A wet day in Lazio

Beautiful nonetheless

It’s not autumnal yet but high summer has passed.  We are still using the pool,  probably not for much longer.  The garden is happy, the irrigation is turned off.

Reduce Reuse Recycle

I despair when I see blatant examples of business ignoring the need to reduce waste while you and I do our best to make a difference.   

Mr FF received a parcel today that came to us in Italy from Berlin.  The item inside the box, itself in a box,  was small as you can see, the rest of the box was full of pieces of polystyrene.  The small box contained a replacement solar panel for our garden fountain.  Admittedly the panel is somewhat fragile but the intention of using solar power and sourcing just a new panel rather than a complete new fountain is cancelled by the excessive packaging,  I shall keep the polystyrene and use it in the bottom of a large plant pot to reduce the amount of compost I use and therefore the weight, probably for annuals that won’t have deep roots.  The supplier obviously doesn’t care what happens to the polystyrene.

Mr FF is an living example of the 3 Rs, these are his working shorts, previously his working jeans, previously his smart jeans. You can’t say he doesn’t get value, the tattered hat was a gift, it was unworn when he received it.

Mass on the mountain

Last Sunday we made our way to the top of our mountain, 1420 metres above sea level, to join the celebrations beneath the statue of the queen of peace.

We were able to drive almost to the summit, the man who directed us to the car park seemed to know us and said we could either walk the final stretch on the road or take the shorter mountain path.  No guesses which one Mr FF selected, it was rough, steep and unclear but my main concern was that we would suddenly emerge from the woods behind the altar amongst the 7 officiating priests, we didn’t.

After the mass there were talks, presentations and finally around 7 pm we were lead by the local band to the statue where rose buds were laid and prayers said with the most beautiful background of a setting sun and distant mountains.

If you say it loud enough

We took part yesterday in a village church event,  I’ll post more details soon.  As on similar occasions we’ve attended it seemed acceptable to wander in and out of the venue, let your phone ring and to chat quietly during proceedings so it wasn’t too surprising when a young boy,  about 10, tapped Mr FF on the shoulder and asked if we were English.  He seemed delighted that we were and confirmed this to the friend who appeared beside him.
They obviously wanted to practice what they knew, starting off with hello, they proceeded to do you like pasta, a few things we didn’t understand and they told us their names, all with huge smiles on their handsome little faces.  I asked them if they knew the children of some of our friends, yes they did and asked me how to say best, they were best friends.  The conversation turned to them asking me how to say various things until they had me stuck at supercalafragelisticexpialidocious.  It’s the same I said, e lo stresso, we say supercalafragelisticexpialidocious too.  Yes they said, but how do you say it in English.

Stone Age Man

Now the terrace is finished Mr FF is constructing a new path in our orchard.  The ground there slopes and it’s always difficult for me getting to the veggie department in my flip flops so a flat path will be great.  It’s also a good way of getting rid of the remaining rubble, currently in bags, from when we renewed the front garden paths, we waste nothing.

The little stone retaining wall is sweet and much in keeping with the large wall.  Mr FF is becoming quite skilled at this type of work, who knows he may have missed out on a brilliant career as a bricklayer.

Then it rained

Be careful what you wish for,  I was longing for some rain to wash us clean, sweep away the dust and give the garden a good water.  Instead we had a couple of days with terrific electrical storms, high winds and hailstones the size of grapes.  The latter gave everything a good bashing, took the leaves and flowers off my plants, brought down a lot of olives and filled the pool with debris.  There has been a lot of sweeping up and cutting back.  It’s disappointing that plants I’d been nurturing and were just about to flower were cut down but I’m confident they will eventually recover and I’ve collected a lot of the broken pieces to try to root them.

Strangely the storm seems to have cleared away the migraine that and been bothering me for several days, I must be more sensitive than I imagined.  It is a bit cooler now but not much and no mosquitoes seem to have been harmed in the storm, pity.
Here are the hailstones that collected on our sunshades before we got them down and a little video of the event.

Garden

Me and the garden have been a bit frazzled of late, the heat has continued and it’s been impossible to work outside without being attacked by mosquitoes.  Collecting the copious crop of tomatoes is painful, I rather fancy one of those full cover bee keepers outfits to protect me.
One of my current favourite plants is a white datura I grew from seed.  Strangely it flowers overnight, opening up at the end of the day and throwing out a heady perfume that attracts a frenzy of bees before the sun goes down.  The flowers which almost glow in the dark last for only 24 hours but there are always more.  All parts of the plant are poisonous possibly why it has the the name devils trumpets.  Here it is together with a few other garden glimpses.