Of spring and other updates

The weather has still held so far. The middle of last week a cold North-easterly had sprung up, bringing a drop in temperatures (especially at night), but none of the horrendous rainfalls and storms we’ve had in previous years at this time. Sunday turned particularly nice again, even warm, so we took our bicycles over the scenic mountain route to Terrarossa, just the other side of Aulla, where there was an olive oil fair. Tasted plenty excellent oil, some interesting wines and some delicious cheeses, plus a selection of traditional breads from different Lunigiana villages. Apparently there is a bread road you can follow through the area.

Thus fortified we cycled on to Villa to see how things were there. It never ceases to amaze me how a few kilometres inland makes such a difference to the climate. Whereas we already start fighting the weeds and cut tall grass in Arcola, growth hasn’t really begun yet in Villa. It’s at about the same altitude, but does not get the warming effect of the sea. And the plot in Villa is also in quite a narrow valley, so does not see as much sun.

During last week we also sowed out the other things which wanted to se sown out during the waning moon phase, leeks and cabbages, dug over some more beds in readiness for the big sowing time commencing next week and have started watering the new seedbeds every other day or so. The forecast yesterday had promised us a continuation of the sunshine, so despite seeing some unexpected clouds out of our window this morning, we set off on our bikes to Arcola. Of course, as soon as we got going on some digging (me) and weeding of the strawberry and lettuce beds (Susan), the sky turned threateningly black, and in no time we found our selves in the path of 2 thunderstorms passing us left and right. Luckily it was only a shower and we could resume work afterwards, but it was the first rain in about a month!

Lots of things are now flowering beautifully and buzzing with bees, apricots, plums and as you can see on the top of the page, rosemary.

Almond tree etc.

Well, you’ve got to feel for them. Our friends James and Alison from Northampton come over for just a few days and the weather, as always, is at it’s worst. They arrived on Saturday morning and landed in Pisa in the middle of a thunder storm and they left again today, finally seeing a bit of sun, but in between… , Saturday it rained all day, Sunday and Monday most of the day with another spectacular thunder and hail storm last night. We had them and our neighbours around for dinner on Sunday. I made a curry for a change: chicken in curry and yoghurt marinade, Saag Aloo (replacing spinach with Swiss chard), a spicy dhal, basmati rice and chapattis.

And this morning we woke to clear blue skies and fantastic views over the Versilia. By mid-morning we were on our patch at Arcola and doing basking shark impressions (i.e. we were basking in the sun… Why do they call them basking sharks?). We planted the almond tree, which got a good watering. You can see Susan standing proudly behind it above. And we cleared another terrace and a half of vines and weeds; 11 ½ done, 4 ½ to go. We got back early, because Susan had not done her homework yet for tomorrow’s class. I busied myself sowing a few more things indoors: white and red cabbages, parsnips and corn lettuces. The weather is to remain fine for a few days, so hopefully we are going to get plenty of work done.