Good news, bad news and really sad news

Our olive harvest was our most successful so far.  We hand picked 398 kilos of olives over 5 days which gave us 49 litres of oil.  For an Italian that’s a years supply,  for us it’s way beyond our needs but we are grateful to have so much.

Last Friday one of my front crowns became loose.  Next day I managed to get an appointment with a local dentist, he opened specially and wouldn’t take any payment for the examination and x rays.  It seems the post inside the crown, my original tooth, has a partial crack and I’ll need root canal work or an implant, which obviously I will get done when we return to Ilkley in about 10 days time.  I asked the dentist if he could add some cement to keep the tooth stable I hate it wobbling, but he but said that could risk infection.  However I hope I can find one of this dental repair kits just in case the crown comes off, I dread having a gappy smile.  I am cutting my food very small and posting it into the opposite side of my mouth, brushing my teeth is tricky.

Grigio has had good and bad days.  As instructed I reduced her medication by half but after a few days she started going backwards so I upped it again.  She recovered, is eating well and seems happy, sitting out in the sun, scratching fence posts and the sofa, climbing onto my knee or snoozing in front of the stove. I promise she isn’t suffering at all but we have no one to care for her when we leave, she cannot continue on this level of steroids permanently and even if she was well her condition could recur at anytime.  The vets have tried to find someone to take her while we were away, I have approached a shelter, there is no one.  So before we leave next week we will have to have to take her to be put to sleep, it’s the kindest thing to do but I cannot bear it. 

Our olive harvest has begun

We started picking our olives on Monday and were delighted by the quantity of fruit. From 4 trees we harvested about 90 kilos, almost enough for a mill run.  The next day wasn’t quite as good. We disturbed a hornets nest in the orchard and both got stung, luckily only once each.  One of us was laid in the ground howling like a dog and banging his head where he was stung.  I said oh I’ve been stung on my arm.  Actually the stings were very sore for the rest of the day, we were lucky it wasn’t worse. Last night MrFF well protected by layers of clothing sprayed the nest and today it’s empty.

However we have frustratingly been rained off picking today and may be tomorrow too, Friday we take the cats back to the vets.  So we have delivered what we have, 133 kilos from 8 trees and there are 16 more well ladened ones to pick.  It’s one if the best crops we’ve had for years, I put it down to us stopping Mario doing his vicious annual prune though am sure he’d disagree.  He’s already cross with us for getting Vincenzo sterilised.

I am unable to upload photos today, visualise a man up an olive tree with a rake and a big crate full of olives. 

Grigio update

It’s been a roller coaster caring for Grigio and giving her medication.  Some days she seems to be recovering, other days she seems almost as ill as ever.  We finished the anti biotic and cortisone treatment at the end of last week and I expected she’d be much happier.  Friday she ate most of the day so I was happy, Saturday she ate nothing at all and while she wasn’t as miserable as she had been she wasn’t interested in going out and slept in her basket most of the time.  

This morning I tempted her to eat a little wet food after which she climbed onto my knee purring.  Over the day she’s eaten more and slept outside in the sunshine. Tonight I tried her again with fresh liver which had been recommended for her anaemia.  Friday she wouldn’t touch it, Sunday she had two helpings, it could go either way tomorrow.

We are back at the vets with both cats on Friday.  Meantime we are about start the olive harvest, the forecast for this week was good, now it’s not so good.  Italian cats and Italian meteorologists they are both fickle.  Maybe they think it makes for an interesting life, I could do without it especially as we shall be leaving sometime next month and we need both to be on top form.

Vet visits 3 and 4

We had a stressful return to the vet on Thursday.  Things didn’t start well when Grigio refused to come out of our carrier, despite it being it tipped on end she clung to the inside like a rock climber and eventually had to be shaken out.  We were invited to watch the ultra sound. Neither of us recognised anything on the screen and assumed all the little blobs we saw and the bleeps we heard were bad news.  Eventually they told us she had a lot of worms and parasites, particularly in her lungs.  This was a shock as I do monitor them both for worms and had seen no evidence.  Presumably this infestation is a result of Grigio fending for herself for 8 months and eating what she could find.  The lung parasites are particularly worrying as they are causing inflammation and damage hence her high white cell count as she fights the infection. 

They then showed us her xrays which confirmed her lungs were not at all healthy but even worse that she has 3 pellets inside her and had at some stage been shot. We were furious about this although the vet said she is not in any pain or at any risk so they won’t do anything.    She had worm treatment and is continuing the anti biotics but also now has cortisone for a week plus a one off large tablet that must be taken whole. So far we have failed to administer it as I worry about chocking her, she has refused it several times in food.

We also asked if they would give Vincenzo a health check and if possible sterilise him which they offered to do next day.  Vincenzo is a different cat altogether. He  happily went in and out of the carrier and let the vet handle him without fuss.  He was given the same worm treatment and the large tablet, which he gulped down with some tuna this morning. Yesterday he slept all afternoon and evening, asked to be let out around 1 am and was waiting at the door for breakfast when I got up.  What an obliging boy he is.

Both cats go back in two weeks for another worm treatment and a check. If we can just get this tablet down Grigio’s throat the worst should be over.  We did ask if the vets had one if those devices for firing tablets into the cats mouth, they’d never heard of that and agreed it was almost impossible to get a cat to take such a large tablet which again stressing that we must not crush or break it.  Thanks a lot.

Wild life

Yesterday I discovered in our orchard a dead porcupine.  It looked as if there had been a fight as some distance from the body were many quills, I collected the best ones.  The large body had been partially eaten and was very smelly, I did wash the quills.

This morning I went again to check and it had completely disappeared,  not a scrap of fur or a single bone remained. I wonder what creature could have carried away such a heavy carcass given the difficulty of negotiating fences and steps on our land.  I know wolves have been heard above us which is a worry particularly if they have young.

Last week we took Grigio to the vet as she wasn’t eating and seemed generally miserable.  They gave her a thorough check under anaesthetic, removed some damaged teeth and cleaned the rest, tested her for HIV and leukemia, both negative, and sent blood for analysis.  She is on anti biotics as she has some mouth ulcers and a vitamin supplement, she has made great progress. 

At the time we had friends from the uk staying with us, one if whom is a retired medical professional, and a cat lover. She was so helpful advising us what questions to ask, helping administer the medication and taking away some of the stress.  I am not sure it was the relaxing week they expected but we were grateful they were here.

Unfortunately Grigio was called back to the vet earlier this week when her blood test showed a high white cell count caused either because she is fighting an infection or by a lymphoma.  She is much improved after the anti biotics, she seems well and happy so we hope for the best but this afternoon we have to take her back for an ultrasound, keep your fingers crossed for her.

Getting there

The garden is hardly returned to glory but it is becoming acceptable under the circumstances, some colour, some new growth and a lot of bare earth. 

The pots I have salvaged have not a single flower but hopefully they’ll survive the winter and perform again next year.  The kumquat is leafless but new shoots are appearing, meantime I am glad to have so many pots of large spider plants to brighten up the terraces.

Happily I have discovered 3 agapanthus that had been buried quite deeply as the creatures flung soil about digging their massive holes in the borders. I am not blaming any animal in particular but I have picked up 12 porcupine quills whilst working.  They could have planted by those shifty badgers, who knows.

The strangest discovery I’ve made relates to my lemon tree that started producing fruit a couple of years ago.  I was checking it and discovered not only new small lemons but small oranges too, I assume oranges they could I guess be grapefruit.  Definitely just one tree that I bought at least 15 years ago when it was small, labelled lemon.  It must have been grafted, I cannot wait to see what develops .

Meantime the lower lawn has been turned into a honeycomb of molehills, cracks and raised turf.  It looks like we've had a mini earthquake or some giant creature burrowing underneath it, it’s spongy to walk on and we worry one of us might disappear down a sink hole.  I try to remember that Giovanni tells me this is the animals territory and we are the incomers but I do think they are taking liberties,  they could be devastating the whole of the mountainside instead of our 3/4 acre of cultivation.

First days in italy

We arrived at our house on Friday evening after a fairly stress free journey. Even the dreaded day on the autostrada was calmer than normal as we had a whole stretch before Genoa that was cars only so very quiet.  MrFF found it necessary once again to drive over the St Bernard pass, if it’s open he’s on it.  At the top it was minus 1.5 degrees with snow drifting around in the air.

We avoided a 10k queue on the last few miles by diverting towards Tivoli. It cost us an extra half hour but we heard afterwards traffic was stopped for 3 hours.

We hadn’t been in the house 5 minutes when Giovanni phoned, he must have heard us calling the cats.   He said Grigio and Vincenzo were at his house and we’d be reunited the next morning which was a little disappointing but what’s another 12 hours when we hadn’t seen Grigio for 10 months.  The cats however had other ideas and within an hour they were at the terrace door.  Grigio was quite thin, I could feel her spine, and her fur was knotty and dull but she’s been eating well and been brushed regularly, the shine is coming back and we are so happy she is here. Vincenzo has grown a lot and looks really well, maybe he’s got into the habit of head butting Grigio out of the way to get to food, he’s currently under training to stop that.

The garden has been devastated by porcupine and badger, I have lost a lot of plants that had tuberous roots, dahlias, agapanthus, gladioli, even a large phormium I grew from seed had been uprooted and left to die.  I have at least 6 large empty pots and nothing is flowering in the ones that survived.  However, all the shrubs and trees seem ok, the olives look well  nd we are told the harvest will be good this year, time will tell.

The weather is good, usually warm sunny mornings and maybe some rain in the afternoon.  We’ve worked hard mostly outside, the front hedge is cut and I’ve done basic dusting and mopping inside.  I will get round to cleaning windows and the finer details soon as we have friends staying with us in about 10 days time after which I fear MrFF might start another project, watch this space.