Quiet winter days (and disturbed nights)

The weather since the last post has mostly been good, albeit cold at night. The exceptions were the 7th January, which was decidedly unpleasant with driving rain and a chilly wind and yesterday which was grey and drizzly. Other than that the sun has been shining with pleasant daytime temperatures, but quite cold nights. Little frost for us though. So we cut quite a bit of wood on our land, spending cosy nights by the fire with the cats.

Talking about the cats… well, Dot the mother has had her operation last week and is now neutered. She was understandably a bit groggy for a few days, but seems to be recovering fine. However, Mickey, the little one, has now started to display all signs of being on heat herself. The poor wee thing couldn’t be more than 4 months old and already all Toms out of the village queue up outside our window and give nighttime concerts. Mickey herself has her hormones going wild too and she’s been keeping us awake for the last 3 nights. So we’re starting to feel a bit under the weather ourselves.

Susan has stared her teaching in Borghetto Vara this week. It’s only once a week, but it’s a start, because we desperately need to earn some money. Borghetto and it’s neighbour village Brugnato are two picturesque quiet villages in the valley of the river Vara, behind the Cinque Terre. The old centre of Brugnato is shaped like a key seen from the air. Yesterday (the drizzly day) we went to Aulla for a spot of shopping. Aulla is not a pretty town, having been destroyed during the war and not very sympathetically rebuilt, but it does have some hidden gems. We walked up to the castle yesterday. The path leads through a woodland with a botanic garden. From close up the castle actually looks much nicer than from below, where it looks squat and ugly. Inside is the Lunigiana Museum of Natural History. We’ll have a look at it next time.