First days in italy

We arrived at our house on Friday evening after a fairly stress free journey. Even the dreaded day on the autostrada was calmer than normal as we had a whole stretch before Genoa that was cars only so very quiet.  MrFF found it necessary once again to drive over the St Bernard pass, if it’s open he’s on it.  At the top it was minus 1.5 degrees with snow drifting around in the air.

We avoided a 10k queue on the last few miles by diverting towards Tivoli. It cost us an extra half hour but we heard afterwards traffic was stopped for 3 hours.

We hadn’t been in the house 5 minutes when Giovanni phoned, he must have heard us calling the cats.   He said Grigio and Vincenzo were at his house and we’d be reunited the next morning which was a little disappointing but what’s another 12 hours when we hadn’t seen Grigio for 10 months.  The cats however had other ideas and within an hour they were at the terrace door.  Grigio was quite thin, I could feel her spine, and her fur was knotty and dull but she’s been eating well and been brushed regularly, the shine is coming back and we are so happy she is here. Vincenzo has grown a lot and looks really well, maybe he’s got into the habit of head butting Grigio out of the way to get to food, he’s currently under training to stop that.

The garden has been devastated by porcupine and badger, I have lost a lot of plants that had tuberous roots, dahlias, agapanthus, gladioli, even a large phormium I grew from seed had been uprooted and left to die.  I have at least 6 large empty pots and nothing is flowering in the ones that survived.  However, all the shrubs and trees seem ok, the olives look well  nd we are told the harvest will be good this year, time will tell.

The weather is good, usually warm sunny mornings and maybe some rain in the afternoon.  We’ve worked hard mostly outside, the front hedge is cut and I’ve done basic dusting and mopping inside.  I will get round to cleaning windows and the finer details soon as we have friends staying with us in about 10 days time after which I fear MrFF might start another project, watch this space.

Last days in Yorkshire

I am writing this in France where we are relaxing after the first stage of our epic drive back to Lazio.  We left ilkley late Monday afternoon, took the midnight ferry from Dover and after rest and refreshment stops en route arrived in the champagne region early Tuesday afternoon.  The driver took several sleep stops, MrFF can fall asleep to order, I can only sleep in a bed at night so I didn’t get any sleep for 36 hours and was a little tetchy when we stepped out for dinner last night.   I am rested now, we plan to take a walk as the sun is out after a wet start to the day.  Later we will have swim and a sauna, a quiet evening and back in the car tomorrow morning.  We are getting closer to those cats.

Before we left we had a delayed celebration for MrFF’s 76 birthday.  We took the little Dales minibus service that only seats 15 so you have to join the queue in good time, to Bolton Abbey,  see below.

From there we walked 10 miles of the Dales Way home, mostly following the river Wharfe. It was a sunny t shirt kind of day, we stopped in Addingham for a birthday lunch beside the river, here is the view from our terrace table, sorry about the glare from the glass balustrade.

MrFF offered the option of then taking the bus back to ilkley but I was happy to keep walking and we were home in time to watch a mountain stage of the Vuelta a Espana.   It was a glorious trip that made it even harder to leave Yorkshire but we did and tomorrow evening we should be in northern Italy for our final overnight in Aosta and at our house Friday evening.  Today we are enjoying the calm and the memory of our lovely walk a week ago.

Invincible Vincenzo

 

Giovanni sent us this photo taken one evening of the amazing Vincenzo, the cat who is afraid of nothing, certainly not a young fox.   Giovanni told us a while back that Vincenzo was king as he had tackled what translated as a ferret, now he says Vincenzo is a wolf.  We are so happy that the little cat who appeared in spring is spending his days with Giovanni and his family, they all seem very taken with him and I’m sure it’s reciprocal.  During school term Giovanni is on his own during the week, it’s only in the holidays the grandchildren are with him so I am sure he enjoys having a little cat companion.

Below is the most recent photo Giovanni has sent, he calls it family reunited. Bottom is Grigio, next Vincenzo and finally the cat we think is Vincenzo’s mother.

Grigio apparently comes and goes, Giovanni sees her every few days, she regularly calls by our house where she is caught on the camera and she also spends time with Anna who is resident for the summer at the bottom of our road.  Grigio just has to stay around another week or so as we plan to leave next week for Lazio.  Of course the downside is that we will only stay until early November, by which time the summer residents will have gone back to Rome, our cats will be alone and reliant on Mario regularly topping up their automatic feeder.  That needs consideration. For now we are grateful the cats are well fed and very excited to see them, what a reunion that will be.

Happy workers = happy customers

A shop in Waitrose, a smart UK supermarket chain,  always makes me happy, contrary to a shop in Lidl which is a regular and depressing experience when we are in Italy.

Yesterday driving home from a delicious and chatty lunch at friends we called at Waitrose early evening for a few essentials to take to Italy.  At the till we were served by the nicest gentleman who chatted about our purchases, which he thoroughly approved of and their destination in Lazio.  We then chatted about Waitrose, he said he worked there part time to fill in his retirement and loved it for 4 reasons.  He works with a great bunch of people, he loves the customers who come in and chat, he works in pleasant comfortable surroundings and sells lovely shiny things.  It was uplifting to listen to his positivity, he was a great advertisement for Waitrose, and I will give them feedback to this effect.  I imagine they look after their staff well as they are part of the John Lewis Group but I doubt the man was earning much above minimum wage.  Compared to all the workers currently demanding big pay rises, and some like train drivers still striking when they get them, he was a breath of fresh air.  

We have our own local supermarket Booths in Ilkley which is equally pleasant, staffed with nice people, lots of local products and within walking distance so I use that regularly.    We have to drive to Waitrose so generally call in if we are passing otherwise i’d be there every few days chatting to our new friend.  

Knit yourself happy

Interesting article in The Guardian confirming what I already knew, that crafting gives greater life satisfaction than having a job.  

Among other results the team found engaging in arts and crafts was associated with an increase in happiness on a par with ageing by 20 years (as Keyes notes, wellbeing goes up slightly with age), while the sense that life was worthwhile was more strongly associated with crafting than being in employment.  

I could have told them that, knitting isn’t 9 till 5, you are your own boss, creative, productive, no commuting, no performance reviews though we can be quite critical of our work, calming, I could go on.

So I have been working away at my wellbeing knitting up left over sock yarn.  The first pair worked well as I had almost enough of the multi coloured yarn that I supplemented with some blue.  The next pair I’ve started is more challenging. 

One sock is complete, it’s lovely but now I am wondering if I have enough of the same 3 yarns to make a match.  Not that it matters, there’s no one overseeing my work and no customer complaints number to call and hold on for a week listening to irritating music if you want to criticise my self expression.    

We’ve been away

We had a few days away last week staying with friends in North Yorkshire.  They live in an idyllic little village with a river running through the village green, a smart pub with restaurant and rooms, lovely old houses and pretty gardens, what more would you want. Well maybe better transport links and a small village shop but still.

En route we called briefly to see friends near York, we always like a visit there to see them, their pretty well stocked garden and their two adorable cats.

With our hosts for 3 nights we took walks round the village, sat out in their sunny garden, chatted a lot and relaxed. Together we visited Helmsley walled garden which was a delight and enjoyed a delicious lunch in the cafe, I can recommend it all.

We also found to time to visit friends we hadn’t seen for 35 years.  We received the warmest of welcomes and had a wonderful time, it was uplifting.

On our way home we called at my brother’s where happily both our nieces and 3 of our grand nieces were there to see us too.  We had lunch in the sunny garden and had fun with the little ones.

So lots of people seen, we really enjoyed our days away but as you will have gathered I took no photos at all.

Back in Ilkley we’ve had sunny days and some relaxation on the balcony when we are not glued to the Olympics.  The spare bedroom storage has rather slowed, the drawers are still to fit and we need to source handles and knobs.   MrFF has been busy with our broken boiler and we have had replacement parts fitted to 4 gas flues that run through our loft, our own and those of the 3 apartments below us. According to our lease the flues are our responsibility but MrFF discovered the leaks into our loft were a result of management’s lightning conductor installers drilling our flues for a fixing, which should never have happened.  It’s taken 3 years, during which time we have had to deal with the water ingress, to resolve this, up till the day before the contractors were due the negotiations continued, it was exhausting.  We are leaseholders with a share in the freehold, we are treated like anti social tenants but fortunately we have the strength to stand up for ourselves.

We haven’t had news of our Italian cats for a couple of weeks, we assume they are safe and well with Giovanni and enjoying the August holidays with his family.  We had a major badger invasion in our garden, the pots we thought we’d protected with high netting had been turned over and the contents taken out.  On the security camera at the back door we’ve seen black squirrels, a small fox and a badger eating the cat food Mario leaves in case Grigio comes down, it’s a wild life haven.  The garden looks very dry indeed, I am expecting fatalities when we return.

So another month or so we will return to Italy, I cannot wait to see the cats, maybe not so excited about the garden but being there will extend the flip flop days I am currently loving, I am such a lucky girl.

Whites and brights

My balcony troughs of white flowering plants are coming along nicely,  lots of buds to open and the campanula spreading out to cover the compost.

I am particularly taken with this delphinium which I think is Dark Bee.

I have always loved white flowers, they feel so calm and in the evenings take on a magical luminosity. All of which contrasts nicely with my love of bright clothing. I read somewhere that if you wear black you disappear so as I get older I don’t steer away from vivid colours.  This applies to my knitting too, I am currently using up oddments of sock yarn and enjoying sorting the various colours into some lively combinations, these are the current pair,  I have even brighter ones planned.

However sock knitting isn’t quite as calm as usual because I worry that I might not have enough yarn to make a matching pair or even finish a pair, which is silly.  I have plenty of leftover oddments and where did it say a pair have to match.