Back to Italy

 We arrived back at our house in Italy Thursday evening.  Already the tedious journey that started badly when MrFF couldn’t open the car to add the final packing on our morning of departure.  We’d risen at 5.30, it was a tense half hour or so until he heard a little click, was able to open the boot, unpack the car and crawl through to the front. The fault turned out to be a mix up with keys and low battery in the fob, the manual key didn’t work at all. I might have pointed out the battery situation when the trauma began but my advice wasn’t well received.  We took spare batteries and didn’t lock the car at all en route even when dashing to the toilets at services. On the ferry MrFF replaced the battery. We prayed we wouldn’t be the ones at Calais who couldn’t open the car, we weren’t. However there was another problem, MrFF discovered that neither of the keys he had was the one he regularly uses and the one to which he had attached the door key for Italy.  We always enter and exit via what was the garage next to where we park our car, it’s handy to have it on the car key ring.  It wasn’t a major problem, he had all the keys for the many doors, gates and grilles and we knew Mario had a garage key.  He was waiting by the roadside with it after we messaged him.  So now we can spend a couple of months wondering where the usual key with the house key attached is.

It’s lovely here, sunny and warm with cooler evenings when we light the stove for a couple of hours. Ruperto aka Nigel, the youngest kitten last year, was here when we arrived.  A little shy but by next day he was happy to be petted and fussed.  Next morning we thought it was his brother Umberto/Brian who turned up looking a little porky.  It was in fact the mother Olive, she’s probably pregnant.  We’ve also been visited by two strays who arrive like clockwork at the time the auto feeder opens. They’ll be disappointed now it’s not in use and our kitties get personal service. 

As ever I am busy sorting the garden and ignoring the state of the house.  Everything seems quite advanced this year,  it’s delightful.