A positive post

Let’s start the week feeling good, even the threatening thunderstorm currently on the opposite side of the valley but alarmingly loud could be useful to wash away the terrace dust and water the garden.  

MrFF continues chipping away at the terrace, literally, with a few expletives when he accidentally takes the edge off a tile.  We have about 50 spare unused tiles in the cellar and at the end of last week found a local stock that doesn’t quite match as ours have had maybe 30 years in the sun but will do to replace cracked and broken ones. That was such a stroke of luck as these tiles are no longer manufactured. 

The washing machine finally gave up last week.  At 20 years old it had become temperamental, some days it didn’t empty out the water and just kept taking more in.  If we didn’t notice we’d flood the garage, if we did we had to drag the heavy machine to the outside before we could open the door.  A new machine was long overdue, our old one only took a 5 kilo load and had a slow spin.  Damp washing isn’t a problem in the summer but in winter is horrid.  So we ordered a new machine on line, from a shop not from Amazon, this was of course a challenge.  The site needed a phone number, wouldn’t accept our UK mobile or our Italian landline, we used Mario’s.  He was OK with that though he did say we should have consulted him and he would have arranged for us to have our old machine beautifully repaired, no thanks.   There was no indication of delivery time until the order was placed when it could be up to 15 days from the machine being received by the courier.  However it took only a week, was here on Saturday, shortly after I’d done a hand wash and the old machine was taken away.  Happy days, the new model can take 2 bath towels plus a few garments, all spun quietly at high speed and pretty dry when they came out. It has plenty of wash programmes, flashing lights, satisfying beeps and plays a happy tune when it finishes.  

Lots happening in the garden.  My passionflower is covered in buds, dahlias are sprouting and best of all the lemon tree that hasn’t fruited for several years has lots of flowers about to open.  I’ve promised MrFF lemons for his G&Ts in a few months, freak hail storms permitting.  Just as well he bought 2 bottles of gin last week when they were on offer.  Preparation is everything.