture), which proceeded to collapse beneath him, delivering him to the floor in a heap. While nothing seemed to have been hurt at the time, the next morning his elbow was red, bruised and a little swollen. It then seemed to improve for a day or two, but over the coming weeks swelled up even more - a quick search of the internet indicated a case of bursitis brought on by the impact of the fall. Of course, the only real treatment for it is to rest, use plenty of ice and some anti-inflammatory gel. As a consequence, Stuart has been forced to remain out of action for the last 5 weeks - a short burst of hoeing in the veg beds a couple of weeks ago soon brought the swelling right back up again and proved beyond doubt that rest is absolutely necessary. In some ways, if it was going to happen at all, it has been good timing - with the weather so hot there isn't too much temptation to go out and do any work in any case, and the rest period has coincided with visitors coming, and with acting as a translator-come-estate-agent for our recent guests who wanted to look at property in the area. So Stuart has been busy, but not doing necessarily what he would have liked to be doing.

Normal elbow.

Poorly elbow.

Our visitors in recent weeks started with our/Stuart's Mum's friend Yvonne along with her friend Liz, who spent a week in the apartment and did some sightseeing in the area under their own steam. Next, we had apartment guests Norman and Karen, who have quickly become more like friends than mere visitor and with whom Stuart spent a lot of time touring around properties for sale in the area - an interesting pastime! Then we had a wonderful, but all-too-brief, 3-day visit from our dear friends Paul and Marie, culminating in a trip to Lucca to see Take That in concert as part of the Lucca Summer Music Festival. Currently, we have Sheila, Stuart's Mum, with us, and in the coming weeks we also have Kerys (Stuart's daughter) and her boyfriend Nick arriving. A veritable stream of visitors!

Pre-concert dinner.

Take That on stage

The Smiths and The Smiths.

With temperatures on the rise but prior to reaching their peak, I managed to get an entire cut of the grass on the upper terraces done. It took me 16 hours (2 hours after work for four days then 4 hours each day of the weekend) and it was a huge relief to finish it. Just a few weeks later and the weeds are already at waist height again though!!

Stuart also spent some time (pre-poorly-elbow) constructing an experimental raised vegetable bed. The destruction caused by the local wildlife in our orto has been unbearably frustrating and soul destroying - despite the electric fence that surrounds the veg beds, porcupines have now uprooted and eaten every single last potato that we planted (actually that Dad and I planted). On top of that, voles have eaten 85% of our fennel plants and about 60% of the onions. Feeling disillusioned, we have somewhat let the beds go - meaning they have filled with weeds. All a bit of a disaster. The idea of a raised bed is that 1. porcupines won't be able to reach it and 2. voles won't be able to tunnel into it. So Stuart has constructed the prototype raised bed using one of the industrial plastic containers like those we are using to collect rainwater from the roof. If this one works, the plan is to convert all the beds to raised beds next year and hopefully harvest more of the food for ourselves rather than feeding the local wildlife.

Prototype raised bed.

We did at least manage a semi decent garlic harvest.

Despite weeks of no rain, this mushroom popped up on the drive.

It stood quite tall!

Madonna lilies in the evening sun.

All the terraces cut.

Stunning evening view from the hamlet of Colle di San Martino.

What's been digging on our terraces?

Our first harvest of apricots! (plus a couple of early plums)

A fed up Reggie - it's too hot for dogs!

A happy pond.

A carpet of chestnut flowers blown by the wind.

The relief of the cooler evening air.

Plum harvest!

As we go into the next week, the forecast is for more of the unsettled weather - thunder storms and rain, and mercifully cooler temperatures, even plummeting to a cool 27C some days. No doubt the hot weather will be back, but in the meantime we will enjoy the respite!