Reunited

On the final lap of our drive to Lazio we agreed that if Grigio wasn’t around we would be up all night calling her, despite the exhaustion of 3 days travelling.  We actually started calling her 40 miles from home, it must have worked because we hadn’t unlocked the door before she appeared.  She was a little shy at first, that didn’t last long, starving hungry of course and in great condition.  After 8 months she slipped back into the routine, sleep, eat, inspect the garden, repeat.  Enrico is here too, he arrived later the first evening, also famished.  He comes and goes but seems delighted to see us and is as friendly as he became last year.  Our clever capable cats.
That’s not all the happy news.  My garden is fine, a few plants in pots are lost but nothing important, lemon, orange, plumbago and bougainvillea are all fine, my kiwi is four times the size it was last year. Now I shall be much relaxed about constant attention and watering, the plants seem to know how to survive.  Mario had cut the grass, strimmed the orchard and swept around, his wife and daughter had cleaned the house.  We had expected the worst after months of neglect, their kindness is overwhelming.
Yesterday Giovanni and his wife called by, it’s so nice to see them but we are being very cautious and keeping our distance.  After driving through 4 countries, using hotels, motorway services etc we want to make sure we are ok and not pass anything to others.  We are semi isolating for a couple of weeks and limiting out contacts.  It won’t be normal after that but up here on the mountain with our cats and our land around us it does feel brilliant.