tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80808162355901440892024-03-18T04:03:50.397+01:00My Life in Flip FlopsBorn in and now returned to Yorkshire from Scotland, spending summers in Italy. I knit socks but prefer to wear flip flops
Jennyffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08133651986287619972noreply@blogger.comBlogger1035125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8080816235590144089.post-69120169176555113072024-03-17T10:19:00.000+01:002024-03-17T10:19:05.988+01:00School dinners <p><span style="font-family: verdana;">There was an item on the news last week about a headmaster who had complained about the quality of food supplied to his pupils from outside contract caterers. It does indeed look disgustingly grey and mushy with hardly a green vegetable in sight and was no doubt shipped in from a distant factory.</span></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGtEbpnk4oUJyhv9aDCSbQrRTk109iRFL6X9BDuAxJOMOliasfKOd6Z7FmitHyHvXvxuW1b9MtS9Nb8-7JlvLqI3dQ9073aFDSy0Vtikhii1WxxxxIFduoZ6vikvE9yw6-VpV7-8YuZuPDev2zc5s1ZrjIkoYhyphenhyphenR08l3-bEyW8n7TpUnnD4h_-9triWTI/s976/IMG_2788.webp" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="549" data-original-width="976" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGtEbpnk4oUJyhv9aDCSbQrRTk109iRFL6X9BDuAxJOMOliasfKOd6Z7FmitHyHvXvxuW1b9MtS9Nb8-7JlvLqI3dQ9073aFDSy0Vtikhii1WxxxxIFduoZ6vikvE9yw6-VpV7-8YuZuPDev2zc5s1ZrjIkoYhyphenhyphenR08l3-bEyW8n7TpUnnD4h_-9triWTI/w640-h360/IMG_2788.webp" title="Photo from Redbridge community school" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo from Redbridge Community School<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;">However what shocked me even more than the food quality was </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">the dining hall where pupils were eating from disposable cartons, they looked like polystyrene, with small disposable wooden cutlery. One pupil said he thought if he added salt and pepper to his wooden fork it might have more flavour than his meal. </span><div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">There was no table </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">setting, pupils seemed to park themselves anywhere to eat many </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">wearing their outside coats. The used utensils would be thrown in</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">to bins destined for landfill as they left. What life lesson does that give them. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I remember the ritual of school dinners when I was at junior school. We left our classrooms and walked a short distance alongside the village stream to queue outside the canteen, which had its own vegetable garden. Once the supervising teacher arrived and entered the building we followed to our allotted tables, already set for lunch with cutlery, water and glasses. The teacher announced the days menu and we all said grace. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Each table had 9 pupils, one of whom was the server, an older pupil </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">who went to the counter to collect the food, two plates at a time. There was no choice but it was possible to specify your portion size. The </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">server asked each child what they wanted and had to memorise the order, say a small portion of meat, large of potatoes, medium vegetables, with most probably different portions for the other plate. Food was served onto plates by the dinner ladies, who were all local, they had cooked everything that morning.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">We were not allowed to leave food on our plates, which was never a problem for me as </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">that was the way I was brought up. Besides the food was fresh and delicious, there was nothing I didn’t like. Puddings especially were excellent, various sponges, treacle, jam, ginger, all with custard, fruit pies or crumbles, rice or semolina. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">If a child refused to eat they had to sit in front of their plate until they did even if it meant being late back to class.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">At my secondary school there was a rota for pupils setting the tables supervised by a teacher. As we filed into the dining room we each collected our own napkin from our pigeon hole, a fresh one brought from home each Monday and returned for washing on Friday. The food, again a no choice menu, was delivered in tureens after grace and dished out by who ever was head of the table usually a prefect. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">At both schools</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> lunch was part of our learning, serving food to others, memorising orders, portion control, </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">the sociability of sitting down to share a meal together.</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> It’s sad that children today don’t have the benefit of nutritional food or that basic social training </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">It’s a </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">testament to the quality of school meals in this town that by mid afternoon leaving time the supermarkets are invaded by hundreds of children buying snacks, to the extent they have to be supervised by security staff and directed to their own checkouts to avoid delaying other shoppers. Kids then wander down the street digging into large bags of crisps, eating full packs of biscuits, bakery items, sweets, fizzy drinks, </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">unhealthy rubbish probably costing more than their school meal. I was taught that it was ill mannered to eat in the street and I never have, we certainly didn’t expect any snacks once we left school for the day and waited for our evening meal.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The education system is doing children such an injustice, our obesity rate continues to climb while the contract caterers and snack manufacturers are coining it in. School dinners have to be provided within a budget but health and well being don’t seem to be factored into the cost.</span></p></div>Jennyffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08133651986287619972noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8080816235590144089.post-20836054290526859862024-03-12T11:38:00.000+01:002024-03-12T11:38:01.627+01:00That didn’t work<p>I <span style="font-family: verdana;">was quite surprised when I finished my cotton top how much I like it which made me determined to solve the colour variation problem. I soaked the finished garment in a mixture of mild soap and eco bleach, this stuff which I like a lot particularly as it comes with its own tiny cardboard scoop.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0LxBkUHT9nKL0gONHcAYK_PIXm_Qmu9qzF93jxMLVv2_xiRDC0r51pivxyRFSWANshh6ANwLFGoJorpB8B12SD8VipFK4Ns-d1vW_5zcYkhlF5b8oDH92d2a6x6SZRqJGzuCrnJuTT79fQPNa_OH0sguThQ2PYcylBIYn7PWIOHlVGsrjHdXgm6VUjqM/s3024/IMG_2782.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0LxBkUHT9nKL0gONHcAYK_PIXm_Qmu9qzF93jxMLVv2_xiRDC0r51pivxyRFSWANshh6ANwLFGoJorpB8B12SD8VipFK4Ns-d1vW_5zcYkhlF5b8oDH92d2a6x6SZRqJGzuCrnJuTT79fQPNa_OH0sguThQ2PYcylBIYn7PWIOHlVGsrjHdXgm6VUjqM/w640-h640/IMG_2782.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">It took a while to dry in the utility room and I was quite hopeful until I brought it out to the lounge windows and realised it was much the same, front and back different shades and the top of the back the same shade as the front.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgItlBVGyv_f-SkNp7KCqInTe2-NKNRdNDidS4Pjd6mcDvz9G3VaH08s3EI5obx4Oq3zFTpSBdj5WVQaPdgrYrC7zxAUJWDROjsl1CYIkIGWEOVEs0ukBG1ALlD-xl21ali9qSl6udU9ndDQbkaYBbQDEdBDaVDp_rgMYRsUyDbz4SoEy6pNJNyPjVWcbE/s4032/IMG_2781.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgItlBVGyv_f-SkNp7KCqInTe2-NKNRdNDidS4Pjd6mcDvz9G3VaH08s3EI5obx4Oq3zFTpSBdj5WVQaPdgrYrC7zxAUJWDROjsl1CYIkIGWEOVEs0ukBG1ALlD-xl21ali9qSl6udU9ndDQbkaYBbQDEdBDaVDp_rgMYRsUyDbz4SoEy6pNJNyPjVWcbE/w640-h480/IMG_2781.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">This leaves me with several solutions</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Always wear the top with a cardigan to conceal the back</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Wear it only in shade where the difference is less obvious, avoiding direct sunlight in Italy would be tricky</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Wear it a lot in the sun hoping that the darker part will fade </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Dye it, I like it white as it shows up the knobbly texture so well </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Knit another one, I do have enough yarn left over but this one has taken me more than two years, time is against me and I didn’t much enjoy the process first time </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Just bluff it, pretend it’s meant to be like that and cast on another pair of socks</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">What would you do?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p>Jennyffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08133651986287619972noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8080816235590144089.post-71903964319216416222024-02-27T16:30:00.004+01:002024-02-28T13:00:11.525+01:00Now look what’s happened<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The positivity of my spring fever has diminished somewhat. </span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4z-XbPzjuqhdjo7ICUIMSnZat9JEkQjf89b6ZQlZETQTQmGfGzc-FEANyu1zeHHozjG0AwSdKDLNd5ANDLL_alPazEtgBmSfT37uzhGIquFwbpvAIz3WPvQGGvkgNI-7aA78IxpT3wfZxg0pN5_YBbULOy8xNFbnW4UyOPhusqh0n62OwAemh1mo4CeM/s4032/IMG_2769.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4z-XbPzjuqhdjo7ICUIMSnZat9JEkQjf89b6ZQlZETQTQmGfGzc-FEANyu1zeHHozjG0AwSdKDLNd5ANDLL_alPazEtgBmSfT37uzhGIquFwbpvAIz3WPvQGGvkgNI-7aA78IxpT3wfZxg0pN5_YBbULOy8xNFbnW4UyOPhusqh0n62OwAemh1mo4CeM/w640-h480/IMG_2769.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Whilst looking through my yarn stash I came across a little cotton top I started I believe in 2022. The yarn was a charity shop find, 100 cotton with the slubby texture I like. It must have been old because the balls are in ounces, it was very fine so I used 2.5 needles, progress was slow.</span><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNPaLygClOhsIVHGdhj0Oz93xL4Z3E56ZRWW8pDZ1d0UcYwOA1eDDKukwpfNnrdWfu3Rnj1wfJSdQ8Po_0aMmcSkeDw3itb5DjZfU5Ab8GMkiMc2m3p4q8-rBKIIqL_DkNHZgyI5a-6S9be7YAzBpu_nNqoN7FPyHJcmYxUPB0yarZ9rv0xJuEX3ifh-g/s3023/IMG_2773.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3023" data-original-width="2220" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNPaLygClOhsIVHGdhj0Oz93xL4Z3E56ZRWW8pDZ1d0UcYwOA1eDDKukwpfNnrdWfu3Rnj1wfJSdQ8Po_0aMmcSkeDw3itb5DjZfU5Ab8GMkiMc2m3p4q8-rBKIIqL_DkNHZgyI5a-6S9be7YAzBpu_nNqoN7FPyHJcmYxUPB0yarZ9rv0xJuEX3ifh-g/s320/IMG_2773.jpeg" width="235" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;">I chose this pattern Paloma by Lisa Richardson from Rowan magazine no 65 but didn’t knit the pattern at the front because I thought there was enough texture from the yarn, and yes because I like an easy life. I did add the detail at the edge of the sleeves just to show some willing.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">When I pulled the garment out of my storage box I was pleased to see I’d completed the back and was almost up to the arm shaping on the front. I’ll have that finished before we go to Italy I told myself and pressed on, still knitting the purple vest top in daylight, the white cotton in the evenings. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqx5M2i3ZIYbI8XsER1cI64t8Bs58liNzYcmEzuXQxBFHyp-AACBpmYKqtTDSFqNNqKRdNkt-i7gX5ojwg4aARC01gNMKf0okfBEN-gf-lUJO1mt34BZ8xWSdSH3PPEwpl4zRp4IyoCm2xMfLkq1Jh-hbfS-v_EkMJvwInSMxc8AqaKT1m2rzaftXeIT8/s4032/IMG_2772.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqx5M2i3ZIYbI8XsER1cI64t8Bs58liNzYcmEzuXQxBFHyp-AACBpmYKqtTDSFqNNqKRdNkt-i7gX5ojwg4aARC01gNMKf0okfBEN-gf-lUJO1mt34BZ8xWSdSH3PPEwpl4zRp4IyoCm2xMfLkq1Jh-hbfS-v_EkMJvwInSMxc8AqaKT1m2rzaftXeIT8/w640-h480/IMG_2772.jpeg" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br />Then I noticed that front and back are different shades, in fact the last few inches of the back are different to the rest of the back but the same as the front. I checked the ball bands, they have the same dye and lot numbers. How bloomin annoying. </span><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaRsLC1vD93SvxgezqLVZVGhuV98mR4C6MHuTPt6Mo2e8R0lHRdxU2hDTdRAh5ZfxXBG8jr0NdRaB0HJDAckduySb2A-n9302P9ya9MtCtw76sNla7tz9OMjX5kDKJojPGQTQUpfrZS0sbJnuYzN924irCkQgLNdqPkNYdsUJQpfd0g1bxEU16yrnkHl0/s4030/IMG_2774.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2785" data-original-width="4030" height="442" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaRsLC1vD93SvxgezqLVZVGhuV98mR4C6MHuTPt6Mo2e8R0lHRdxU2hDTdRAh5ZfxXBG8jr0NdRaB0HJDAckduySb2A-n9302P9ya9MtCtw76sNla7tz9OMjX5kDKJojPGQTQUpfrZS0sbJnuYzN924irCkQgLNdqPkNYdsUJQpfd0g1bxEU16yrnkHl0/w640-h442/IMG_2774.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">It’s my own fault of course. I am notorious for not checking my knitting. I once made MrFF a 100% wool tweedy sweater that turned out to be two different shades of black, he wore it non the less and I won’t be pulling this one out. I might wash it and see if that helps, I don’t think it would dye as a gentle cold wash is recommended. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I really should stick to socks, I could produce those in my sleep. I’d say it’s my age but another lady in our building, aged 92, is still knitting the most beautiful and complex garments, she puts me to shame. If I live as long as Margaret I have another 17 years of knitting disasters to look forward to, watch this space.</span></p>Jennyffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08133651986287619972noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8080816235590144089.post-47582415208937959532024-02-20T17:48:00.001+01:002024-02-20T17:48:23.335+01:00Spring is springing <p><span style="font-family: verdana;">On bright mornings we have the sun streaming into our kitchen via the central atrium, such a good start to the day. I love this time of spring bulbs and flowers that make me miss my Scottish garden and the plants I had, many different hellebores, witch hazels, primroses, I wonder what’s happened to them as I am told the garden is now rather neglected.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I have a few pots of daffodils on the balcony and I added crocus into the two big pots last autumn, </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">they are just starting to flower. It’s a slow process as our north facing balcony won’t be in the sun for another month.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_ZGcl4q42U7FTeidnodppWzuWs49uo6n8B3G7kdl6xK9CL03q_YkxNlmxr8hQSaE9rvQVu2pQrvYghQ1uelYmANK1g4SGkzFh3o-9Rybzrv0o8taigCu6xc_fv82YtrMk35wigceAAWEhXB8jVr51AsdZXaQmFzAJOHDr4dUE64SxiDfRWJ06S1ck3Fo/s3264/AC7AE544-00FC-47D8-85D3-B800706C44B5.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_ZGcl4q42U7FTeidnodppWzuWs49uo6n8B3G7kdl6xK9CL03q_YkxNlmxr8hQSaE9rvQVu2pQrvYghQ1uelYmANK1g4SGkzFh3o-9Rybzrv0o8taigCu6xc_fv82YtrMk35wigceAAWEhXB8jVr51AsdZXaQmFzAJOHDr4dUE64SxiDfRWJ06S1ck3Fo/w640-h480/AC7AE544-00FC-47D8-85D3-B800706C44B5.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Indoors I have several amaryllis from previous years, some growing just in water one flowering beautifully. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh38aQ8DRwRPnxkDZ_fvgdmTWJlyU9qkix4trt_3hvXfBJW-JxWfUnxpnCuApm8HCFVeiMiuo1AklwuMVgXzfwggpWXgibW3oUC2TFQ5joV0rYGLJPFpgr1Opl94aZ7ZQxMWPs7hFkr_0TX1u4ok4kFMFlPepH1WmK5L_16xfMF9xMLHU-mFq4mQqs-Llw/s3264/050C37A3-BE5C-4529-8021-632BC1426A79.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh38aQ8DRwRPnxkDZ_fvgdmTWJlyU9qkix4trt_3hvXfBJW-JxWfUnxpnCuApm8HCFVeiMiuo1AklwuMVgXzfwggpWXgibW3oUC2TFQ5joV0rYGLJPFpgr1Opl94aZ7ZQxMWPs7hFkr_0TX1u4ok4kFMFlPepH1WmK5L_16xfMF9xMLHU-mFq4mQqs-Llw/w640-h480/050C37A3-BE5C-4529-8021-632BC1426A79.jpeg" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br />Also a couple of hyacinths also in water, I quite like sticking bulbs in vases or jars of water and being able to see what’s happening. I am prone to rooting about in compost to check for growth often causing serious damage. My Christmas cactus also from last year is still flowering, it’s been amazing for almost 2 months.</span><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP9q9JSYQcKd95-kiLavfWBbzXBIAWq1AecW47KopVF1dIQrx_lgCwK13XDhqvTEhrgtwV12XbjXTIbG0lZRXJU1G7qVeqqMt6YOYq0YALZhyphenhyphendXdtKd5-zaGcrWN-rkVJPwCbucHdS4PUQ6qaTkobnGQ4zuJcEybzKiieWxSoHuZD8a2jY2SbjTrtBrCU/s3264/C2585F71-E097-400F-96E6-60E88F7AA32F.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP9q9JSYQcKd95-kiLavfWBbzXBIAWq1AecW47KopVF1dIQrx_lgCwK13XDhqvTEhrgtwV12XbjXTIbG0lZRXJU1G7qVeqqMt6YOYq0YALZhyphenhyphendXdtKd5-zaGcrWN-rkVJPwCbucHdS4PUQ6qaTkobnGQ4zuJcEybzKiieWxSoHuZD8a2jY2SbjTrtBrCU/w640-h480/C2585F71-E097-400F-96E6-60E88F7AA32F.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Inspired by longer days and better weather I did some work in our communal garden at the weekend. Ever hopeful I planted out my Christmas hyacinths that had finished flowering, the ones I put in previous years were strimmed to the ground before they could flower by out slash and burn gardener. I must make a notice telling him not to do anything in that area. I tidied round the daffodils, collected a lot of sodden leaver that concealed more bulbs and weeded the herb garden MrFF and I created years ago.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Next day I was surprisingly stiff and achy, I am considering doing more gardening in the hope it’s going to firm up my inner thighs and bottom, no pain no gain, and I was definitely in pain in those areas.</span></p>Jennyffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08133651986287619972noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8080816235590144089.post-83987604972777906692024-02-10T11:47:00.000+01:002024-02-10T11:47:01.341+01:00It did snow, it did stretch<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUOGLAXGagHFSSpyOmRe_8yd2_aqjE1fTTiDg6X612KJTSW2h-rIBNRAws8PH9j_gDCcUQE80lpr7BxjBQsx_6FKB9cuFOFQGSpaRniNbagHKfP5vxcdyk886louwkz1DITmGL1PVtl-E2VMF7d2ryzJkptz_5dbxq9wB35HcLvbvMlZQISWm0fD8pCwM/s2048/F7C17D56-B15C-4A4C-B1B2-E621E9D90B1F.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUOGLAXGagHFSSpyOmRe_8yd2_aqjE1fTTiDg6X612KJTSW2h-rIBNRAws8PH9j_gDCcUQE80lpr7BxjBQsx_6FKB9cuFOFQGSpaRniNbagHKfP5vxcdyk886louwkz1DITmGL1PVtl-E2VMF7d2ryzJkptz_5dbxq9wB35HcLvbvMlZQISWm0fD8pCwM/w640-h480/F7C17D56-B15C-4A4C-B1B2-E621E9D90B1F.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">It was snowing when we got up on Thursday and it continued all day, when I drew the curtains that evening the snow was quite deep.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrMDSky_DIc4RgaUkREwNcoZ5g6dqXI8tIxLIx8cEY_BiQ_0Tks1FFrUz_iAihbvMNaRKkncxVpZMaaAOnU3v_-_w78dXX6u57M3n3eLlX9msv23fxd4u2N0oYOUycyQ7osFeY3BOKgAn18ywSj5V6PElNKCnMwVueTnaG4H1HsLPLdukKR3xBsbLFSag/s3264/D1C9325D-7C3A-4765-9912-AF5275C3B31F.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrMDSky_DIc4RgaUkREwNcoZ5g6dqXI8tIxLIx8cEY_BiQ_0Tks1FFrUz_iAihbvMNaRKkncxVpZMaaAOnU3v_-_w78dXX6u57M3n3eLlX9msv23fxd4u2N0oYOUycyQ7osFeY3BOKgAn18ywSj5V6PElNKCnMwVueTnaG4H1HsLPLdukKR3xBsbLFSag/w640-h480/D1C9325D-7C3A-4765-9912-AF5275C3B31F.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;">MrFF walked down the hill with me to the opticians, I wished I’d taken a hat and finger rather than fingerless gloves but my new chunky boots kept me upright. The optician said my eye had healed well after the incident in Italy and I didn’t need to change my glasses. On the way back we treated ourselves to fat rascals from Betty’s our lovely tea rooms, which was busy despite the weather.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">After my charity cardigan dried the sleeves were definitely longer and less tight, the body however didn’t seem much bigger. I rinsed out the conditioner and put it to dry flat again, giving it another stretch. Now the process is complete the cardigan is definitely expanded, softer and</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> feels much less felted. I had no idea that a item damaged in the wash could be rejuvenated or that wool which we consider quite a delicate fibre is strong enough to be manipulated into shape, never too old to learn.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p>Jennyffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08133651986287619972noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8080816235590144089.post-76461157323605054162024-02-07T17:41:00.002+01:002024-02-08T10:09:51.373+01:00Going out <p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Why is it such an effort to leave the penthouse, I practically have to push myself out of the door some days. I know I feel so much better if I get some fresh air and unless we are knee deep is snow, which is forecast, or the pavements are very icy I take a daily walk but getting to the departure stage takes some doing. It’s not as if I spend a lot of time preparing. If it’s a brisk 6 mile walk I </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">drag on some old running clothes, and since I haven’t run for many years they are very old. If I am walking to town I pop a coat over my indoor cosies in the knowledge that I wont be stripping off in a changing room and the hope no one in the building will call me into their apartment for a cup of tea and expect me to take my coat off.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">MrFF is much better at exiting the building than me. Often after breakfast when I need a sit down with Wordle he’s off to the bus station with the intention of getting a bus out and walking back home. Today he was walking to Bolton Abbey and getting a bus back, which will be lovely as it’s been a cold but beautifully sunny day. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">He’s already sent photos for us all to enjoy.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl-zEeUEAacZBUkPtEtzhUz_ZCBfFouGd5D65AEK3VgYDa51ho_qZnhO_95JgTjrJS69OL4IknLANdCtmKNlnW2yU50ZpqLtuPdX-PXjH2l_lP7HJsnEj8uFEPJ8dqMqvsf3abaT4fhyphenhyphenYe7QqtGllco5MWIDOMoOJXIQPFabp-r7Y0EBZiJng4nn8Du7w/s2048/755EC87C-6F49-4953-B525-85B8FDBE7D12.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl-zEeUEAacZBUkPtEtzhUz_ZCBfFouGd5D65AEK3VgYDa51ho_qZnhO_95JgTjrJS69OL4IknLANdCtmKNlnW2yU50ZpqLtuPdX-PXjH2l_lP7HJsnEj8uFEPJ8dqMqvsf3abaT4fhyphenhyphenYe7QqtGllco5MWIDOMoOJXIQPFabp-r7Y0EBZiJng4nn8Du7w/w640-h480/755EC87C-6F49-4953-B525-85B8FDBE7D12.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXz5M8X58qecvIhfW3pvVNi3cNBqeIn2xSZWrbareq9CGe0CdRnhkRF5EPCnf_tio-yqlCXxe2N8CbiKG_khpYDnFFWdEEAE5HU1h0r2GX2YvW5h9ws7uMdtaxP6rJi2SOWgzv7rV4ikZ1g69jqiqqQFFvgyzT2cMtjZydj2lVUEYzmJyLreaIu8YEgno/s2048/2E67FA0B-F659-4577-9574-FECAF9650949.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXz5M8X58qecvIhfW3pvVNi3cNBqeIn2xSZWrbareq9CGe0CdRnhkRF5EPCnf_tio-yqlCXxe2N8CbiKG_khpYDnFFWdEEAE5HU1h0r2GX2YvW5h9ws7uMdtaxP6rJi2SOWgzv7rV4ikZ1g69jqiqqQFFvgyzT2cMtjZydj2lVUEYzmJyLreaIu8YEgno/w480-h640/2E67FA0B-F659-4577-9574-FECAF9650949.jpeg" width="480" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I walked into town for a few veggies and found an originally expensive but somewhat shrunken pure merino cardigan in the charity shop. Looking online it seems I will be able to unshrink with hair conditioner, I’ll let you know. If that doesn’t work it’s still ok, I like 3/4 length sleeves and the body is just neat.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHTPiVJEg3BF3BKC9NXUeT7EVLn9h9smuJGO3UyoxX6WWxu8PmnJHzFdjjrZrQs2B0WR16AgVlFefR8acG4_rb8Hyx5aaQdVMp9FqtLmwBCXRAR0y9TVeOsrce-XyI1-Yz94Z6xLJiW9lou4q-IYFo9xIdmZyrKKutOBHUiTfNtiAU6Leu3RJ6-7tQ5lA/s3264/8D40E08F-8442-4FA7-B093-4960EE64D5F2.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHTPiVJEg3BF3BKC9NXUeT7EVLn9h9smuJGO3UyoxX6WWxu8PmnJHzFdjjrZrQs2B0WR16AgVlFefR8acG4_rb8Hyx5aaQdVMp9FqtLmwBCXRAR0y9TVeOsrce-XyI1-Yz94Z6xLJiW9lou4q-IYFo9xIdmZyrKKutOBHUiTfNtiAU6Leu3RJ6-7tQ5lA/w640-h480/8D40E08F-8442-4FA7-B093-4960EE64D5F2.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">As I mentioned snow is forecast tomorrow, a great excuse to stay inside but I have a midday </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">appointment at the optician so I will be going out and probably persuading MrFF to walk with me as I slither down the hill to town. And I will dress properly as I will be taking my coat off. </span></p><p><br /></p>Jennyffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08133651986287619972noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8080816235590144089.post-49116761527660204562024-01-28T19:19:00.002+01:002024-01-31T12:03:01.338+01:00How did we get here <p><span style="font-family: verdana;">This must be my longest blog absence ever, even worse than last month, forgive me. It’s been January, it’s been cold, we’ve had named storms that have battered us on the top floor and nothing worth talking about has happened. By the end of the week we will say goodbye to January, I’ve already spotted snowdrops and crocus in flower, it will be better and I will try harder.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">We’ve made no progress at all with the Italian planning violation. Only last week MrFF again chased our geometra who he’d instructed before Christmas to forget about preparing a price for his work which he’d regularly been promising to do since last August and just get the job done. So said geometry’s wrote back again telling what needs to be done without suggesting he might ever get round to doing it. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">We have no news of our cat Grigio. Mario asked if he should continue topping up the automatic feeder, of course he must. It’s heart breaking not knowing what has happened, we’ve asked Mario twice to check if she’s down the hillside with a neighbour who feeds several cats, he hasn’t. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I have started doing my 6 mile walk again, gets me out, fresh air and exercise so </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">gradually I am undoing the damage caused by so many mince pies.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I have knitting in the go, a little cotton gansey for my youngest grand niece, a round neck cabled slipover for me which I think is on the small side so might get pulled out and of course socks are always the go to for evening tv watching. Suddenly lighting seems to be a problem or more likely failing vision, so something I can knit without regularly referring to the pattern or checking what I’ve done is ideal and pleasingly productive. I find the purple yarn particularly hard to see under artificial light.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYVUDb2fLq4zJei4-6itOU2Y2OctvM3MTVuEbu4uJx5586XMf5x8ke9v8hCrfKfAxIz1eztO8gC8q-jTTwpEuXoaRH6MB1uADKOQMNNSsYjsqVJHmNzZ-6WyTxVtJjY2i9di_xPj-RdjIPEbfOq-gLlf4dCfI1JzAdg_CX9y2MJOAh0svVyXftcm4uXVs/s3077/52BF8642-4786-4595-BFFF-8E1EE7832E95.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2447" data-original-width="3077" height="508" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYVUDb2fLq4zJei4-6itOU2Y2OctvM3MTVuEbu4uJx5586XMf5x8ke9v8hCrfKfAxIz1eztO8gC8q-jTTwpEuXoaRH6MB1uADKOQMNNSsYjsqVJHmNzZ-6WyTxVtJjY2i9di_xPj-RdjIPEbfOq-gLlf4dCfI1JzAdg_CX9y2MJOAh0svVyXftcm4uXVs/w640-h508/52BF8642-4786-4595-BFFF-8E1EE7832E95.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEk6lxBRjqXxeA8wMn6uNt8p0uDzeoTn-Ss29TxD8r1ZWY_-h7TQz4teTFeuaZMAGJxQhL_ZrjovLetzNX9S3dRJtRvxCsohnMnKmoo6llWZvfyc_U5vrAPQtPJ-U-t9iA6vQ-kYyy9DS1shxJOCuXX4E5SHN5FGtIWIEuq8pSy_eBeXGX-mx2mrQ5Hkc/s3262/220687A7-99C5-45BB-A957-664E54B6FAF8.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1627" data-original-width="3262" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEk6lxBRjqXxeA8wMn6uNt8p0uDzeoTn-Ss29TxD8r1ZWY_-h7TQz4teTFeuaZMAGJxQhL_ZrjovLetzNX9S3dRJtRvxCsohnMnKmoo6llWZvfyc_U5vrAPQtPJ-U-t9iA6vQ-kYyy9DS1shxJOCuXX4E5SHN5FGtIWIEuq8pSy_eBeXGX-mx2mrQ5Hkc/w640-h320/220687A7-99C5-45BB-A957-664E54B6FAF8.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I was starting to feel my age after Christmas, worrying Italian matters and shortage of daylight were probably making me sluggish but as the days lengthen I am much better, more positive and determined not to become elderly even if in years I am. I will try to be a better blogger, thanks for sticking with me.</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p>Jennyffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08133651986287619972noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8080816235590144089.post-42197502445000711272024-01-04T14:40:00.001+01:002024-01-06T10:50:02.147+01:00This is sad <p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Before we left our house in Italy in November MrFF installed a security camera. Giovanni advised us to take action as the house above us beyond his property was broken into early last year, he was right as there were a couple of burglaries in the village more recently.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">We don’t look at the camera that much, apart from a badger and a fox sniffing round there was nothing at all to see but just before Christmas MrFF spotted that Mario hadn’t been to replenish the automatic feeder for 10 days. We didn’t want him thinking we were spying on him, I suppose we were, so we wrote about the lack of progress on the planning violation and casually asked how Grigio was. The next morning Mario was at the house and for the next few days he was there looking round and calling her. Then he wrote to say he hadn’t seen Grigio for 5 days, normally she appears when she hears his car. He said the food was being eaten, of course it is </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">because there are other cats and animals around, I told him that before we left and showed him we’d provided a lot of bags of food for them all.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">It’s so upsetting. I imagine when the food ran out Grigio had to go elsewhere. I asked a neighbour to look for her when she was out walking but she said she wasn’t well. We asked Giovanni who was at his house for new year but he said he hadn’t seen any cats at all. I mentioned it to friends down in the valley </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">and they kindly offered to drive to our house with food but Mario was there next morning so it wasn’t necessary.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">We asked Mario if Grigio might have gone to Elizabetta’s house down below us, she has several cats, but we haven’t heard anything about that. I feel like flying out to look for Grigio but we’d just have to leave her again if we found her.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">What a hopeless situation, I suppose we won’t know anything until we go out in a few months which seems such a long time to wait.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I often get comments about bringing Grigio back to Yorkshire. We cannot do that, we live on the third floor of an apartment building that does not allow pets. Even if that was not the case Grigio at her age wouldn’t adapt to being a indoor cat, and the medical checks would be practically impossible because of the lack of vets and her terror of going into the cat carrier. She’s friendly enough with us but even we cannot carry her about. We even tried a sedative once to get her to the vet for a teeth check, that didn’t work, she’d never survive the journey to the UK, neither would we. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">So we’ve done our best over the years to provide for her in a stress free way, it’s awful that now she’s been let down and a miserable start to the new year.</span></p>Jennyffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08133651986287619972noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8080816235590144089.post-64817160056589471282023-12-30T15:09:00.001+01:002023-12-30T15:09:07.693+01:00Eco gifting <p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I am sure you have been wondering how MrFF and I managed in these difficult times to provide each other with a stocking of Christmas gifts to the value of £5. We failed in that that we both exceeded the budget, doesn’t everything nowadays, however we gave each other acceptable, inexpensive and sustainable gifts, mostly preloved and sourced locally. Here we go.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I received a set of 9 slate coasters which I like very much, they are displayed here with the two beautiful Alessi white china mugs I also received.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBELu7R_yWBgUeSWmzrRuU5wszro_AkT3PxdoHpA7oa0TqRAtfoeggofRJ3SQf_kD5wqvU5tw-7sRLE8AuFeP5T3TBarGipnjkILvRqi5MwltkCMVVszbFkowz5WWU3dn1pDVntzvKl16PSG9_vXni4rmf3u1q3McYT_5uFDcDueWfZjt6Oi1HZmOW4Ag/s3264/5F3A7580-A8C9-4DCA-8108-D9C94DD6F9CA.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBELu7R_yWBgUeSWmzrRuU5wszro_AkT3PxdoHpA7oa0TqRAtfoeggofRJ3SQf_kD5wqvU5tw-7sRLE8AuFeP5T3TBarGipnjkILvRqi5MwltkCMVVszbFkowz5WWU3dn1pDVntzvKl16PSG9_vXni4rmf3u1q3McYT_5uFDcDueWfZjt6Oi1HZmOW4Ag/w640-h480/5F3A7580-A8C9-4DCA-8108-D9C94DD6F9CA.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">A book of glove knitting patterns</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCFTqK_jrmaL3hNK8RqW_KhomNtZ4xN__whrT5Xb4mqrJL256xZDb-tOAaoNpKPtXw9OXmOf6qloIfDTwehXoNPy68MG11qQ9iLdD_LhOrCC9wq0yIgtC3l_k-wvsIhvEJGKWy68OTNVtQMCXo2AqRUZKHR97aCdr2Wy99axn5uUDWNumcTfCfexATfRA/s2582/3CBBF193-4239-4739-B288-27007D28800B.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2447" data-original-width="2582" height="606" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCFTqK_jrmaL3hNK8RqW_KhomNtZ4xN__whrT5Xb4mqrJL256xZDb-tOAaoNpKPtXw9OXmOf6qloIfDTwehXoNPy68MG11qQ9iLdD_LhOrCC9wq0yIgtC3l_k-wvsIhvEJGKWy68OTNVtQMCXo2AqRUZKHR97aCdr2Wy99axn5uUDWNumcTfCfexATfRA/w640-h606/3CBBF193-4239-4739-B288-27007D28800B.jpeg" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br />My star prizes was a seemingly unused floor mop which he sourced from our communal bins. We feel we do a service by taking out useable items which should be given to the charity shop. </span><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtzDEcXmCuFY0HysvM3vJd_TjPKeKu-X7bgCCIIZLbwV49tfZVAZ-Lj83C9yJaLtVxRUFyii_r7RwRgboHojMdNbFWlmj_MFH1fun5rKma-P-mWjgCD6ulPm1Fw4FH_4VandzCYXTRxbtgMHG5pXMpzmBu0DLpidVYqWx1RRi2jYBHMEP-_1UwTQfMJ9s/s3264/DB9327C3-3D4E-41FF-B6D7-ACE10866C1E5.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtzDEcXmCuFY0HysvM3vJd_TjPKeKu-X7bgCCIIZLbwV49tfZVAZ-Lj83C9yJaLtVxRUFyii_r7RwRgboHojMdNbFWlmj_MFH1fun5rKma-P-mWjgCD6ulPm1Fw4FH_4VandzCYXTRxbtgMHG5pXMpzmBu0DLpidVYqWx1RRi2jYBHMEP-_1UwTQfMJ9s/w640-h480/DB9327C3-3D4E-41FF-B6D7-ACE10866C1E5.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p>My gifts to MrFF were </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">A book on egg cookery. He is very particular about his eggs and will often walk miles across the moor to find farms selling fresh eggs of interesting varieties, now he has even more reason to do so</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6y2LGO3mu2PdDe7iAJoEbPWSyCZEjFLia6wM_4kzH661Jv9rmhTwG0kt4xS9jww2_lynrc5yugsiCIQVbmZALHRFnwWIxvhyphenhyphen3Z4rikOKzDWc26vtq9fd7lF1loPyVPKZSfyp1QCrdOKy-AglBeW6B-D3Ram_Jd-wMiqggDW7Sbuhg5sUlARI57MrrWoc/s2385/FEE4AD12-9A99-42BB-8058-5912A3487C3F.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2385" data-original-width="1852" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6y2LGO3mu2PdDe7iAJoEbPWSyCZEjFLia6wM_4kzH661Jv9rmhTwG0kt4xS9jww2_lynrc5yugsiCIQVbmZALHRFnwWIxvhyphenhyphen3Z4rikOKzDWc26vtq9fd7lF1loPyVPKZSfyp1QCrdOKy-AglBeW6B-D3Ram_Jd-wMiqggDW7Sbuhg5sUlARI57MrrWoc/w496-h640/FEE4AD12-9A99-42BB-8058-5912A3487C3F.jpeg" width="496" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">A bar of wool fat soap, if you’ve never used this you should give it a go, it smells lovely</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikXEem0r83uV9oEp39GD2iXyd6UEANp5IMjR1tBiGRoqIwtMY-OqRhBHumxKdGZ5cm7AMdemIsl10GXmfkIQi9hbnyDEiLtTXk9Xob0zWjlpee6JdQwVfU63T0z2gCo73WL0BQeSQO1IeFnrSABxRVU2MDBbFmZSOQGf2WjOsHFiV-JoxXXyUTN7qMk8E/s2187/63079EF5-1F4D-4276-B68A-E2F57ECA38F0.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2187" data-original-width="1302" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikXEem0r83uV9oEp39GD2iXyd6UEANp5IMjR1tBiGRoqIwtMY-OqRhBHumxKdGZ5cm7AMdemIsl10GXmfkIQi9hbnyDEiLtTXk9Xob0zWjlpee6JdQwVfU63T0z2gCo73WL0BQeSQO1IeFnrSABxRVU2MDBbFmZSOQGf2WjOsHFiV-JoxXXyUTN7qMk8E/w382-h640/63079EF5-1F4D-4276-B68A-E2F57ECA38F0.jpeg" width="382" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">A t shirt emblazoned with a graphic of our favourite Tour de France ascent. Now he feels he needs to ride the route, I think not.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwD7OafgX02If-MG5CjPCKg9upyZ2mNzsUQwl42lyqBkCV56UZA-vPy43Zn4fU5P_35GXZISanmQH2FIeH6Dn_cfyx_SC6fdWR6WkO8Defcwyh52bUsiqTEFY-_773uvOPwfcDuxskTRyvf2PaxqhqsR6k75Wd1_H78rBxUgv199rrT7lfhsGC6ABfTY8/s3264/945909CB-180C-40F5-B1F0-6FF1EFF51D32.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwD7OafgX02If-MG5CjPCKg9upyZ2mNzsUQwl42lyqBkCV56UZA-vPy43Zn4fU5P_35GXZISanmQH2FIeH6Dn_cfyx_SC6fdWR6WkO8Defcwyh52bUsiqTEFY-_773uvOPwfcDuxskTRyvf2PaxqhqsR6k75Wd1_H78rBxUgv199rrT7lfhsGC6ABfTY8/w640-h480/945909CB-180C-40F5-B1F0-6FF1EFF51D32.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">We open our stockings before we get up on Christmas morning. MrFF says he regrets not getting a photo of me lying in bed drinking tea whilst admiring my new mop. Sadly I haven’t been able to use it yet as I need the bucket to squeeze the water out. So far I am still washing the kitchen floor on my hands and knees but it worked out well for Cinderella so I live in hope.</span></p>Jennyffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08133651986287619972noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8080816235590144089.post-178267301146130562023-12-17T19:08:00.001+01:002023-12-18T19:06:38.839+01:00My Christmas message<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCY5l6sYPQl_Ro3qyW5i1Pykk5PTcYf8zjXVEFv4bNnT55AsBVSzbAQuzbU6ijxhSAiCrGUzhpUCfmdU3CORc0phzmJrIWBSOdLu1LRqe0RRist9Ipnn-2ruAbWGB1vb4J02QlleIEl1d606RW40r6D93RgMv3f4FIOdc-DzT19IRJGcbU9gFTq6YQVgE/s2048/D8791434-903F-4CAC-B817-ECF0322E09C3.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCY5l6sYPQl_Ro3qyW5i1Pykk5PTcYf8zjXVEFv4bNnT55AsBVSzbAQuzbU6ijxhSAiCrGUzhpUCfmdU3CORc0phzmJrIWBSOdLu1LRqe0RRist9Ipnn-2ruAbWGB1vb4J02QlleIEl1d606RW40r6D93RgMv3f4FIOdc-DzT19IRJGcbU9gFTq6YQVgE/w640-h480/D8791434-903F-4CAC-B817-ECF0322E09C3.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the Christmas countdown I seem to have forgotten about my blog, this must be the longest time I’ve gone without posting. In my defence I am now sorted, we will exchange family presents this week, the decorations and the sessional food shop apart from fruit, veg etc </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">are all done, my hair is cut. I may be a bit light on mince pies and have so far failed to purchase anything for MrFF’s £5 stocking. I have offered a voucher for a football pork pie on the understanding he doesn’t eat it all at once, they serve 2. What they have to do with football I have no idea.</span><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvosNuU9axjz8QM39bXdIrmqp9gnuWJTX8TO0duDNNEhKbKbHe-BnFUYOKKVrAQ5KvkTlMIbdQl7A6RslIMeHcFkpznqOOhOMyzSyYrcLmRVAATmmmkbp2BxdC4SmwL9lbM8YCrhBhFK_KTVP_9SpjHpjKk5u6Dqt36Aa_DilIoC0OP2doQ2bxO8CrHSk/s3113/8399C4FA-F4D3-4B74-AC8A-1BB90CB85CDC.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2447" data-original-width="3113" height="504" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvosNuU9axjz8QM39bXdIrmqp9gnuWJTX8TO0duDNNEhKbKbHe-BnFUYOKKVrAQ5KvkTlMIbdQl7A6RslIMeHcFkpznqOOhOMyzSyYrcLmRVAATmmmkbp2BxdC4SmwL9lbM8YCrhBhFK_KTVP_9SpjHpjKk5u6Dqt36Aa_DilIoC0OP2doQ2bxO8CrHSk/w640-h504/8399C4FA-F4D3-4B74-AC8A-1BB90CB85CDC.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Time for my rant about Christmas cards. I really don’t enjoy writing the cards but every year I enclose a newsy message. Certainly not the self congratulatory bragging stuff, more a moan fest </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">with a few photos, I like to think it keeps people up to date. So I am pretty disappointed when I get cards back with just a signature. We’ve been receiving such cards from people we haven’t seen for more than 35 years and I wonder why they bother. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">And the ones that say we must meet up next year with no intention of offering an invitation to do so really hack me off. More positively my missive often prompts a long overdue phone call and a few return letters which I greatly appreciate. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I made the effort to attend a Christmas lunch which reminded me that I don’t like them at all. The food wasn’t great, the service slow and understaffed. Crackers and paper hats, a quiz, a visit from Santa and 30 over excited people. I am 75 not 7 and a half.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Obviously I am not feeling festive at all but Christmas day will be lovely, a walk followed by a steam session, drinking too early in the day, nice food that is easy to prepare and parcels to open. Reaching that stage gets more challenging every year and MrFF has yet to have his rant about packing the unwieldy parcels into the car, and bringing back those we receive. It’s one of the family traditions </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">that make Christmas, apparently.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I hope you are calm and having a wonderful Christmas time, end of message.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p>Jennyffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08133651986287619972noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8080816235590144089.post-69116246284504594272023-11-30T15:26:00.001+01:002023-11-30T15:26:13.984+01:00Winter begins <p><span style="font-family: verdana;">We woke this morning to a covering of snow, winter seems to have arrived early this year. Not my favourite season but it was such a bright white morning that I decided to embrace it.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw8i_tllsdI5xiIwGZ2WMxsNGVYwVb1K0FJ_ViJEjpIVJ0fgwOiLiPZeDlDU-_QO7BJZbnF_9admnQQoYaVdHtUSRRpYor2DvSs6_mZoMDfdT6gOLDODk0ty_Ilhk9Flm5v38R_QKPuX2f2UA98ssQjW_td-gYKnyP024DvtM41sf2rnDRRsmZEt0N9HQ/s3264/9A809737-B46C-4E22-9374-0CD45B0800B3.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw8i_tllsdI5xiIwGZ2WMxsNGVYwVb1K0FJ_ViJEjpIVJ0fgwOiLiPZeDlDU-_QO7BJZbnF_9admnQQoYaVdHtUSRRpYor2DvSs6_mZoMDfdT6gOLDODk0ty_Ilhk9Flm5v38R_QKPuX2f2UA98ssQjW_td-gYKnyP024DvtM41sf2rnDRRsmZEt0N9HQ/w640-h480/9A809737-B46C-4E22-9374-0CD45B0800B3.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The first snow of winter definitely required porridge for breakfast particularly as we had some cream in the fridge and maple syrup in the cupboard. Usually I have my porridge plain </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">or with a little fruit so this was a treat that set me up for the day.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDghm_eUfhrknDU0VYHFyviJuii9Ht6bZY35_Lg26gKM0aaMWt5EZDyOoMCwIGFn7MzLVRPr8KSisk08IhHVmmvvFy91jOsK78fGGUWrcYlOM46xiO6vtBYZd2EBKIZqAbx0HT_7Lyio92Upm5EtWcx659UFsmAbexWUm5MYD56QYvhc1raZDwJ0MKaxI/s3264/ED36F73C-5A6C-40AA-8DE1-F1837EB0487B.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDghm_eUfhrknDU0VYHFyviJuii9Ht6bZY35_Lg26gKM0aaMWt5EZDyOoMCwIGFn7MzLVRPr8KSisk08IhHVmmvvFy91jOsK78fGGUWrcYlOM46xiO6vtBYZd2EBKIZqAbx0HT_7Lyio92Upm5EtWcx659UFsmAbexWUm5MYD56QYvhc1raZDwJ0MKaxI/w640-h480/ED36F73C-5A6C-40AA-8DE1-F1837EB0487B.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I am currently considering wandering down to join the massive queue at the post office with an overseas parcel but there is plenty to keep me indoors. I continue knitting away at the Estuary scarf, less than 100 rows to go, whilst also making fingerless gloves which require much less concentration.</span><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS_wtVw9579q7bqBfE0E9Gnzh0k58JO7o02wbu-0P5uSb_uJXJ21q28RX8-TAnz990LrVEKT1xfhVLi8pgVelfs_3Q7JvrgJsodljp410yaXgNRJLmDibAb9clUQ840gF2TJL6hfa7WibdhN5MI-fI8fDNpHevFifo-q9rRLRJAo3Uc-cS7RzaS6JWS6k/s3264/21C7A805-72D1-4FB7-89EE-A75A9B5D653E.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS_wtVw9579q7bqBfE0E9Gnzh0k58JO7o02wbu-0P5uSb_uJXJ21q28RX8-TAnz990LrVEKT1xfhVLi8pgVelfs_3Q7JvrgJsodljp410yaXgNRJLmDibAb9clUQ840gF2TJL6hfa7WibdhN5MI-fI8fDNpHevFifo-q9rRLRJAo3Uc-cS7RzaS6JWS6k/w640-h480/21C7A805-72D1-4FB7-89EE-A75A9B5D653E.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Was it last year I said that if I started in the new year </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">knitting one of these tiny sock decorations each week I would have 50 for Christmas. Recently I decided that if I knit one a day in December I could have 24, it’s not yet December and I have 7, that’s possible enough I don’t want to exhaust this out of character seasonal enthusiasm.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb-Q2bTBT2eNzw_1NRXjiVS4_KmLjtEZeNl9xlQnrxsnkRCnCCCrL7QCcTnRlJS3FYvL0E6rduTxoLn2b-q58LMOhzk6Ob9XLLI6qrIBNucd3p4nZaHe5_owY1fGQWZks09VvhClhvAKbdRJhTfcueS8lCdty97qh_ILKQNSEPpqPV22PRRQFkjc335SA/s3264/6345F101-17AB-47E8-B0DB-152CA2DC2391.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb-Q2bTBT2eNzw_1NRXjiVS4_KmLjtEZeNl9xlQnrxsnkRCnCCCrL7QCcTnRlJS3FYvL0E6rduTxoLn2b-q58LMOhzk6Ob9XLLI6qrIBNucd3p4nZaHe5_owY1fGQWZks09VvhClhvAKbdRJhTfcueS8lCdty97qh_ILKQNSEPpqPV22PRRQFkjc335SA/w640-h480/6345F101-17AB-47E8-B0DB-152CA2DC2391.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p>Jennyffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08133651986287619972noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8080816235590144089.post-19720625860359911482023-11-25T12:32:00.001+01:002023-11-25T12:32:35.234+01:00Count down to Christmas <p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Returning from Italy mid November to find the shops full of Christmas is always a shock and a wake up call too. Our town Christmas light switch on takes place this afternoon, cue frantic shoppers made crazy by all the Christmas music and restaurants full of office parties.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">So I thought I’d better make an effort. I’ve thought about our Christmas meal, I’ve thought about buying presents and I’ve thought we could maybe have a larger tree this year. As if that isn’t enough I have also made our Christmas cake, safely wrapped and tucked away. </span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYBmCiK64yXnzaeG2-RDIWAOt0WQlWVhYsXy1VWkK03bmd0Uy3VhXGCehyzdQ4YDSmyGdXVAmZ_Ood4CrqvCoBX4sRpRVIPGXJwPMCI95oAs0-GWxE8v8O0L-PYPfzlHXnNuZUrZ82xeJYmubk1TLY-zFtc-6z6vwrDxRLFzeEcmxajuQ7jU4JhFeWEuI/s3264/D6CBE77A-F75F-4CBA-9DE6-D042CAEE4AF0.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYBmCiK64yXnzaeG2-RDIWAOt0WQlWVhYsXy1VWkK03bmd0Uy3VhXGCehyzdQ4YDSmyGdXVAmZ_Ood4CrqvCoBX4sRpRVIPGXJwPMCI95oAs0-GWxE8v8O0L-PYPfzlHXnNuZUrZ82xeJYmubk1TLY-zFtc-6z6vwrDxRLFzeEcmxajuQ7jU4JhFeWEuI/w640-h480/D6CBE77A-F75F-4CBA-9DE6-D042CAEE4AF0.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;">I think there quite enough for now. Oh yes and I’ve started eating mince pies.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p>Jennyffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08133651986287619972noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8080816235590144089.post-36131748082504664692023-11-21T20:33:00.000+01:002023-11-21T20:33:43.100+01:00Our break in Bergamo<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Planning our recent journey home from Lazio we booked a couple of nights in the small city of Bergamo not so far from Milan. It was not the relaxed tourist trip we’d imagined as my eye was so troublesome but it really is a beautiful place and well worth a visit.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">We spent a sunny Saturday wandering up to the Citta Alta the higher walled city which was quite busy. Lovely old buildings, a maze of narrow streets and beautiful views.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the afternoon we walked back down to the lower city hoping to get lunch at a restaurant MrFF had spotted. Sadly, because it was beautifully located in </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">old building with charming staff, they were fully booked. However we found a sandwich place with an even higher rating than the restaurant and equally nice staff, we were well fed.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The lower town is also charming, more beautiful buildings, big squares, fountains everything you’d expect including elegantly dressed people. There was an array of individual little shops, a flea market and a street of upmarket names. I did mention that looking in the Max Mara store was taking away some of my pain, I’m sure buying a beautiful coat would have made me feel even better.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">It’s a pity I had to spend most of the day with my head down because the sun hurt my eye. MrFF took the photographs which hopefully reflect what a nice place Bergamo is.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQWq9KiZhbyHnUmfoo5Dmq13SjwCjQHX0BUPmCcwUkOoxhEkz08OeEk8qF2ESnHJt4JhWD_Csue1B-5YJ7FGKvKp9Uiyv2lqiePZH3SpyGcgjqwgm0LmY3qzQzqVrcXoRSM_Rto9nwfFoFsNuhaQlRFdPFBIPASf5QLEEFWcqzrYLQqxIR_7JdcSyRadQ/s2048/F49EF1B5-06EE-4E6F-9D22-CA9C4A112D09.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQWq9KiZhbyHnUmfoo5Dmq13SjwCjQHX0BUPmCcwUkOoxhEkz08OeEk8qF2ESnHJt4JhWD_Csue1B-5YJ7FGKvKp9Uiyv2lqiePZH3SpyGcgjqwgm0LmY3qzQzqVrcXoRSM_Rto9nwfFoFsNuhaQlRFdPFBIPASf5QLEEFWcqzrYLQqxIR_7JdcSyRadQ/w480-h640/F49EF1B5-06EE-4E6F-9D22-CA9C4A112D09.jpeg" width="480" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoogH55yeb7pOh0-HLMDAo2TtJAvFAYzTWZxQKjZ3Enej3rIgRWnP0WjgeWaqhaeU2MykoJjWfgZBg1kiv_pJRH8Zda8XEkRWR006Eulf7U-dlE0lilcklSaTx3T2tgJKd8fwLOknUiCCcFy9ULgzislpRaeO4e_9iufN_wyH9LQThoyu2d1C2oG-B0cY/s2048/37B4A57F-FF2E-449D-A645-E148D77F8353.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoogH55yeb7pOh0-HLMDAo2TtJAvFAYzTWZxQKjZ3Enej3rIgRWnP0WjgeWaqhaeU2MykoJjWfgZBg1kiv_pJRH8Zda8XEkRWR006Eulf7U-dlE0lilcklSaTx3T2tgJKd8fwLOknUiCCcFy9ULgzislpRaeO4e_9iufN_wyH9LQThoyu2d1C2oG-B0cY/w640-h480/37B4A57F-FF2E-449D-A645-E148D77F8353.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZwnVhNlxtsbnDchEyoWfl5lLfLu62t8CXxiuP6aXXHjEAJRc8Kg0Lb4bZFYJyOLqc8iwJ887GNLd6sBL9gJu1Ciosueq79ecZbipuCQ24ntipnnxC38cIx5Er9AHuDg0ubo3WJeB-omu3pBG2QFUfiq8PGiZacqNZg1EbwzhmOQuWkGviVCqOXl7iDMY/s2048/4EAF7DC5-3613-47D0-8558-00840134B7BC.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZwnVhNlxtsbnDchEyoWfl5lLfLu62t8CXxiuP6aXXHjEAJRc8Kg0Lb4bZFYJyOLqc8iwJ887GNLd6sBL9gJu1Ciosueq79ecZbipuCQ24ntipnnxC38cIx5Er9AHuDg0ubo3WJeB-omu3pBG2QFUfiq8PGiZacqNZg1EbwzhmOQuWkGviVCqOXl7iDMY/w640-h480/4EAF7DC5-3613-47D0-8558-00840134B7BC.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" dir="rtl" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrPcwUWdtyIRr8QtkLCj4zHGXDy2Yz0WF_8z0VhM4VJ8s_4PnbyVU2rPQcjEbFxmAuBEX-GzA2rZT0KQK7cdsY3Z0iUFcy9qlmdemXoA03fMQ-TXPj8ZP8d3pWYtZNGeHMXWdjijpDYWZU8rppFw18d6TRslWS9jXCsQO3DNZ4Z7NOgjYVeP0zCXycBvQ/s2048/81EA5B15-4B0B-4B0B-9EE4-CE7D0F5825B1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrPcwUWdtyIRr8QtkLCj4zHGXDy2Yz0WF_8z0VhM4VJ8s_4PnbyVU2rPQcjEbFxmAuBEX-GzA2rZT0KQK7cdsY3Z0iUFcy9qlmdemXoA03fMQ-TXPj8ZP8d3pWYtZNGeHMXWdjijpDYWZU8rppFw18d6TRslWS9jXCsQO3DNZ4Z7NOgjYVeP0zCXycBvQ/w640-h480/81EA5B15-4B0B-4B0B-9EE4-CE7D0F5825B1.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWJ7CUAsKrJM7BveQlnuYN1ksRdNxlqfLAYL1UPnb3_0fIt-X6qWpgCClJebzIqqPBbKksSn26wUp_52gPlOK5oS3FDbv0Qjp6F9_oFN_8LQCea8IDzsoOnGQIAL1Jdz567jW9PRUjPYZWC_FRfFdAy5S8Kh-oCP_vIgYZTgMeHPbz5YFuK0L09GUbg0g/s2048/B3236974-6D1B-4B31-9EA4-F0E4BE21FC28.jpeg" style="font-family: verdana; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWJ7CUAsKrJM7BveQlnuYN1ksRdNxlqfLAYL1UPnb3_0fIt-X6qWpgCClJebzIqqPBbKksSn26wUp_52gPlOK5oS3FDbv0Qjp6F9_oFN_8LQCea8IDzsoOnGQIAL1Jdz567jW9PRUjPYZWC_FRfFdAy5S8Kh-oCP_vIgYZTgMeHPbz5YFuK0L09GUbg0g/w480-h640/B3236974-6D1B-4B31-9EA4-F0E4BE21FC28.jpeg" width="480" /></a></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7EMM7SFkgDh1oIaW5wN0bkxoBkQB5qLBCMp5uLRW-eszBE6jRklyJxjdwNLhHN_Wj9X83hTAmgKpo9NPx4Ruyu56WQyC7BerOEw0CeQg7xDuVzXVwT8_o5pvYSHSkpzFFHSPTIL2yW8a0KC9IaTRV_7yfrEg5Oql4w9tgC1xFjA_FST7Z8y4iQF8pnqI/s2048/383FC4CB-9EB6-4F18-A61E-1FE163EB0B49.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7EMM7SFkgDh1oIaW5wN0bkxoBkQB5qLBCMp5uLRW-eszBE6jRklyJxjdwNLhHN_Wj9X83hTAmgKpo9NPx4Ruyu56WQyC7BerOEw0CeQg7xDuVzXVwT8_o5pvYSHSkpzFFHSPTIL2yW8a0KC9IaTRV_7yfrEg5Oql4w9tgC1xFjA_FST7Z8y4iQF8pnqI/w640-h480/383FC4CB-9EB6-4F18-A61E-1FE163EB0B49.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_Gxk3sBF4OrkRwC9F7PFMHPZZpfkr_pDZh96np5ZCMSwN4-UDkfQ6sr8Y5fJieOxPLUJOzAGZSBllJYPsqGPJJYTTMTDimTlvHCQTS73Ggwipp9wmwAidhjXpsrTcdvSk_En06nGzUvrybV-KDVuzFbJF3AnxiC0UWbnYW56OKpLLJ56uT_JtEvd39DI/s2048/CC43243F-FFBC-4141-B5CF-CDD80C952468.jpeg" style="font-family: verdana; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_Gxk3sBF4OrkRwC9F7PFMHPZZpfkr_pDZh96np5ZCMSwN4-UDkfQ6sr8Y5fJieOxPLUJOzAGZSBllJYPsqGPJJYTTMTDimTlvHCQTS73Ggwipp9wmwAidhjXpsrTcdvSk_En06nGzUvrybV-KDVuzFbJF3AnxiC0UWbnYW56OKpLLJ56uT_JtEvd39DI/w640-h480/CC43243F-FFBC-4141-B5CF-CDD80C952468.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p>Jennyffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08133651986287619972noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8080816235590144089.post-77962021010716652852023-11-16T13:48:00.000+01:002023-11-16T13:48:00.470+01:00My eye<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">We are back in ilkley after an eventful journey home. Last,Thursday, the </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">day before we left MrFF lit the bonfire in the orchard to burn all our pruning. We sat out in the balcony for breakfast and my right eye started to feel sore, it became more and more painful and watery. I tried washing it but that was too stingy.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Next morning with no improvement as we headed to the autostrada we stopped at the pharmacy and the chemist sold me cream which turned out to be anti biotic and steroid. I had to use it 3 times a day, it blurred my vision and made my eye sensitive to the light which according to the instructions was to be expected. So the journey wasn’t pleasant.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">We had booked to break the journey with </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">two nights in Bergamo so we could be tourists. Bergamo is a beautiful little city with a walled medieval centre, I’ll post about it later. Sadly I spent most of my time with my head down avoiding the sun wearing my comfy top and baggy trousers amidst the beautifully dressed Bergamaschi.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In France I emailed my optician asking for an examination </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">as soon as i got back. They weren’t registered to deal with minor eye conditions but recommended Boots or Specsavers. Back home I phoned Specsavers early morning, they did a full triage over the phone and gave me an appointment for 2 o clock. I had extensive tests and a full examination after which the optician said I needed to go immediately to eye emergency at Bradford hospital as I had a deep abrasion on my eye. Then I felt sick, they made me sweet tea and reassured me. However the optician was unable to get me an emergency appointment, she tried 5 times, got through to the department, heard a recorded message then the line went dead.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">So she said I’d have to pitch up and wait, she gave me a referral letter with various reports on my eye and asked me to let her know how I got on.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">At the hospital the eye department said I couldn’t be see without an appointment, I politely explained the phone line was cutting out so it was impossible to make one and she said she’d get the triage nurse. I was offered an appointment for the next day.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Yesterday we went back to Bradford. Despite the appointment system there was a permanent notice to say it could take 2 hours or more to see the doctor and it did. I could ask why the system isn’t made more efficient if they know it doesn’t work. Eventually I was called in and given a through examination, the doctor said there was a foreign body embedded in my eye which he would remove with small tweezers. Actually they were about twice the size of my eyebrow tweezers, I put on </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">a brave face and wished I could close my eyes. The item removed was tiny, just a spec that could have been a piece of eyelash, a tiny seed from the garden or something blown up from the bonfire. I was given anti biotic cream to use 4 times a day for a week but it’s much kinder than the Italian stuff and it’s clear so it doesn’t blind me for very long. The doctor said I’d feel sore as the anaesthetic wore off but should be better in a couple of days and start to heal. This morning I feel fine, no pain at all and greatly relieved.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I am so grateful for the swift medical care and kindness I’ve received and overjoyed to be back in the UK. Hopefully soon I can read my book again, I manage the iPad fine, I can knit and I’m in Ilkley. </span></p>Jennyffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08133651986287619972noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8080816235590144089.post-77084446610246510112023-11-07T18:21:00.002+01:002023-11-07T22:22:26.912+01:00More trouble<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Before we left ilkley many weeks ago Mario contacted us as he had signed for two registered letters sent to us by the Comune. Briefly the 4 pages said there was a planning violation at our house, the original owner and a date of 1985 were mentioned and more importantly a fine totalling over 3,300 euros and various documents were required to regularise things. It said we had 60 days to respond though later we were told it was really 90, whichever time is </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">almost up.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Obviously the letter didn’t state what exactly the violation was, our minds ran riot, was it the terrace we made in the lower garden, surely we didn’t need permission for that, </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">what if all of </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">the house was built without permission. Eventually we discovered it was the recently restored balcony and the room below it that were added not long after the house was built.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I’ll try to précis the activities that have occupied most of our time over the last couple of months. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">We wrote 4 times to the Comune trying to clarify things, finally asking for a meeting, there was no response at all. We tried to arrange a meeting on line, the booking programme didn’t work. Finally MrFF went to the Comune to be told that although the letter came from them, was signed by Stephano who we know and gave the email address at the Comune that we’d used, they were not dealing with the matter. It was another organisation mentioned in the small print to whom we then sent everything the Comune had already received. No reply to date.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">We appointed the Italian lawyer in Scotland who we used to buy the house. She has basically told us everything we already know and nothing more, we had hoped she’d on be on the phone to Italy all guns blazing particularly as she charges £300 per hour. This week she wrote to say because she is in Scotland she cannot help us after all </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">and suggested we find a local lawyer, we are wondering if we will get a bill for her non assistance so far.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">We tried to appoint the local geometra who worked for the two previous vendors to provide all the plans and </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">technical certificates requested to accompany the fine. MrFF could easily produce these himself but his engineering qualifications are not recognised here. We have so far waited six weeks for a price for this work, the fees could double the fine we have to pay, it’s beyond a joke.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">From our own research we’ve discovered the original owner did apply to regularise the extension in 1985, </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">he paid the comune </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">about 1,000 euros but for some reason left around 750 euros outstanding. This sum plus about 40 years interest and admin fees gives the 3,300 now due.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I am furious. The Comune have known since 1985 they this situation existed, the property has been sold twice since, 3 times if you count when our vendor bought out his estranged wife. Each time 2 geometras one for each party and a notary have been paid to check the deeds and documents are in order, yet we are the ones who end up with the fine. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">We’ve contacted </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">our vendor, he said the original owner sorted everything years ago but research shows that days before we bought documents were submitted to the Comune about the extension by our vendor, it seems no money was paid.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The galling thing is that the extension is shown on the documents at the tax office. We pay tax relative to the size of our property, we pay tax on the illegal extension. How can they recognise and benefit from illegal works and sit back letting the fine mount up.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">It’s a complete mess, professionals</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> are at fault but it will cost more than we owe to untangle this, besides why would we employ more of them having been so let down. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">We are leaving at the weekend and after almost two months of trying to make progress we are no further forward. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Here is the offending structure, maybe it will have been demolished by the Comune before we return though on past results that will take another 40 years to organise and we will be long gone</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB1dKTj2k5NLJBXkV9pBkN9GhPVALO9zamZX66n5jGlLdQXliLje0zWRD7VGgfSuQfykNuTc8dUdQM07b2YGYn7qpBXq7yyKzdvIS3CJEX9ioc5XVKnGN1HOyVRfrh1ujro75ZJyMjGvwBDY_X1DCQ2HEAMZ91ir3-nr8_PQEqF9WLEvGyqf6-pPUAxWA/s3264/B3A1A0A6-94C1-457A-943B-C7D9A620913D.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB1dKTj2k5NLJBXkV9pBkN9GhPVALO9zamZX66n5jGlLdQXliLje0zWRD7VGgfSuQfykNuTc8dUdQM07b2YGYn7qpBXq7yyKzdvIS3CJEX9ioc5XVKnGN1HOyVRfrh1ujro75ZJyMjGvwBDY_X1DCQ2HEAMZ91ir3-nr8_PQEqF9WLEvGyqf6-pPUAxWA/w640-h480/B3A1A0A6-94C1-457A-943B-C7D9A620913D.jpeg" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p>Jennyffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08133651986287619972noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8080816235590144089.post-77580862413532689522023-10-31T10:29:00.003+01:002023-10-31T19:30:49.926+01:00Trouble at Mill once more<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Saturday morning MrFF opened the bedroom shutters and announced we would start our olive harvest. Quick cup of Yorkshire tea with a bowl of muesli and we were picking by 8.30 am. We stopped mid morning for cappuccini and croissant then worked on till 6.30 pm, we had more than 80 kilos with 10 more trees still to pick so that was great. Sunday we had the same early start with rather less enthusiasm as we were quite tired from the previous days efforts.</span><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ00HyVx4nGO8rS9hyRIaUTtxQZ7bOKEWBvsbNJEm_zP82gHxTKTVgpEvVde7toNE6Pi3QvFh8Dln-MSdgrb99VTyDH5uRv3vE9-qbe07oGg3FykZcj_tfVl3RyTENxzlPebRPdoHPJDEF8minqAIM9Ya0gPGqfsvqHvKMCM1WJNAsiJBVmtMxf5M_0Tk/s3264/37732716-FCEB-462A-8BEE-BDBD5E010F73.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ00HyVx4nGO8rS9hyRIaUTtxQZ7bOKEWBvsbNJEm_zP82gHxTKTVgpEvVde7toNE6Pi3QvFh8Dln-MSdgrb99VTyDH5uRv3vE9-qbe07oGg3FykZcj_tfVl3RyTENxzlPebRPdoHPJDEF8minqAIM9Ya0gPGqfsvqHvKMCM1WJNAsiJBVmtMxf5M_0Tk/w640-h480/37732716-FCEB-462A-8BEE-BDBD5E010F73.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">We finished early afternoon, tidied up, had some lunch then MrFF packed the crates of olives into the car and went off to the mill. Unfortunately so did many others and he was queued for a good two hours before he could unload. He phoned to let me know he was waiting then started shouting and sounding the car horn as an Italian with a trailer full of olives had jumped the queue when MrFF was slow to move. Then I heard an Italian voice and suggested he phone me back when he’d sorted the situation. He got his place back, it was fine. Tranquillo.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjetfiCw6yWnNUvUy7tKgmVmXRE9hX0J2A_OmNVAmiyknXsgQYJHHi6_gGpefoGt0FF4o7q0axmVVM5FQ3HSORjG4mdB1uIgeupH5j_Ancpt4of_F2Kjh_1Eo6JUHx2M2qfMsqYqNyLfoRfxQwLyZI3MPJay171VP3d9_r3N_jQaO-zVsC1afku5j-73uA/s3022/B900D1BF-B63A-4953-B5F6-72A82526B907.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2926" data-original-width="3022" height="620" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjetfiCw6yWnNUvUy7tKgmVmXRE9hX0J2A_OmNVAmiyknXsgQYJHHi6_gGpefoGt0FF4o7q0axmVVM5FQ3HSORjG4mdB1uIgeupH5j_Ancpt4of_F2Kjh_1Eo6JUHx2M2qfMsqYqNyLfoRfxQwLyZI3MPJay171VP3d9_r3N_jQaO-zVsC1afku5j-73uA/w640-h620/B900D1BF-B63A-4953-B5F6-72A82526B907.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">He weighed in 119 kilos of olives, not </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">a bad result and the mill would phone us when the oil was ready.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Late Monday afternoon we got the call collect our oil at 7.30 pm. We were there on time and waited </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">until 8.50. We received 15.3 litres of oil which we were told by other customers was very good quality, it was clean without the foamy scum and dark green. But last year we picked around 80 kg and received 15 litres, it doesn’t make sense to produce so much more and receive the same amount of oil. Even the taste of our delicious new oil didn’t take away our disappointment and confusion. </span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_a0o_JnXEaWOYmOvgVrReR3cuqEMqo9DQlO7fep7PxRdJK1jwK14W7Fib5oKyr3M4onMVXAI8mNBPiaqLf8-s1GHGplFhXXHSERV46fGL1DnFgiquC6GUxvKGW89DR2zhLsiNArpi_OKE55Llyks5j5eSabveqhtVEfm2Xe2XEDfrfwCSctY0ePOrxEk/s2750/0307EB6F-E733-4767-9B9D-C7A826955E71.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2307" data-original-width="2750" height="536" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_a0o_JnXEaWOYmOvgVrReR3cuqEMqo9DQlO7fep7PxRdJK1jwK14W7Fib5oKyr3M4onMVXAI8mNBPiaqLf8-s1GHGplFhXXHSERV46fGL1DnFgiquC6GUxvKGW89DR2zhLsiNArpi_OKE55Llyks5j5eSabveqhtVEfm2Xe2XEDfrfwCSctY0ePOrxEk/w640-h536/0307EB6F-E733-4767-9B9D-C7A826955E71.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Of course 15 litres of oil is more than enough for our needs, if we had more we’d give it away or use it for cooking as it got older, it doesn’t matter that we don’t have more. But we had expectations that we’d done well, we’d worked hard and spent a lot of hours waiting at mill. Tomorrow it’s my birthday and I’ll be 75, I could say I’m getting too old for this oil business but our lovely 92 year old neighbour Giovanni is here picking so I guess I have no excuse but to keep on and since he’s working on his own and has 200 trees, we have 30, we will probably offer his some help if he doesn’t think we might jinx his harvest too.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div></div>Jennyffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08133651986287619972noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8080816235590144089.post-24149619747585245792023-10-18T16:34:00.000+01:002023-10-18T16:34:03.154+01:00My kind of autumn<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Until a few days ago temperatures were still in the mid 20s and skies were blue. Then we had a much needed day of rain. Now we are in the mid teens, it’s still lovely sunny flip flop weather but a short sleeved t shirt is required rather than a strapy vest. I’ve worked a lot in the garden, I am happy with how it looks after being neglected all summer.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj56_8jitoG92Vtorv0MNOjDHs1W6JZwfJd6fgPWJKuSVvUCqvDRNredFD4qOFxwWBnpMstjGEkc8bn0S83bPESsOzioWS-WtR37pqlcIDJLcNK18vPq3D21_NcC4oknJSPDX_mKIABXWKVbMMThBs_lU5yOJ1DMsePxlKG-D4vIKh8smXqB_mOo4JKbAk/s3264/7C212F99-D17E-4DB7-9B8E-94117BF48631.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj56_8jitoG92Vtorv0MNOjDHs1W6JZwfJd6fgPWJKuSVvUCqvDRNredFD4qOFxwWBnpMstjGEkc8bn0S83bPESsOzioWS-WtR37pqlcIDJLcNK18vPq3D21_NcC4oknJSPDX_mKIABXWKVbMMThBs_lU5yOJ1DMsePxlKG-D4vIKh8smXqB_mOo4JKbAk/w640-h480/7C212F99-D17E-4DB7-9B8E-94117BF48631.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWH_quhvScHiVKue1GfQ1IoWwoumCUOpZeoJuuT0CNff0l_xla8XK0i9VX8UuKjLeSgRydaNGD6jmODzjZr_zQYpENE5G9UXDtYN9KMFvwLpDNJqDdztI_TItY5RfIMhWVXv1Z0wOhN8i3ngktuyacUlQWCck3GGu920uDJk5AmezrA5qBirTcOJm2i4Q/s3264/1273EBB4-2FB1-49F0-87DC-CA02494F12AF.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWH_quhvScHiVKue1GfQ1IoWwoumCUOpZeoJuuT0CNff0l_xla8XK0i9VX8UuKjLeSgRydaNGD6jmODzjZr_zQYpENE5G9UXDtYN9KMFvwLpDNJqDdztI_TItY5RfIMhWVXv1Z0wOhN8i3ngktuyacUlQWCck3GGu920uDJk5AmezrA5qBirTcOJm2i4Q/w640-h480/1273EBB4-2FB1-49F0-87DC-CA02494F12AF.jpeg" width="640" /></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfB8LwIRynWbK0-IG8Rz0docQ7ZgfKM1tKQ_4vCiHUgBW7lnciXl41zfAhfRymRWml5tZFyd8Hahzq3Md4tIJ6-SLhv-K-aBxAkkEapt6eH9xAHoZnyi8G24yM4YJaRdMdoFga1ZBxE_TFsLoqf7OgafFsyZ708QQwMQBn8cYuKH4wTA767GyaiMtpu2s/s3264/AAA871C1-FF89-4869-BA8C-C54F2916C30C.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfB8LwIRynWbK0-IG8Rz0docQ7ZgfKM1tKQ_4vCiHUgBW7lnciXl41zfAhfRymRWml5tZFyd8Hahzq3Md4tIJ6-SLhv-K-aBxAkkEapt6eH9xAHoZnyi8G24yM4YJaRdMdoFga1ZBxE_TFsLoqf7OgafFsyZ708QQwMQBn8cYuKH4wTA767GyaiMtpu2s/w640-h480/AAA871C1-FF89-4869-BA8C-C54F2916C30C.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">It’s almost olive time, mills in the valley have opened for business but so far we haven’t heard any pickers around us. As the fruit turns black it becomes much more apparent what sort of crop we have, I’d say not great but not too bad this year, time will tell.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfYn_sSenpz2VkOY4BrCehMP21f-goH5v1BgyzoxjzYOOfUPSeKkRsL3dyoxNhg0CLnkBOCsZApfaOh4UP4df9ee3CUQFcGPaE68TLZIiYTvXjijM4hKv6hufE4bCNZ8sjxxY1CNU0rsrNv-_pIGYb2DviMtdKI7RqP_4kTOlS9OAuOOctvzSZ9WsVJvQ/s3264/24966B80-C4F6-43A3-A542-5620C09548D3.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfYn_sSenpz2VkOY4BrCehMP21f-goH5v1BgyzoxjzYOOfUPSeKkRsL3dyoxNhg0CLnkBOCsZApfaOh4UP4df9ee3CUQFcGPaE68TLZIiYTvXjijM4hKv6hufE4bCNZ8sjxxY1CNU0rsrNv-_pIGYb2DviMtdKI7RqP_4kTOlS9OAuOOctvzSZ9WsVJvQ/w640-h480/24966B80-C4F6-43A3-A542-5620C09548D3.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Happy days of calm,</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> filthy feet and knitting, yes I am going to wash them now.</span><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwRutyf0JIZfh4kbiN25LsYVnGSRkISPuZm63Wk8F1QRG3seffCibQAYZzx-6pwQcWGWyMl8_Wi8dNeJPJKIR2rP_D9IVZ5OaBgdUgypYeYUfQ4tQgajdQ2jFAAWQ4yDZwjk19iY7Y3UoUqRgmziLR5oZmxwXytH5sKoST0UNvYlLuIvCsnL_8MTQHp9o/s3024/8E67419C-F1F8-41B6-A665-7E513DA03128.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2023" data-original-width="3024" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwRutyf0JIZfh4kbiN25LsYVnGSRkISPuZm63Wk8F1QRG3seffCibQAYZzx-6pwQcWGWyMl8_Wi8dNeJPJKIR2rP_D9IVZ5OaBgdUgypYeYUfQ4tQgajdQ2jFAAWQ4yDZwjk19iY7Y3UoUqRgmziLR5oZmxwXytH5sKoST0UNvYlLuIvCsnL_8MTQHp9o/w640-h428/8E67419C-F1F8-41B6-A665-7E513DA03128.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p>Jennyffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08133651986287619972noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8080816235590144089.post-23799586710982300412023-10-08T12:00:00.002+01:002023-10-08T12:00:33.507+01:00An orange is the only fruit <p><span style="font-family: verdana;">When we bought this house 20 years ago the garden wasn’t great and of course I had no idea what plants there were. I’ve nurtured them all with compost from the heap we started, occasionally organic fertiliser and no chemicals at all. </span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJd8MlTVQL4yilWTfolFAG3qH6TCRXCHYdPFMqg8XOBtC_ZdzRKEBH5iyyK5c4sczadBAlOQdvwZyrXixBBNuT-movx9Ri8A5bmt6mNM6UrAWLCWX9rZn2Dcz7e3kPv2-ML3VuqyjlLQinZB7CbRm5JT4lPsxPzLkQArkOQLwjofGgC_ODRPAIoa6zjrs/s2378/F99B58EA-F323-4305-9D01-95D7C79520C4.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2378" data-original-width="2194" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJd8MlTVQL4yilWTfolFAG3qH6TCRXCHYdPFMqg8XOBtC_ZdzRKEBH5iyyK5c4sczadBAlOQdvwZyrXixBBNuT-movx9Ri8A5bmt6mNM6UrAWLCWX9rZn2Dcz7e3kPv2-ML3VuqyjlLQinZB7CbRm5JT4lPsxPzLkQArkOQLwjofGgC_ODRPAIoa6zjrs/w590-h640/F99B58EA-F323-4305-9D01-95D7C79520C4.jpeg" width="590" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In particular outside the kitchen door, in an area where I now grow herbs, there was a stick about 12” high with few leaves, I initially thought it might be a bay. Over the years as it improved I realised it was a citrus, I assumed a lemon. It grew tall, it’s now about 8 feet high, healthy if not well shaped and I’ve never seen it flower. I often empty the teapot onto its roots, Yorkshire tea must work wonders because when we returned this time I spotted a small fruit and it’s an orange. Makes we so happy even though I won’t be here to see it ripen.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdRPrbhxlA8gtf3K7zj2UJxzXZDp8KkjKeQTB04p6CzB4OLX2KBiieRRQmW2KPj2b56yFZMsL0dKirSeGrwkRH9sAjJb0ZSwNLFG9lSGyxiEXZLzpKTpSSzo_MRBSV9Ru9IEnUPU-OsNMqd4ueTXnPc0EQvxibKp6n8ELXWBjKdy8gGH14tBhwL0DB3ac/s3264/551555AC-0D79-4424-AA1D-C4F8FB7D5BC0.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdRPrbhxlA8gtf3K7zj2UJxzXZDp8KkjKeQTB04p6CzB4OLX2KBiieRRQmW2KPj2b56yFZMsL0dKirSeGrwkRH9sAjJb0ZSwNLFG9lSGyxiEXZLzpKTpSSzo_MRBSV9Ru9IEnUPU-OsNMqd4ueTXnPc0EQvxibKp6n8ELXWBjKdy8gGH14tBhwL0DB3ac/w640-h480/551555AC-0D79-4424-AA1D-C4F8FB7D5BC0.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Amazingly two courgette plants survived our summer absence and are flowering and cropping. We have our own (limited) fruit and veg once again.</span><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">My cat nurturing abilities however have failed, after 2 weeks there is still no sign of Enrico. Giovanni said the day before we arrived Enrico was at his house, I wish he’d come home. <br /></span><p></p><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div></div></div>Jennyffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08133651986287619972noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8080816235590144089.post-6792024423911508322023-10-03T10:19:00.001+01:002023-10-03T10:19:30.946+01:00An uphill race that was all down hill<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWfAKsWxSjmcgs-wynbPmcYLi_Eat-HvQxUyMVJr4lvpZF4DeWnmvt278KMHn3K7gG6g13MbWNVvCq_M9U9LQT6iGsS0mgXLfiKe6QXheKYJngibnV3VHGE-Xlu1hO4Q3-NdTABn0o5hMlE7qhCmsnRrtXk9j2J-xfU4rGtsl98UHFOxW6zyNuv0OqMrI/s1600/3F2FD52F-7BC2-4FF0-903F-4148095B7D55.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1131" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWfAKsWxSjmcgs-wynbPmcYLi_Eat-HvQxUyMVJr4lvpZF4DeWnmvt278KMHn3K7gG6g13MbWNVvCq_M9U9LQT6iGsS0mgXLfiKe6QXheKYJngibnV3VHGE-Xlu1hO4Q3-NdTABn0o5hMlE7qhCmsnRrtXk9j2J-xfU4rGtsl98UHFOxW6zyNuv0OqMrI/w452-h640/3F2FD52F-7BC2-4FF0-903F-4148095B7D55.jpeg" width="452" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: verdana;">When I first saw this poster for a cycling time trial to the top of our mountain I was so excited thinking one of my favourite riders Vincenzo Nibali, an excellent climber, was going to be present. Closer examination clarified that the route of the race was one of his training routes. Since Vincenzo is Sicilian and also has a home in Lugano I imagine he hasn’t </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">climbed Monte Scalambra that often though his wife is from a village not so far from here, maybe he does wizz to the top when visiting the in laws, I’ll keep my eyes open.</span><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Here is the race profile for anyone who is as enthusiastic about these things as me</span> </div><div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmsWe8kz06lSAsMxhndF96DeLuPHjbSUtD8ma0zg1KhrjuY75EApSEIIp_MgRgBHIT0llo04tPlhw_xS8W6HxYM8f_foGsGv_e6OdE4NoixljA6MHRLLss8i6Prtgr0dBS9Q6uok0TpOBe9eP4hPcOM_PF4MESp7lKyYITm1ga7v4qriON7qUCBcg8xEI/s2400/0D96792C-C436-4BFC-BE12-44F732D7BF9E.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="2400" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmsWe8kz06lSAsMxhndF96DeLuPHjbSUtD8ma0zg1KhrjuY75EApSEIIp_MgRgBHIT0llo04tPlhw_xS8W6HxYM8f_foGsGv_e6OdE4NoixljA6MHRLLss8i6Prtgr0dBS9Q6uok0TpOBe9eP4hPcOM_PF4MESp7lKyYITm1ga7v4qriON7qUCBcg8xEI/s320/0D96792C-C436-4BFC-BE12-44F732D7BF9E.png" width="320" /></a></div><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-size: 16px;">Monte Scalambra from La Forma is a climb in the region </span><a href="https://climbfinder.com/en/climbs/en/regions/lazio" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4aa3df; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none;">Lazio</a><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(33, 37, 41); color: #212529; font-size: 16px;">. It is 11.2km long and bridges 893 vertical meters with an average gradient of 7.9%, resulting in a difficulty score of 795. The top of the ascent is located at 1374 meters above sea level</span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">We decided to support the event even without celebrities and Saturday afternoon wandered down to the village to be in place for the 2 pm start. Oddly there was no one else in the street, we chose a position where the road forked between the village centre and the climb out and up. After a while the first motorbike arrived, actually a scooter, with a red flag attached to the rear. The driver stopped to ask us which way to go. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The riders as in the major tours were set off at intervals, some with a scooter accompanying them some not. Most of them asked us for directions, clearly the A4 size direction posters </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">were not apparent or well located. We decided to take charge, MrFF who deserved a high viz jacket stood blocking the route into the village centre and pointing the right way while I provided the applause with shouts of bravo and allez allez allez. The riders were so appreciative, I didn’t want them to waste their breath shouting grazie but they did.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The roads weren’t closed for the race, it was worrying when an elderly couple drove up and started manoeuvring their car into a parking space outside the minimarket, again MrFF took control. It was even more worrying when the race director, he had an A4 sheet of paper stuck in the back window of his car confirming who he was and was wearing a suitably sporty t shirt. We assumed he knew the route, it was a choice of two and he was supposedly the man in charge. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">First he tried to drive into the village centre then came back to ask us the way. I felt real despair. He decided to park outside the minimarket then to reverse out again just as a rider was passing, I think he understood our shouts of stop and I hope he realised from our scowls that we thought he was useless.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Another spectator arrived, increasing the crowd by 50% but only to tell us all the riders had passed, so that was it. I am sure the guys got a good ride out but really it was a disgrace of the usual standard. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">There was very little reporting, just a few badly taken photographs on the village Facebook page, mostly of local dignitaries and the village beauty queen. I have no idea who won or in what time, I expect because of the staggered start the man with the watch is having difficulty with the calculations. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">It was all so very Italian.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p></div>Jennyffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08133651986287619972noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8080816235590144089.post-55769930841213763732023-09-28T22:00:00.001+01:002023-09-30T09:53:53.612+01:00The journey <p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Now that the house is dorrised and everything unpacked though not necessarily into the right location, I thought I’d tell you a little about our journey from Yorkshire to Lazio.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">We left at 4.30 on Saturday morning and had a fast smooth journey to Dover. We were fortunate to be allowed onto an earlier ferry, the port was surprisingly busy. We boarded and queued for coffee and pastries, of mediocre quality. There was an inaudible announcement and we didn’t depart as expected. After about 15 minutes delay we noticed armed French police walking round, about half a dozen of them with automatic weapons their fingers on the triggers. This went on for a while before we finally set sail, I hoped they had stayed on board in case there was an incident. When we disembarked three of the police we’re waiting as we drove off the ferry, goodness knows what they were looking for or maybe it was just an exercise but it didn’t make for a relaxing crossing.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">However we were still earlier arriving in Calais than we’d expected and not under such pressure to get to our first over night in the champagne region. We stopped in one of the nice picnic areas for a snack and arrived at the little town where we had a booking around 6. And we were of course staying in an old folks home, I kid you not. MrFF had found accommodation in a complex of apartments for the independent elderly that also lets some of them for visitors or holiday makers. It was amazing. I’ll show you below but we got a very spacious one bedroom apartment with a well equipped kitchen, balcony, there was also a small pool, sauna, outside space with great landscaping and nice furniture, secure parking, a restaurant and a bar (that closed at 8 pm), even bathrobes and slippers which we didn’t use both to save the environment but also because we paid only about £75. The staff and the residents we met were all friendly and helpful, the old folks as we called them forgetting that we may be older, we’re elegant and sprightly, we really enjoyed our stay.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaOKOkNxVY60SigmmagRXTkLteVESCUOPgz7IqePxu7kLNJbjjbsfyP4tjrg1x_y2UrY903230aJBAyywYYqlIwl0c9m2UILBWUuwtUmdM-XF_IXQDRA6K0brHnx5-TaLlIkpolxbwdi5mBJn6xtKBiZ5SaxV1wXvBy7m7_UMd_jnVGp-BXqB_uTaVF7U/s3264/1D135CEE-427E-417F-BA8F-86F7B5801ADE.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaOKOkNxVY60SigmmagRXTkLteVESCUOPgz7IqePxu7kLNJbjjbsfyP4tjrg1x_y2UrY903230aJBAyywYYqlIwl0c9m2UILBWUuwtUmdM-XF_IXQDRA6K0brHnx5-TaLlIkpolxbwdi5mBJn6xtKBiZ5SaxV1wXvBy7m7_UMd_jnVGp-BXqB_uTaVF7U/w640-h480/1D135CEE-427E-417F-BA8F-86F7B5801ADE.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6vJg9ptJDqMLL8znyL2wmt7Tmz6ikC1kocpRRCpGx4bPG_dWVTFEzM-RRnVTXPjLvxVrkg_efClGGpRB2e_ZiLf1S_kT67UL6bNAckFPVQRLreNc_8nsXYOOVUteV4Z9WrUDHtEXMOCeVJRSrOLbIfkWszFo8bqXNLAdgqnkuWLrhbkN7FRVAqG4-DV4/s3264/3F3BE7F2-9E68-471F-9185-4CD4E3E685A2.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6vJg9ptJDqMLL8znyL2wmt7Tmz6ikC1kocpRRCpGx4bPG_dWVTFEzM-RRnVTXPjLvxVrkg_efClGGpRB2e_ZiLf1S_kT67UL6bNAckFPVQRLreNc_8nsXYOOVUteV4Z9WrUDHtEXMOCeVJRSrOLbIfkWszFo8bqXNLAdgqnkuWLrhbkN7FRVAqG4-DV4/w640-h480/3F3BE7F2-9E68-471F-9185-4CD4E3E685A2.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgji-9wW4FXNiIRWojTpiJQ3vAJyqfgGQ1GuMeHEjc16yYlsRWgimLV_FxDQ9YD0XvrPb0nL-jwtM2GpGil5Rsm2jmfCXcwYUETbIvJVvy6k5Usu4fT5TYvhUx3pj0_BVRYbqkSp00sfpwdT_DZKWW2P-MM_9XadTP7fHE58TscDHjOk2EP3el6Lpc1ueU/s3264/BECDB116-9F32-4E89-994C-D2C032840B39.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgji-9wW4FXNiIRWojTpiJQ3vAJyqfgGQ1GuMeHEjc16yYlsRWgimLV_FxDQ9YD0XvrPb0nL-jwtM2GpGil5Rsm2jmfCXcwYUETbIvJVvy6k5Usu4fT5TYvhUx3pj0_BVRYbqkSp00sfpwdT_DZKWW2P-MM_9XadTP7fHE58TscDHjOk2EP3el6Lpc1ueU/w640-h480/BECDB116-9F32-4E89-994C-D2C032840B39.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheaeipcmAlmnzWl9CbhLK3TVf0JLBEPXb7-e7N9NUH-na2t3zdLoEVWa3KW-FoGzcy8Bif0mjoTshN2C9FS24p1ql0KJxQO878bPe4Tt9BTWkdFTGbPhuDQ9-GRhAAmOKeoYTJUoV0m0io4Z-I8-T1V0JMWtCSkXfw21iDg_1RWCwDsPbT_ZB3WKlEhD0/s3264/E98DA2A4-5A59-48B7-9162-4970576E208E.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheaeipcmAlmnzWl9CbhLK3TVf0JLBEPXb7-e7N9NUH-na2t3zdLoEVWa3KW-FoGzcy8Bif0mjoTshN2C9FS24p1ql0KJxQO878bPe4Tt9BTWkdFTGbPhuDQ9-GRhAAmOKeoYTJUoV0m0io4Z-I8-T1V0JMWtCSkXfw21iDg_1RWCwDsPbT_ZB3WKlEhD0/w640-h480/E98DA2A4-5A59-48B7-9162-4970576E208E.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhABgoxNSbqbb60fp89ZbrXks401AY8gdkfLBbTbHPfbw2115ySMHTb4k05qbZ6_GGoQ6g_V4jaS93C1I94CihpQecrgVpBGXcCdn3t-AWj5F_9KkVxUYNMmoIcNJgNggtIvYVGWOHv2_P4H_FXWY2Vn6hYApU1OIiin5rojgJ0QaX4syXJGQy2JdAuJVA/s3264/E60838CE-EA28-4548-A8E0-A0D83148D590.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhABgoxNSbqbb60fp89ZbrXks401AY8gdkfLBbTbHPfbw2115ySMHTb4k05qbZ6_GGoQ6g_V4jaS93C1I94CihpQecrgVpBGXcCdn3t-AWj5F_9KkVxUYNMmoIcNJgNggtIvYVGWOHv2_P4H_FXWY2Vn6hYApU1OIiin5rojgJ0QaX4syXJGQy2JdAuJVA/w640-h480/E60838CE-EA28-4548-A8E0-A0D83148D590.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;">We slept well and set off on our second days travel, this time to the nice hotel in Aosta where we have already stayed twice this year. We passed into Italy at the top of the San Bernard pass and coasted down to our hotel. We had a different room, this time with both a mountain view and a balcony, we slept with the curtains open admiring the lights across the valley.</span><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu5ZLLoOKQbyg4PEHaw7RNoGQSU81VAjKO2NxWuxkAE5z9eIxeyF2i_1CF54Y-N6eFqeqEqYHhFjVe3FYTYSU-vDzqFWAR1Kfzlspv2_vySzqnYoycELvLyq_ishN3Y-M32RnOWoKGZLXbuI8DjrXQkCpbrlQPpXPsdeAWvh_sJvksNDsfzEOMYWwFPmk/s3264/018A890C-0024-477D-BE0C-BD33B12AFBEE.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu5ZLLoOKQbyg4PEHaw7RNoGQSU81VAjKO2NxWuxkAE5z9eIxeyF2i_1CF54Y-N6eFqeqEqYHhFjVe3FYTYSU-vDzqFWAR1Kfzlspv2_vySzqnYoycELvLyq_ishN3Y-M32RnOWoKGZLXbuI8DjrXQkCpbrlQPpXPsdeAWvh_sJvksNDsfzEOMYWwFPmk/w640-h480/018A890C-0024-477D-BE0C-BD33B12AFBEE.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;">The third day of our journey is always the worst, I dread it. We join the autostrada almost immediately and stay on it all day. Traffic is always heavy and often manic, we got held up around Genoa queueing in tunnels which I hate and stopping at busy and expensive services though fortunately we still had some picnic food that kept us going. When we came to the exit and pay station our ticket collected at the start of the day wouldn’t work, we and the cars behind us all had to reverse from the booth so that we could find help. We paid almost 73 euros for our day on the autostrada, collected a few essentials and arrived at our house around 7 pm. Grigio was here waiting on the terrace, delighted to see us as we were to see her. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The house was as ever full of dust and dead insects, I ignored all that and cooked us some quick pasta after a brief tour of the garden, which wasn’t as bad as I expected given it hadn’t been watered during one of the hottest summers for years.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">It takes a few days to recover from such a long drive, we both seem to suffer from a type of motion sickness where we feel we are still moving when we are not. It </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">takes a few days to get the house and garden back in order, to remember where things are and to feel at home. The weather has been lovely and we’ve made time to sit and rest. We </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">have Grigio and are waiting for Enrico, we have hope as it took him a week to appear last time which is a bit rude when we have made such an effort to get back to him.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p>Jennyffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08133651986287619972noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8080816235590144089.post-21399875704356564542023-09-26T12:32:00.000+01:002023-09-26T12:32:18.418+01:00No words necessary<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY9Prwi4MmsqSyCXGrFc6Gla-MS5wM3aEDy8ET5J2ywSNjd5VpshEvc-MRdGQvkr-T49bDuUCSMQetZ0FdNW38LEpUXykFHj3irWAbGy-1ew0wqrR0f5yVRRat9cPDBten6gHtAcwEgsw9uX0AqphiuvKQNJykVIRIq8XiKdp5PkVWDwLjzFDPjA5XE-U/s2048/76A222DC-418F-44A5-AF18-85973A9D46FE.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY9Prwi4MmsqSyCXGrFc6Gla-MS5wM3aEDy8ET5J2ywSNjd5VpshEvc-MRdGQvkr-T49bDuUCSMQetZ0FdNW38LEpUXykFHj3irWAbGy-1ew0wqrR0f5yVRRat9cPDBten6gHtAcwEgsw9uX0AqphiuvKQNJykVIRIq8XiKdp5PkVWDwLjzFDPjA5XE-U/w640-h480/76A222DC-418F-44A5-AF18-85973A9D46FE.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Jennyffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08133651986287619972noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8080816235590144089.post-59982211945176229142023-09-25T08:07:00.003+01:002023-09-25T08:07:41.431+01:00Now almost there <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWbzedDr5oScnz46Gl5fKRXU6D72x1y6tlaVNdEf042P9-iFqtUNJ6K2O_Ym24MoEU11VlJS-8LqzHrH1lW7WgDZ82lciuqtoP59RwQB_W9BbM1jGmPrlUqmVp2dxS9P8qLwez5r8BjgVUNv-2EbVFGmnPbHbHxUfcOaJMUh7i2v3_m91M_R3Rq1MkQW8/s2048/1BC81584-25CB-43FC-BFCC-C321A38082E4.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWbzedDr5oScnz46Gl5fKRXU6D72x1y6tlaVNdEf042P9-iFqtUNJ6K2O_Ym24MoEU11VlJS-8LqzHrH1lW7WgDZ82lciuqtoP59RwQB_W9BbM1jGmPrlUqmVp2dxS9P8qLwez5r8BjgVUNv-2EbVFGmnPbHbHxUfcOaJMUh7i2v3_m91M_R3Rq1MkQW8/w480-h640/1BC81584-25CB-43FC-BFCC-C321A38082E4.jpeg" width="480" /></a></div><br />We are in Italy, tonight we should be at our house, phew. Photo is at the top of the San Bernard pass, MrFF cannot seem to stop driving over it.<p></p>Jennyffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08133651986287619972noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8080816235590144089.post-63245788655521560532023-09-21T11:09:00.000+01:002023-09-21T11:09:20.552+01:00 Neither here nor there <p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I didn’t realise I hadn’t blogged for a couple of weeks, no excuse. We’ve had a few visitors at the penthouse but otherwise our Yorkshire life has continued as usual. However that is due to change, we plan to leave for Italy at the weekend, ferry and overnights are booked, it’s definite.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">So I am at the in between stage, half packed, mentally planning what I need to take whilst trying to continue normal life and feeling restless. We’ve moved house a lot, at least half a dozen times, I mean actually given up one house for another not just decamping between two homes in different countries. Every time I have tried to keep life as normal as possible as long as possible, not wanting to dismantle our home too early and to enjoy every final minute. This strategy isn’t the best, it means a lot of final frantic packing but does avoid every room being filled with boxes for weeks, a half empty home with everything but the essentials gone. Of course last time we moved from Scotland back to Yorkshire the removal van had left long before MrFF started packing his office so I didn’t feel too bad about my own procrastination.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I suppose in my heart I would happily stay here. I know we are going back to Italy to deal with another water leak, a battle with the Comune about a planning violation that took place in the 1980s and which they have been aware of for more than 40 years, all the usual stress. The weather is still pleasant there but summer is over and dark nights are coming. However there are two cats we miss terribly, Grigio and Enrico are fine, we’ve had updates and photos from Giovanni who they have visited regularly. I really look forward to seeing them but leaving them again for winter will be as awful as ever.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I need to pull myself together, I could move balcony furniture and plants to safer sheltered places, but it all looks so lovely, maybe just one more day of this.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi40QebPg5vhpBP5n39T02t0XZYVI5jF4fjjFJxMCCBLBh76tic4qsjdvwOwcmwpq3yfTz-euvq10inbuESEprEncRs8iE4wRrpe4FgPw0bDKPzoxuOR5Zf97dy14eVqqVMySCnsXUhHhz78wOGXCby5XeNrtuXP7JrO_ni6jLJeS9YH45EEOQb3gGMwzs/s3264/9268CCEA-E8E3-4879-9645-2138C452B067.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi40QebPg5vhpBP5n39T02t0XZYVI5jF4fjjFJxMCCBLBh76tic4qsjdvwOwcmwpq3yfTz-euvq10inbuESEprEncRs8iE4wRrpe4FgPw0bDKPzoxuOR5Zf97dy14eVqqVMySCnsXUhHhz78wOGXCby5XeNrtuXP7JrO_ni6jLJeS9YH45EEOQb3gGMwzs/w640-h480/9268CCEA-E8E3-4879-9645-2138C452B067.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p><p><br /></p>Jennyffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08133651986287619972noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8080816235590144089.post-80213281552348862242023-09-08T09:44:00.004+01:002023-09-08T10:25:14.453+01:00To be expected<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">We might have known that during the best week of weather this year our management company would decide to erect scaffold next to our balcony to allow the roofers to repair a leaking chimney stack we reported two years ago. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqbB9lzjfaOSTjAeqZP51eBD9z1xuE84rqVI53tzvmAEq3vVQwgj5SVRPcSRJJeh66oikoB-4u9bAcvNETQlSsBc801FoTZ8yhS7n2BFFjYsmgZQ62QYD2uUNWCBTGNFGU6W1l75WU8hl3IS4CKzpPd8CxtO54WyeHgkG7UWCWDgeD2VBEPg2WB9ji_NI/s2048/9E7C9288-2C00-43E4-8644-E890B7A14CE1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqbB9lzjfaOSTjAeqZP51eBD9z1xuE84rqVI53tzvmAEq3vVQwgj5SVRPcSRJJeh66oikoB-4u9bAcvNETQlSsBc801FoTZ8yhS7n2BFFjYsmgZQ62QYD2uUNWCBTGNFGU6W1l75WU8hl3IS4CKzpPd8CxtO54WyeHgkG7UWCWDgeD2VBEPg2WB9ji_NI/w480-h640/9E7C9288-2C00-43E4-8644-E890B7A14CE1.jpeg" width="480" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br />So sitting out is limited, the lads are nice enough, friendly and chatty, but I am sure they have no desire to gaze on a 74 year old in shorts and vest and I have no wish for them to do so. Besides there is dust and debris falling on the balcony, I’d be slathered in factor 50 and very gritty.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="text-align: left;">No worries, we have in the afternoons decamped to our communal lake garden which is calm and </span><span style="text-align: left;">leafy, even if the benches and chairs are rather hard. There is pleasant background sound from the running water and sometimes ducks. It’s hot, mid 20s, but never that ferocious energy sapping what we get in Italy, it’s perfect.</span></span></div><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGt78LcBYEM26ZfjZi3cxVzGT8mqe_XcmjYyV__YsprtyASWyrCmoO1XeV940g3KqrUbdv6g35gIKM-BK_k-Ps6mbB-a4o8RElmO122jMhqYjbRWP1SC4Cn-_4-1mBdw9u4AR0YAVmkipgrZUzjnAiLA0InYDP9qVTy4SYC8w_Yk72sadcxXHIwHhNti4/s1600/033F84EE-38CC-40B7-85FD-7C563C03100C.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGt78LcBYEM26ZfjZi3cxVzGT8mqe_XcmjYyV__YsprtyASWyrCmoO1XeV940g3KqrUbdv6g35gIKM-BK_k-Ps6mbB-a4o8RElmO122jMhqYjbRWP1SC4Cn-_4-1mBdw9u4AR0YAVmkipgrZUzjnAiLA0InYDP9qVTy4SYC8w_Yk72sadcxXHIwHhNti4/w640-h480/033F84EE-38CC-40B7-85FD-7C563C03100C.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">A couple of times MrFF has walked down to the lido, less than £3 for the afternoon with all the facilities including a cafe. The water is 21 degrees, he manages that and we both manage this </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">temporary disruption.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTe_SOUPHHk8jC1CplCmAM5Axg6CiJMrQItrLIdv5unoUSOhs5cuyxYf-hahhdjFdD9YbNlfgtutcChbEUXn7jh-6p1wuhXs4aGmsH166gq93-u0qTq0E_iT6dqmwB94E2Jct7Hx28KukThrbL-yxuGVZZHCR3JcT1Mor6nFE628TTTqkHOmBjDI5vA6Q/s275/F485F38A-F250-4102-80DD-A1A6A7400C92.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="275" data-original-width="183" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTe_SOUPHHk8jC1CplCmAM5Axg6CiJMrQItrLIdv5unoUSOhs5cuyxYf-hahhdjFdD9YbNlfgtutcChbEUXn7jh-6p1wuhXs4aGmsH166gq93-u0qTq0E_iT6dqmwB94E2Jct7Hx28KukThrbL-yxuGVZZHCR3JcT1Mor6nFE628TTTqkHOmBjDI5vA6Q/w426-h640/F485F38A-F250-4102-80DD-A1A6A7400C92.jpeg" width="426" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p>Jennyffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08133651986287619972noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8080816235590144089.post-38003790336135613552023-09-02T19:52:00.001+01:002023-09-02T21:25:05.376+01:00Separate Saturdays <p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Regularly on Saturday MrFF takes off for one of his group walks, sometimes starting in Ilkley which is convenient, sometimes from a location that he can access by public transport, both our bus and train station are less then 10 minutes walk away. Today the walk started at Gargrave on the very edge of the Yorkshire Dales which required him to drive.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The alarm went off at 6.40, he brought me a cup of tea, breakfasted alone and left at 7.40. A lesser woman might have gone back to sleep but I was up, into my walking gear and completed 6 miles with 2 good climbs before coming home for a shower and breakfast. A bit of dorissing including washing the kitchen floor and I moved onto the sunny balcony. </span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikF_WwhO-Yk4m2JIU4scfJZbwhTe-bH5ei-nWEBKuberD-bgExI7OR4CxLSeWNhlf812itRgtzUEiLD7004IWtRAh6WSAzM93VheWu9uaTKlbxlKk4Ss77oSMG3iv6fDyU6HeBRfhAElgOauIDoy7SHuiwYs2g-VH9sotH9sZaUO6hR0z2nVd7bQl9Z30/s3264/EC9C7964-5AB6-4660-8FEB-DB4B47F9DC9C.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikF_WwhO-Yk4m2JIU4scfJZbwhTe-bH5ei-nWEBKuberD-bgExI7OR4CxLSeWNhlf812itRgtzUEiLD7004IWtRAh6WSAzM93VheWu9uaTKlbxlKk4Ss77oSMG3iv6fDyU6HeBRfhAElgOauIDoy7SHuiwYs2g-VH9sotH9sZaUO6hR0z2nVd7bQl9Z30/w640-h480/EC9C7964-5AB6-4660-8FEB-DB4B47F9DC9C.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">It was lovely out there with all my happy things and 21 degrees. I came inside to watch the final kilometres of the Vuelta a España, and then sat out again till 6.30. After my morning exercise I’ve had a lovely relaxing day.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1yPQJVybteD9Lo1c9aNqk2CD5VJ9MHSSlUVTR6e-6E_xd2Zz3NQMyqDo7ZyJqUkBJ59-RqN2UG-7ZcN0WSawL_kWRA2BjFI1ZP10iGRPnNHlv4MYjyD55CQ0dN2IdCaTaJeClHKRe-cKEspETQ8DFIm4PoI1DsYERJxkEwfdcvj5J0l0N6fS8QL_ALpQ/s2048/9AF80284-6D91-4145-9976-CB339889A363.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1yPQJVybteD9Lo1c9aNqk2CD5VJ9MHSSlUVTR6e-6E_xd2Zz3NQMyqDo7ZyJqUkBJ59-RqN2UG-7ZcN0WSawL_kWRA2BjFI1ZP10iGRPnNHlv4MYjyD55CQ0dN2IdCaTaJeClHKRe-cKEspETQ8DFIm4PoI1DsYERJxkEwfdcvj5J0l0N6fS8QL_ALpQ/w640-h480/9AF80284-6D91-4145-9976-CB339889A363.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;">MrFF walked 23miles, he took this photo of some hardy folk in Janets Foss. Now he is in the shower, he’ll be sleep soon after dinner which means I won’t have to listening him moaning when I want to watch a double episode of Casualty. Saturdays work well for both of us.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p>Jennyffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08133651986287619972noreply@blogger.com5