Done

As ever my minimal Christmas preparation has been hurried and stressful, switching from relaxed Italian mode to full on UK festive season is always hard, its quite shocking to return late November to see the excess of consumerism already underway.  Equally my ambitious knitting schedule is never achieved, mostly socks and none of the pretty scarves I planned, but I did manage a couple of little jumpers for newly born Harry,  His Dad is a keen cricket player and fan so the cream one is for match days.

As ever Mr FF took some persuading to put up the lights, he bought some new ones this year and despite the pack saying there was about a metre of light, there were miles and miles.  I had to point out that though they looked lovely reflecting off the marble work tops this just wasn't practical, they are now strung prettily round the dining area of the kitchen which we have renamed Santa's grotto.

My brother and sister in law kindly did the present exchange earlier last week, which was a great help and lovely to see them here.  Val brought me a couple of fresh greenery arrangements so my hall is suitably decked and my brother stocked us up with veg from his garden.  

We are looking forward to a quiet time, we already have the top floor of our building to ourselves, with enough of what we need.  I hope you have a wonderful time and your Christmas wishes all come true.  

My usual seasonal rant

I'm doing my best with to deal with Christmas.  Last week Mr FF and I helped to put up the large tree and decorations in our communal hallway, bit early if you ask me but really they needed to be done before our in house Christmas lunch.  I attended the latter and stayed the course till around 10 pm.  
I've written the cards, wrapped the overseas packages.  It's not going too badly.  After 6 months in Italy I have lots of socks in the gift department even though I haven't made the various scarves and gloves I imagined I would.  

Mr FF has been busy attending his walking groups lunches, coming home wearing irritating paper hats.  What is it with crackers, we had them at the in house lunch and when I helped to tidy later I found a large selection of stupid plastic items left on the tables plus all the paper debris, I'm pleased to say not many hats were worn.  Such a waste of money, I imagine said crackers had been shipped from China to end up in landfill.   

Much nicer that one of our resident ladies had made table decorations mostly  sourced from our communal garden which we were allowed to bring home, a week later mine looks good.

Its cold outside, 1 degree, but not too snowy here, hope you are coping and cosy.  I may venture out later if there aren't too many Christmas tunes in the shops.

The best of times the worst of times

So another Italian summer sojourn is over and it's been fantastic with the best ever weather, we rarely ate breakfast indoors even in November. We made huge progress with the garden, all the front terraces and paths repaved, discovered the delights of having our own plunge pool, rediscovered our little kitties and cherished the time we have spent with them. 

It was the worst ever time because of the wildfires, scary that the inferno came so close and sad to see so many beautiful old trees lost. The only up side of the fire was that when we were evacuated I realised that no materials goods were that important, I was even ready to abandon the car when we couldn't get down the road for fire vehicles. 
The worst of times for visitors, we only had one night when anyone stayed with us which may speak of my hospitality. We hardly left the house, no overnights on the coast, we didn't go to the coast, no trip to Rome, not so many meals out but plenty of festas and I've loved the peace and quiet, I've been content. 
I did have a longing for a new yellow handbag for the summer but that didn't happen, as usual I bought far too many pairs of cotton trousers, culottes and shorts on the market, at 3 euro a pair I cannot resist them, but I did finally manage to wear out a few t shirts to create some wardrobe space. 
In July I got the best haircut ever at my regular salon, in September I asked for exactly the same and got such a bonkers cut I could hardly believe it. Giancarlo explained that the two cuts were exactly the same (not) but that the first was elegant while the second was powerful, something must have been lost in translation because I didn't see it that way but in November he gave me an extremely short, and chilly, cut that I love, we remain friends.
I read 24 books, knit 12 pairs of socks, lost some weight, it all felt so very very relaxing and comfortable, just like this

Can't stop

We are leaving in two days though nothing whatsoever is booked as we are being flexible. Piero is still here building the garden wall, he lost several days due to rain but the sun is back now. Mr FF has made a secure wooden house to accommodate the cat food dispenser, if those girls get much fatter they won't be able to squeeze in but happily they took to using it immediately, maybe they remember from last year. They also have two separate cosy outside sleeping options, we've done our best let's hope they stay around till we return. We are hanging on till the last minute to put away the garden furniture as we still manage breakfast outside but we've done most of the packing. Not looking forward to the long journey home while trying not to stress about it. I am looking forward to seeing family and friends after six months away and of course Ilkley and the penthouse. Mr FF has already got Jim lined up to rip out our ensuite bathroom in the new year, we need to select new tiles, fittings etc when we get so that can look forward to more disruption, I expected nothing less.

All is safely gathered in

I used to like the church harvest festival when I was young, the church decorated with fruit and veg, corn and straw, I liked the hymns and the way all the local farmers some of whom didn't attend church so often always found time to give thanks for another years crops. So I've been giving thanks myself that we managed a decent harvest here, 122.5 kilos of hand picked olives produced 24 litres of delicious oil. I would say delicious wouldn't I but truly because of our altitude and terrain oil from this part of Italy really is prized. Mr FF and I picked on our own over 3 days finishing yesterday which was my birthday. It wasn't great fun as Mr FF is always anxious to get the work done and I am always anxious that the olives are pristine so I spend ages picking out all the leaves, twigs and bits of bark while he complains I'm wasting my time. He doesn't complain though when we get a great yield, I maintain the debris adds to the weight but produces zero oil and all anyone cares about is your resa, a calculation relating to weight of olives to weight of oil with something to do with specific gravity thrown in. We used the local frantoio as they will do a run on small quantities, we delivered at 3 pm by 5 pm the oil was flowing, we barely had time for a coffee in our favourite bar which conveniently is opposite the mill. As ever we came home and made bruschetta, I think we shall do so again tonight, got to take advantage of the freshness of the oil. The bitter peppery taste is intense when the oil is new and the flavour lingers in your mouth afterwards. I'd decided before we started the harvest that I'd be content with 15 litres, we exceeded our expectations and that doesn't happen so often to a couple of 69 year olds.

Oil is well (sorry)

The harvest has started, our little road is covered in the nets used to collect the olives as they are combed off the trees and conversation is all about the oil. We took our regular early evening walk to the village recently and were chatting to a friend. He revealed to us the three Ss essential to produce the best oil. SOLE - sunshine, we have that in abundance and this year has been exceptional with daytime temperatures still in the mid 20s. SASSI - rocks, we live in the side of a mountain and since the wildfires the limestone outcrops are even more evident, our land is poor and stoney, apparently that's perfect. SILENCIO - silence, apart from birdsong, sometimes the mew of the buzzards soaring on the thermals above us and the chatter of people working in the fields, we are very quiet. So we have the ingredients for the best oil and though we mentioned that apparently the harvest in Puglia is good this year, our friend says their oil doesn't match the quality of ours. We haven't started picking yet but I'm as excited as ever about the harvest and interested to see what difference all this extra sunshine has made. We are waiting patiently and quietly, don't want to disturb our developing crop.

Enjoying the season

How unusual for me, Mrs FlipFlops, to be relishing the changing season which hasn't yet involved a change of footwear. It continues to be warm in the day, we still haven't lit the wood burner as the house is warm enough and we are still sleeping under a summer weight duvet. Most nights I look down the valley to see if there is smoke from any of the houses but there never is, strange as the Italians are now layering up their clothes and into socks and jackets while we still walk round in t shirts. We are hopeful of a small olive harvest and our neighbour says we can put ours with his if we are short of a mill run. Our kitties are becoming more independent, they sometimes go off for the day and don't return starving hungry, or even pleased to see us. Some nights they sleep outside, sometimes inside, sometimes they come upstairs and wake us in the middle of the night to be let out. Gentle days spent outside starting with breakfast in the terrace, of course always a project for Mr FF, quiet evenings with maybe a film and lots and lots of sleep, it's all so relaxing. We still open the shutters each morning to bright blue sky and sunshine, it certainly doesn't feel like summer is over and even though we've dismantled our plastic pool Mr FF is still using the outside solar shower. We ve been here five months, often it feels like five minutes and oddly I haven't felt at all homesick or had a longing for UK winter food. I still have a stock of Yorkshire tea, knitting wool and books, what more could I ask. We will return to the penthouse within a month but already I'm thinking about comkng back to Lazio next year and desperately hoping that Crema, Grigio and Theo will stay around, we are doing our best to make provision for them.