Leaving

Last weekend several of our Danish friends left for winter, this coming weekend friends just down the road also leave and so do we.  However we were taking a relatively leisurely drive back to Yorkshire with 5 overnight stops, the first 2 in Bergamo, 1 in the Alsace and 2 in the champagne region. I am so looking forward to not having the usual confusing 5 different beds in 5 nights scenario, this time it will be 5 in 7 though I still expect to wake up wondering where I am for several days.

The weather continues to be beautiful, clear blue skies and warmth, so MrFF has been repairing the roof for winter and pruning the olives.  You might just spot him beside the chimney but please don’t tell health and safety that he went up to the higher level too. 

We’ve got the cats used to the automatic feeder which works just fine delivering a good portion of biscuits twice a day.  It should only need refilling every two weeks, getting Mario to do that is a greater challenge.  

My garden has really done well this year thanks to more rain and less heat.  The nerines have been a delight and I noticed some paper white narcissi, they don’t generally come again after being forced at Christmas, are in bloom.  Strange but lovely as I usually I not here to see the spring bulbs.

It’s not all been home maintenance. Last week MrFF went with a friend to the Abruzzo where they climbed a 7000 feet mountain. I stayed home as I don’t have my walking gear here and the ascent involved some rock scrambling which I do not enjoy. I had such a relaxing day completely alone with the cats, all loving the solitude and isolation.  

So let the packing begin.

Autumn days

 

MrFF has been installing a new garden gate.  It arrived at the end of last week, 7 days after it was due for delivery. First day they were unable to deliver, which was odd as we were home and saw nothing of a courier.  Then 6 days of it being out for delivery at the local parcel shop but being returned to the depot each evening.  Complaints to the courier and the supplier eventually got a result.

The gate is made of Corten or weathering steel which rusts to a pleasing finish and doesn’t require any maintenance. It’s the same material as used for the Angel of the North, another project on a slightly larger scale MrFF was involved with many years ago.

The new gate is intended to keep animals away from my terrace pots and plants in the border.  It won’t impede the cats as they use a different route to the lower garden that involves climbing and jumping, a route all our cats have preferred for some reason.

On the first photo you can catch a glimpse of blue skies, we’ve just had two chilly days of low cloud and rain so it’s nice to have the warmth back.  Giovanni came out at the weekend but despairing of the rain and lack of any kind of olive harvest he went straight back to Rome next day.  Our thoughts too are turning to home but we’ve a few jobs left, not least making provision for the three amici.

Party food rant

Today I had an email from Marks and Spencer announcing that their party food has arrived in store,  just in time for the festive season.  

Kick off a festive party with these Collection Mini Turkey Feast Toasties. Enjoy pulled British turkey, sage and onion stuffing along with ham hock, nestled with Emmental and Cheddar cheeses, cranberry chutney and béchamel sauce on toasted malted bread. Beautifully finished with turkey gravy.

Excuse me it’s October besides which those single mouthfuls of complicated nonsense can hardly be described as food. Yes we all know I am not in favour of Christmas being mentioned until at least mid December but this is ridiculous.  

I detest the while concept of party food.   I’ve been to events where the hosts have offered a bought in buffet, in one case it wasn’t even decanted from the plastic trays it arrived in. I’ve also been to (better) parties where I’ve been served proper homemade food, like a big dish of chilli con cane accompanied by fresh crusty bread.  If you are going to hold an event for friends and/or family surely it’s better to prepare them something wholesome rather than order in plastic packs of questionable content that they could easily buy themselves.  

I love eating at friends, I appreciate the effort they make to prepare a meal for us and love sharing their food.  I certainly don't want anything complicated or difficult, it’s about being together round the dining table chatting and relaxing.  As you can imagine party food won’t figure on my seasonal shopping list, in fact I don’t have a seasonal shopping list, ever. 

I bet you are looking forward to my festive table decor rant, it won’t be long, it’s that time of year.

No oil

No I haven’t joined some environmental activist group I am talking about our olive crop. It’s been a dreadful year for the trees, a lot of rain and hail storms that have damaged the fruits and an invasion of the fly that lays its eggs in the developing olives, the larva then feed on the fruit. We generally avoid this infestation as our trees grow at a higher level than those in the valley, last year our olives were completely clean, this year we have the worms.

The fruits are soft and mushy, everyday more fall to the ground.  We have a few trees that are decent but nothing like enough for a mill run and sorting the crates to take out the bad ones would take an age.  

On our walks we’ve seen the situation is the same all around us, in fact many trees are much worse than ours. Usually the harvest is such a happy time, I know Giovanni loves it and he’s still hoping to get some oil, but many people have decided not to pick.   It’s not a disaster for us but Italian families rely on a good harvest, a household will easily use a litre of oil a week.  Giovanni usually produces hundreds of litres, I know his daughter takes 80 and his son 50 in return for their help at harvest time.  

We had such a good result last year, almost 50 litres of oil, so we were able to give a lot away and sell some too.  People had already been asking before we left if they could buy more, it’s not just the Italians who will be disappointed. 

La Pausa

Giovanni arrived at the weekend but stayed only one night before returning to Rome for the next two weeks.  I think we can assume the 3 cats have taken up residence here, which was much easier for them than the performance we had during lockdown to obtain our temporary residence. For them it was a case of arrive, eat, play, sleep, repeat.

They are delightful, becoming braver and stronger every day.  They explore the orchard regularly and like Grigio before them love climbing among the olive trees. They amuse and calm us, we try not to think about their future.

We have so far had a relaxing week without any big project.  It’s a pleasure to sit out and admire the view, the work we’ve done over the years and the way the garden has developed.  Of course we still get cross about the Comune and are disappointed by our olive crop but we have blue skies and a place to be, many people in the world don’t. 

Bound to happen

Giovanni our lovely neighbour returned to Rome about the same time we arrived here.  He’s away for almost 2 weeks.  He messaged us to say he’s been feeding a cat and 2 kittens, he’d left them 3 dishes of biscuits and hoped they’d come down to our house and we would feed them. I think it was around midday on Thursday that the kittens pitched up and by early evening the mother, still a kitten herself, arrived.

Luckily we had a few tins of cat food in the cupboard so we were able to feed them.

All 3 cats are in good condition, clean, friendly and very sweet.  They soon discovered the delights of the hotel Splendido on the terrace, the comfy pizza oven and the cat apartment, not to mention the sofas and dining chairs.  The little ones are playful and the mother almost brave enough to climb onto my knee.  There has been a lot of purring.

But what’s going to happen in November when we leave.  Mario was enraged when he saw the cats here and told us not to feed them.  He’s giving me the message he doesn’t want to feed them while we were away, as he did when we had Vincenzo.  When I tackled him last year about this he said of course he’d feed the cat and not for the money we pay him, he does it from his heart.  A week after we left he took the cat, the food we’d provided, dishes and our cat carrier to his house, we got none of them back.  

It’s a dilemma.  Even if the cats go back to Giovanni next week we know he won’t make any provision for them over the winter.  I hate this cruel Italian attitude towards animals. I have mentioned before that our Comune sent out a directive banning the feeding of stray animals. Fortunately an animal welfare organisation stepped in and put a stop to it. The Comune should educate people how to care for pets and promote a sterilisation programme that would reduce numbers but almost all the Italian men I know think this is wrong, that’s a surprise not.

We love having cat company again but we are setting ourselves up for more stress and heartbreak.  

Back in Europe

Just like that we are in Italy.  Maybe not that simple with 4 days in the car, 3 overnights, quick toilet stops and a lot of picnic lunches often late in the day. We started Sunday leaving home at 6 am without breakfast for the midday ferry. I grabbed a takeout coffee at our pre ferry toilet stop while MrFF bought the Sunday papers.  During boarding he accidentally left our sandwiches in the car which is not accessible during the crossing so first meal of the day was two mini sausage rolls and a banana. Fortunately I am not a person who needs to eat regularly. 

Our overnight in the champagne region was brief, next day we drove to Mulhouse.  There we decided to walk to the historic centre, arriving 40 minutes later the heavens opened and without coats we were soaked, we took the tram back to our accommodation.  On to Bergamo MrFF was determined to drive the Splugen pass, reviews said it was terrifying.  If you watch the Tour de France imagine driving Alpe du Huez with large camper vans swinging out round the tight corners and motorbikes speeding past, all without safety barriers.  On the Italian side there were 50 hairpin bends.  This tortuous detour added a lot time to our journey as we then got caught up in traffic around lake Como.  By the time we checked in at our stop at 7.30 neither of us could face going out for dinner, we had super market pasta and went to bed.

The final on day the autostrada was busy, scary in places and tedious in others.  We collected a few provisions and arrived at our house at 6, for MrFF to announce he didn’t have the key for the back door, the only access from the road.    Apparently when he told me he had keys in response to my usual routine of passport, wallet, house keys, phone before we left it was because he thought he did, not because he knew he did.  I suggested he open the big gates into the garden and try unlocking the terrace doors  We have so many keys for the house, various doors, french doors, garage, gates we were bound to find a way in.  He discovered the terrace doors security locked from the inside but then found the back door key where he always keeps it, on the key ring with the car keys.  He said he usually takes it off when we are in the UK but must not have this time

Today we’ve tackled the garden, had yet another late lunch and enjoyed some sun.  Everything has done really well without us except the olives which have apparently suffered from hailstorms, knocking fruit off the trees or damaging it.  Mario says the crops is so poor he isn’t going to collect his.  We shall see.  Before we left I threw down some seeds I collected not expecting greet results, look at this

Also a white datura has appeared, I haven’t had one of these plants for years.  I grew the original ones from seed, I love their exotic blooms.  Incredibly this one is in just the right place.  I think it’s my reward for not complaining about that mountain pass, I’ll take that.