Although we've not been back in Scotland very long, constant days of cold and rain, wearing too many layers of clothes and struggling to get the conservatory renovations finished have made our days in the sun something of a distant memory. Lets take a look at what we got up to. First of all, this is the view from our hotel bedroom at Montreux, the stopover where Mr FF said he'd rather sleep in the car than pay the cost of the room. For me the £220 bill, including dinner and breakfast was worth every penny.
Mr FF not only shipped out the 1.2 m sat dish, he also sourced this rather ugly aerial which he temporarily fixed to our sun umbrella.
Of course he relocated it to the roof, fixed up the new dish and there was UK tv beyond our expectations.
A day on the beach, I love the Italian beach culture and am happy to sit in my allocated line people watching and enjoying a distance glimpse of the sea.
We actually enjoyed the trip so much we went back, to different locations, twice more.
I don't have a photo but I'm happy to report that one of the cats that lived with us last summer reappeared, we think it was Paolo one of the ginger and white ones. He looked fit and obviously well fed, accepted the food we gave him but always went off afterwards, which leads us to believe that he has found a proper home and hopefully the rest of the tribe did too. Finally, a gorgeous gift from our neighbour Mario. Beautiful veggies that fed us for days. Mario has a piece of land lower down in the village, where he tells me the soil is better and presumably the climate too. He told me that for August and September his family is completely self sufficient, with enough fruit and veg for bottling and freezing plus plenty to give away.
If only he could bottle some of that sunshine for me I'd be unscrewing the jar right now.
Having received the scaffolding on Monday it took Mr FF quite a while to erect the two towers which I was pleased to note were quite sturdy if extremely tall. The intention was to have a bridge between the two to provide a walkway and safe area over the roof of the conservatory from which to work. I had asked beforehand how we would get the walkway up there but Mr FF dismissed my girly concerns with some engineer speak involving ropes so I didn't pursue the matter.
I was told yesterday that it wasn't going to be possible to put up the bridge single handed, its the piece you can see leaning to the left of the tower in the photo below, big and heavy. I certainly wasn't interested in helping, far too scary. Mr FF then admitted that he didn't really want to go up onto the walkway and do the repair work himself. So after a few phone calls we have found a local builder who is currently erecting his own scaffolding, assisted by two workmen, and he is going to do the work. Phew.
Tomorrow the new glass is due to arrive, hopefully quickly followed by the glaziers and meantime Mr FF is using his scaffold to check other, lower, parts of the house roof, ie justifying the weeks rather expensive rental. I can't wait for the work to be completed and for us to get back to Lazio. You can see it's bright and sunny here but I feel permanently cold, there is a definite feel of autumn about and I don't like it.
We flew back from Italy on Friday but only for a couple of weeks and my flip flops are packed away in Lazio awaiting my return, no I didn't leave them on the beach.
We've had a great time and so far being home isn't too bad either though wearing socks and jumpers is a novelty that might not last. I started the garden catch up yesterday while Mr FF was out walking with his group. Tomorrow we begin the renovation of our conservatory here, several of the double glazed units are blown so there is condensation between the panes and all 14 units are going to be replaced. I managed to dissuade Mr FF from tackling this himself, far too scary and not a suitable occupation for a man who turned 64 last month. I want to knit something to take back to Italy for a new baby, I need to think about Christmas as it might be November before we drive back to the UK and I must get my hair cut.
So no time to linger. I'll catch up with you all over the next few days and tell you what we've been up to over the last 6 sunny weeks.
