Quick update

Lets skip the usual excuses for lack of posts from Italy so that I can tell you how things are going. Slowly, exhaustingly, dustily. We hope to paint the second bedroom this week, return the fixtures and fittings to the room, clean the house and leave for Scotland early on Sunday morning. I'd rather hoped we would get to the stage of all those home make over programmes when the interesting accessories are sourced and added to dress the room, I shall be lucky if we get the wardrobe reassembled, next time maybe.
The olives are picked, 103 kilos that produced 22 litres of oil. I did most of the pickimg by hand, I'll tell you about that later.
Seems a long time since we were frazzled by the heat, eating gelato with Amelia or imagining we had so much time. We've been in Italy almost four months and it has been brilliant, we are constantly told now well we look and Mr FF is mantaining his much admired Italian haircut. Not looking forward to all the work still to do before we leave, all the packing, the goodbyes and back home the preparation for Christmas but I am lookimg forward to Joanne's wedding a few days after we return. As if to prepare us its raining today, the first cool wet day we've had but no doubt scraping the old carpet adhesive off the floor tiles will keep me warm (and filthy). La dolce vita contnues.

Buon Compleanno

Over the last few years I've had a few overseas birthdays, one in Palm Springs, my 60th in The Dordogne, but this my first birthday in Italy though my 63rd in total No presents and just a couple of cards but I am having a wonderful time, currently sitting out on the terrace under sunshine and blue skies, what could be better.

We returned to our house last Wednesday to find that as promised the second bedroom had been replastered, the electrical conduits installed and the room was very tidy if very dusty. Since them Mr FF and I have painted the room, the skirtings are being reinstalled and we should be putting the furniture back in there soon so that we can move in and start stripping put the main bedroom for the same treatment.

Despite all the work, upheaval and dust I am delighted to be back in Italy. The weather is lovely, gentle sunny days and cooler nights when we light the woodburner and cosy up. There is a real feeling of autumn, the colours are beautiful, all around us we here the chatter of people picking their olives and the little mill in the village is working constantly to produce another years supply of oil. I don't usually enjoy this change of season but there is a very positive feeling here, crops are harvested for a winter that won't last too long and its still warm enough for breakfast outside. What more could a birthday girl ask for.

I was knitting honest

Despite taking enough yarn to open a shop with me to Italy I did very little knitting, even during the three days of travelling I hardly picked up the double pins. So it is embarrassing to admit that during the 10 weeks we were away I produced only these, three pairs of socks, the top two in patterns I have used before the lower is new to me Hedgerow by Jane Cochran. This pattern was very pleasing, easy to memorise and I particularly like the way the rib continues down the heel. I'm putting the variation of colour in the photographs down to the fact one was taken in Italy one in Scotland.Since being home I've made another little wrap cardigan, this one to take back to Lazio for Giulia, new daughter of Angelo and Francesca. It's knitted in an Opal sock yarn white with flecks of colour.
Since I left the massive stock of yarn in our house in Italy along with my favourite KnitPro needles and as I'm only taking out one pair of socks when we fly back tomorrow there is a big incentive to make more for the drive home which may not be till the end of November. Who knows what the weather will be like then.

Happy Birthday Amelia

Amelia is two today, Happy Birthday darling girl. We loved having you with us in Italy, as much as you loved pasta, helping to keep the place tidy, more pasta with your great uncle, chilling out with Daddy, the media attention at our local bar, staying up late to eat pizza in the restaurant, cafe society, beach life, getting into the freezer to cool down and thank you so much for wearing your little flip flop dress for me.

Love those cupcakes

Liz of the above named blog had a giveaway recently that I read whilst in Italy and it really made me miss proper cakes. We have a well used teapot in the house with a regular supply of Yorkshire teabags and while we enjoy various pastries, croissants, little choux buns or panettone with our coffee a good cup of tea calls for a decent sponge with butter icing. I was fortunate enough to be selected in the draw and yesterday this lovely book and card arrived. Lots of deliciousness, I intend setting myself up with the right equipment, which is listed for each recipe, to take out to Italy with the book so that I never again have cupcake withdrawal.
Thank you Liz, this could be a life saver, we can probably stay even longer next time.

At last a few snaps

Obviously I have lots of photographs to show you but I wont bombard you with them all at once, for now here are three that I call the good the bad and the ugly, in that orderLiving the dream with varnish from Nails Inc. I don't remember the colour and I left the bottle in Italy
A wild fire that raged for a week on the hillside behind our house. Helicopters with water buckets and planes that scoop from the sea were a constant presence and did a brilliant job in a very tricky location
Our second bedroom, carpet up, several layers of wallpaper and one of paint being stripped, we didn't leave it like this honest.

We did have a set back when we returned to Scotland, found our wood burner was smoking badly when we tried to light it. I am already the colour of a kipper, for a day or so I smelt like one too. Yesterday we managed to clear a blockage in the flue accessed through the inside of the stove, getting filthy in the process but it fixed the problem. Home three days now, Mr FF almost has the boiler installed and I've done a little tidying in the garden, which has been overtaken by weeds over the last 10 weeks. I suppose its not possible to have a transient lifestyle and a beautiful garden but please don't make me choose just yet.

Its not over

Remember me, I'm the one who used to blog quite regularly and often about my dream of long trips to Italy. Well the dream came true, we've been here for almost 10 weeks, it has been wonderful but I have totally neglected my blog, probably because it is such a pain typing on the iPad and far to complex for me to load photographs.
Well I should be able to put that right soon as we fly home on Wednesday, we are leaving our car in Lazio and will return in a couple of weeks to do some decorating and drive it back. The weather is still exceptionally lovely, we both had a post lunch snooze on the terrace earlier. Mr FF is now upstairs knocking hell out of the soon to to be replastered -allegedly while we are in Scotland but I wont hold my breath-bedroom walls. He is cutting out channels for the conduit so the room can be rewired when we return, again allegedly.
Lots things have happened, our lovely week in Puglia, a completely unexpected tax bill that was supposed to be sorted today, we have heard nothing, an equally unexpected storm that destroyed our tv and our neighbour's computer before any plugs could be pulled, only 3 days that have had rain, maybe a but much pasta, a Judith Chalmers shade of tan, I won't go on.
So I'm trying to find warm clothes for the journey home, we left early August and didn't expect to stay so long. Of course as far as the locals are concerned the temperatures may still be in the 20s but summer is over, the beach bars and rows of sunbeds disappeared weeks ago, ice cream stocks are being run down and in some places gone completely and the dress code is fleeces, winter coats and scarves except for us because we still find it warm and we dont have any of those items here. These people need to go to Scotland with me, then they'd know what cold is I am not going to like it.