Sting like 26 bees

It's been a busy week this week: bees, walks, lunch at our new local restaurant, an impromptu dinner party, strimming, weeding, planting, and generous amounts of both rain and sunshine.

Monday was the third day in a row that we'd tried starting the car and it had point blank refused to spark into life. With Reggie getting increasingly frustrated at not being able to go and stretch his legs on a proper walk (or, perhaps more accurately, us feeling increasingly guilty at not being able to take him out), Stuart decided to take matters into his own hands (with a little help from me). This is exactly the sort of situation in which you realise how useful it can be to own a tractor... With me in the driving seat of the car and Stuart on the tractor, and a rope connected between the two, we chugged slowly along the drive, gradually towing the car as far as the freshly asphalted section of driveway just before the gates. We left the car there, hurried back to the house to collect Reggie, and returned to the car with everything crossed that a bump start on the slope of the driveway entrance would be enough to do the trick. The gate slid open, the hand brake was off - and... we were off! Success! It was a relief for all three of us to finally have transport again, and we headed straight for the cava track above Vellano for a much needed change of scenery - taking care to remember to park the car facing downhill just in case we needed another bump start. Of course, since then, the car has started every time, but Stuart has booked it in to be looked at by a mechanic next week nevertheless.

Feeling on a roll after our success with the car, we decided to put some time aside on Monday afternoon to do our first ever inspection of our bee hive. The weather has been very changeable of late - rather a lot of wind and rain, and although it was breezy on Monday, it was dry and sunny, and with more rain forecast for the rest of the week, we decided it would be a good opportunity to go and see the bees. Our friend Mara (who brought us the bees) had offered to come and help with our first inspection of the bees, but we decided we would go it alone - after all, we'd watched Mara do it a few weeks ago, what could possibly go wrong??

We got all kitted out in our bee suits, got all our tools assembled, and headed off to the bees. We took the lid off the hive, puffed them with smoke, and started taking the frames out one by one to inspect them.

The misplaced confidence of a first-time bee keeper.

Everything went well for the first two to three minutes. We managed to get the frames out of the hive, and take a quick look at each of them.

Moments later, however, our tools, the camera and the lid of the hive were lying strewn in the grass where we’d flung them in panic and we were running up the drive flapping our arms and swiping at the air (all the things you’re not meant to do)!

Somehow, in the blink of an eye, things had gone from fine to really NOT fine. We each had clusters of bees stuck to our upper legs and from the feeling of searing pain we could tell that they were definitely not happy bees. When we'd finally finished running up and down the drive, safely removed all of the beasts and retreated to the house, I counted 26 stings on my legs, and Stuart had around 15-20. To an onlooker the whole situation must have looked hilarious, and once we had calmed down and nursed our injured pride, it didn't take us long to see the funny side. Once thing is certain: we have well and truly tested our resistance to bee stings and can safely say that neither of us is allergic - which is a relief!

We immediately confessed (via the magic of WhatsApp) to Mara what had happened – she thought it was probably a combination of things: it was windy, which the bees don’t like; the wind also meant that the smoke from the smoker kept being carried off in the wind rather than being directed into the hive; and she thinks the bees might also have been stressed by the relative lack of food around at the moment (the rain and strong winds we’ve had a lot of recently have decimated most of the blossom – it’s a poor year for acacia blossom in particular). We’d also left an uncovered jug of sugar syrup close by (which we were going to feed them with), which is another no-no.

Needless to say, we shan't be making our second visit to the bees until we have proper adult supervision, in the form of Mara!

As the week wore on – and the stings on our legs changed from small white lumps to enormous bright red swellings, then slightly less red but incredibly itchy bumps – the weather turned wet again, and on Wednesday we got a good soaking. After our group Italian lesson at Sarah & David’s in Vellano on Wednesday morning, the five of us (Sarah, David, our teacher Johnny, and us) went on a group excursion, walking the track from Vellano to Macchino – in the rain. We were heading for our friends Michelle & Mimmo’s restaurant, Trattoria Lina.

We arrived at the restaurant somewhat damp, but in good spirits and were given a warm welcome. We enjoyed a delicious lunch there - a huge antipasti spread, hand made maccheroni with ragu, stuffed aubergines, and a peppery beef stew - before setting off in the rain again to head back down to Vellano. We calculated on our way back down to Vellano that Reggie had been home alone for a whole 8 hours, so once we reached the village we hastily said our goodbyes and hurried home to him. After having been licked to within an inch of our lives, we stuck an excited Reggie in the car and headed out once again, this time to walk a stretch of track from Sorana to San Quirico - thankfully, by this time it had stopped raining.

The rest of the week was similarly wet, although as is usually the case at this time of year, even on the wet days there were periods that were warm and dry - there's rarely a day when it's wet and grey all day long. In those dry periods we managed to get out and do some work outside, and on Friday evening as the clouds parted to reveal blue sky, we took our first visit to the newly opened Circolo Arci - a village club - in Pietrabuona. The terrace of the circolo is positioned in such a way that we can sit and sip our drinks while looking back at our own house and admiring our handiwork on the terraces!

There was a damp start to the weekend on Saturday once again, but it was warm nevertheless, and on our morning dog walk, along a path that leads from Pietrabuona village to the village of Medicina, it felt as if we were in some kind of tropical wetland. The warm mists hanging in the trees gave the scenery a magical quality and added a dimension of mystery.

By the time we did another section of the same walk on Sunday morning, the weather had cleared up and we were treated to stunning views across the valley.

The rest of the weekend saw us working on the veg beds, doing some much needed weeding, tidying and planting out, cutting back the vegetation on first steep bank beneath the house - which had been starting to look worryingly jungle-like - as well as finally finishing filling (concreting) the gaps along the edges of the utility room, and having an impromptu dinner party with David, Sarah and Donatella in celebration of David's birthday. I say "dinner party" but that makes it sound rather grander than it really was - which was actually just a meal thrown together at the last minute - nevertheless, it was a lovely evening and it left us with big smiles on our faces.

In store for the week ahead are the arrival of a new set of apartment guests, a visit to the car mechanic, a visit to the geometra, the usual work, Italian lessons, dog walks, veg tending, chicken husbandry and, no doubt, various unanticipated tasks and challenges!

Business as usual

It was back to business as usual this week - that is, the business of new, frustrating problems presenting themselves in amongst trying to fit in the daily routine of work, dog walking, Italian lessons, the upkeep of the vegetable garden, chickens and bees, and all the jobs on the never-ending to-do list.

We are fighting an ongoing battle with the septic tank, which seems to be struggling to work properly (although I should respectfully point out that it has been Stuart who has done all of the (very)dirty work so far) - and scratching our heads as to exactly how the system was fitted (other than the obvious: badly). After a long chat with Paolo, the owner of Frateschi, the builders' merchant (and who likely supplied the parts for the system to be fitted in the first place, 7-8 years ago), Stuart is fairly confident that he can fix the issue without us having to fork out thousands of euros for a whole new system (a worrying prospect that has been on the cards) - but you can imagine that the fix will be laborious and considerably, well, unpleasant work.

It’s clear that the drain-off pipe from the tank isn’t functioning properly, and it’s possible that even the soil in the leach field has failed because it’s become so clogged up after years of use and abuse of the system without the tank having been regularly pumped. Paolo’s suggestion is to fit a new drain-off pipe and run it off in a different direction, which should resolve that issue. However, another contributing factor to the problems is concerned with the fact that our system has two tanks – a degreaser and the tank itself. It’s only the toilets that are meant to drain directly into the tank itself. All other drains (sinks, washing machines, showers) are meant to go first into the degreaser to remove soaps, grease etc. before continuing on to the septic tank, as the soaps etc. can kill the good bacteria in the tank. Well, it turns out that only our kitchen sink and dishwasher go into the degreaser – the washing machine, shower, bathroom sink, apartment shower and apartment bathroom sink all go directly into the tank. (As it happens, we have no idea where the apartment kitchen sink goes, but don’t think it goes anywhere near the septic tank!) So another part of the job will be to re-route those waste pipes into the degreaser rather than running directly into the tank – a job easier said than done with the pipes of the apartment bathroom all being buried beneath tiled/concreted floor...

Tank issues aside, there have been computer issues: my computer – a vital part of my work and my means of earning a living – has been so unstable recently (even after reinstalling Windows, I have been battling against an average of 5 crashes before the thing even starts up, as well as random crashes sometimes as frequently as every hour) that in desperation (and fearful in case one day it just wouldn't start up) we went out on Wednesday and bought a new one from Euronics in the iperCoop complex in Montecatini. The excursion to Euronics served as a sharp reminder of how far we are from being fully fluent in Italian (heaven forbid that we should start to feel as if we were making progress on that front!): after telling the sales assistant which computer we wanted to buy, and successfully getting across our request to have an invoice with my tax code on it (so that I can reclaim part of the purchase price against my tax payments), the assistant came back to tell us that they didn't have any of the model we wanted in stock, but could get one in for Friday. We were happy to wait until Friday, so continued with the paperwork – the sales assistant mumbled some other things which we didn't quite understand, but since we thought we'd got the gist of things, we went to the cashier, paid for the purchases and took our receipts ready to return with to collect the goods on Friday. About halfway home, the phone rang: it was Euronics wondering where we were... After doing an about turn and returning to the shop we realised that the sales assistant had offered us (and had boxed up for us) the display model, which we could take away with us there and then. In our defence, he had spoken very quickly and mumbled quite a lot, nevertheless it was with a mixture of humiliation and relief that we set off for home a second time, this time with our purchase on board. Of course, the new computer will need to be set up properly with all the things I need for work, and so far we haven’t had the time to do it, so I’m still working on the old one, which strangely now seems to be behaving itself (perhaps it knows its days are numbered)!

Naturally, no list of our problems would be complete without a car issue, and as I write this, we are stranded with the car refusing to start, again. Deja vu. The problem we were having almost exactly a year ago (which has, in fact, existed intermittently ever since we bought the car) seems to have returned, and both yesterday evening and this morning the car has simply refused to budge. This meant that poor Reggie had to forego his usual charge around in the woods and had to make do with a trot up our donkey track last night, while this morning the three of us had a very wet walk in the pouring rain along the road into the village with Reggie on the lead.

Amongst all the issues, however, we have managed to get a fair bit of strimming maintenance done on the terraces, have planted out tomatoes, celery, peppers and more courgettes in the veg garden, we've both done some work (me managing to get back to the office properly this week, albeit with an unstable computer, and Stuart back up in Vellano doing gardening work), and on Thursday we spent a wonderful evening with lots of friends, delicious snacks and wine at Trattoria Lina, a new restaurant recently opened by our friends Michelle and Mimmo in the pretty hamlet of Macchino. We've had a real taste of summer this week as well, with some balmy evenings and a couple of days where daytime temperatures hit 30C. In contrast, we have been treated to torrential rain and the rumbles of thunder today - but at least that saves us having to water the vegetables!

Zucchini on its way!

Pipe inspection.

Yes, peanut.

A lovely start to the weekend on Friday night...

...and breakfast the next morning!

Breakfast view.

Love in the mist.

A cool spot for a hot dog.

Strimming work to be done.

Ready for our next guests.

A sit-down protest on the drive after not being able to go on his usual run around in the woods.

... Not sure the washing is going to dry.

At least the plants will enjoy it.

Busy bees

Last week was busy here at Numero 182 for a different kind of reason than of late: we played host to our good friend Sarah and her little boy Ollie, who we hadn't seen for over a year. It was absolutely great to see them both, and we enjoyed a busy week seeing our surroundings through the eyes of a three-year-old as well as having a long overdue and lovely catch-up with Sarah.

Sarah and Ollie were treated to the full Numero 182 experience: sunshine, wind, rain, hail, thunder, lightning, a power cut, lots of dog walking, gardening, egg collecting, a ride on a tractor, an evening in front of the fire pit, lunch at our friend Michelle's restaurant, a trip to a bee-keeping (apicoltura) shop, a ride on a funicular, ice cream and an afternoon in a play park!

The reason for the visit to the bee-keeping shop was that, on Thursday, we took delivery of our first ever swarm of bees. Our friend Mara had called the week before: a neighbour had found a swarm on the window of his house and had asked if she would take it. Since Mara and her bees are organically certified, she wasn't able to take the swarm for herself (as its origin was uncertain), but she offered to collect it and give it to us. We were thrilled at the opportunity, having written off the idea of having bees for this year, thinking we would likely have to wait until next spring to get our hive set up. Mara therefore arrived at 8am on a very wet and windy Thursday morning (apparently the perfect weather for moving bees) with the bees in a portable (polystyrene) hive. We placed the hive on the terraces to the left of the chicken enclosure, placed a brick on top of the lid to keep it secure, and left the bees to it.

Having taken delivery of the bees we decided we needed to make getting some proper equipment a priority, so Sarah, Ollie, Stuart and I bundled into the car for a wet drive over the hills into the next valley to find our local 'bee shop'. The shop was fascinating and a wonderful smell of beeswax permeated the air. Not only do they offer candles, honey, pollen and various honey-flavoured liqueurs for sale, but also the more practical items for which we had made the trip: smokers, gloves, protective hats and jackets, sheets of wax for the frames in the hive, wire for the frames, levers for getting the frames in and out of the hive, as well as a multitude of other items that, for now, are beyond our needs.

From next week, we will gradually introduce, one by one, frames from our hive into the temporary hive, and once the bees have made their cells and populated our frames, we will be able to transfer them into our hive. Mara has offered to come over next week to check the hive with us and give us a much needed lesson!

We saw Mara again on Saturday night as she and Franco had invited us to a party at their house in celebration of Franco's birthday, the birthday of their neighbour Sylvia, and Franco & Mara's wedding anniversary. It was a 'bring a snack' party, so we made humus and a satay dip, and went along at 5pm feeling somewhat apprehensive at the thought of a whole party in Italian! Needless to say, we had a really lovely time: Mara and Franco and all of their friends without exception are kind, warm, welcoming and - importantly - patient people, and they put up with our stilted Italian and made us feel truly part of the gathering. They even had us country dancing. Yes, us. Dancing.

We left Mara and Franco's, along with all the other guests, at around 10.45pm - utterly exhausted (it's hard work for the brain trying to concentrate to keep up and make oneself understood!), but happy to have enjoyed such a fun and friendly evening and met such lovely people.

We took a mini "holiday" on Sunday morning - having had a taste of different scenery while driving to the bee shop during the week, we decided to explore some previously unchartered (by us) territory. We drove to Collodi and then all the way along the valley in which it sits, as far as Bagni di Lucca. It was a gloriously sunny day, and for a couple of hours we really did almost feel as if we could have been on holiday - enjoying the sunshine and seeing new scenery for the first time.

Of course it was back down to earth once we got home: strimming, hedge cutting, weeding, watering, planting, and we made the discovery that, in a re-run of last year, something has stolen our potatoes again - something of a crushing disappointment.

There are yet more urgent tasks to turn our attentions to for the coming week - a return to more solid office working hours for me, as well as strimming that urgently needs doing (with our next guests due to arrive on Sunday, it'll take the best part of the week to get our terraces looking neat again), a problem with the septic tank to get to the bottom of, a sound-proof flooring to source for the office and utility room, a pergola to start building (with 30-31C forecast for the end of the week, we are quickly realising that we are in need of some shade!), plants to water and tend to, bees to inspect, a dog to walk, other people's gardening work for Stuart to do, and much more besides. Business as usual then.