Another Major Event

Preparations are in full swing for la Duchessa’s 26^th birthday – if she reads this and sees I have put her real age, I might be going swimming wearing concrete wellies.

She is actually not very excited. She says she doesn’t believe in birthday celebrations. They are for children, is what she says. Foolishly I took her at her word a couple of years ago. The nightmares have almost gone now, but the doctor said that I would probably have the limp for several years if not for life.

I have booked the over 95s choir from our local Home for the Bewildered to serenade us at our birthday meal. There are nine choir members at the moment, although Massimo, the leader of the choir, couldn’t guarantee that there would be nine there on the night! Haven’t told La Duchessa yet, it is going to be a surprise. I do hope she likes it.

We are going off to Florence for a couple of days next week. I had some Airmiles that I had never used so we booked a hotel with them and only had to find our travel. We are going to go by train because parking in Florence is extortionate. We have gone to Florence before by train and it is really great fun. Very relaxing and a good way to see a bit of the country.

Big Bert is off to stay with his sister Jess again. Apparently Jess has taken up stealing. Her people had some holidaymakers staying last week and Jess “stole” one of the little girl’s shoes. Oops. Ahh, dogs. What a joy.

Snow

We are having quite a bit of snow this year. This time last year I had my youngest over for half term and we were finishing off the Olive pruning in our t-shirts. You’d probably be dead in minutes if you were to go out in just a t-shirt this year.

So my plans to have the pruning completed by end of February has had to be revised. The biggies are done; it is just the rest that need doing. Hopefully from now on the weather will become more clement and allow us to get on with our outdoor chores. We have to get the veggie patches, tilled and turned over ready for planting. We have spuds chitting in the potting shed and have bought some runner bean seeds for planting soon – we hope.

The snow is lovely. It really isn’t a problem for travel as the authorities are geared up to deal with snow falls. All the local roads are open and we even had a snow plough come down our lane.

So we have had some lovely winter walks with Bertie. He loves the snow and goes barrelling along, slipping and rolling in it looking extremely happy. He stays out more and more now and we often look out and see him just lying in the snow chewing some of the firewood that I have just cut or, better still, one of my old outdoor shoes.

I had to saw up some more firewood this morning as we are getting through it at a rate of knots in this weather. The wood store I was using is in the lower garden which is now fenced off for Bertie’s, or rather our, sakes. For a while he was very interested in what I was doing outside his area but then gave up and chased a snowflake which much more interesting. (He does have an attention span of a gnat at the moment, but then he is very young. He’ll only be 5 months on 27^th.)

I finished up and heaved a full wheel barrow up the small hill to the gate in the fence. All of a sudden there was a white blur racing towards the gate from the other side. Bertie jammed on his brakes just in time before he bowled into the fence and sent flurries of snow up in the air. He then barked at me and set off round the top garden at a breakneck speed, legs going off at all angles, scooping up mouthfuls of snow and raced back to me, only to set off on another lap. He’s mad. Completely bonkers.

A few more photos of the weather and what it brings plus one of you-know-who!

Ciao. Mantenere la fede