Happy 1^st July to everyone.

How eggasperating is this?

The girls appear to have been having a bit of a break (ha, ha) in their egg laying. We have recently only been getting one or two eggs a day, which is not the norm. The weather has been v hot. A couple of days ago a local thermometer was nudging 45°C. So we have been putting down the lack of eggs due to overheated hens.

However, the hens have pretty much a free run of the middle and upper gardens and love wandering about. What they don’t like is Freya stalking them and suddenly leaping on them and grabbing their tail feathers. But that’s another tale.

This morning I had to go and do a few chores at one of the local villages and when I got back this is what La D had found in a nesting place in the garden. The little buggers. Why have they stopped laying in their perfectly good nesting box? Doh!

Matters of the teeth

Both La D and I have had reason to go to the dentista recently. Both of us hate it and it is expensive, or at least we think it’s expensive. But what can you do? We don’t to be called the “gummies” before our time do we? Having seen some pictures of Russian country people who use stainless steel for replacement teeth, maybe I’ll just go and have a “Jaws” job, a la James Bond character. On second thoughts, maybe not

I have to go back for a further consultation at the end of the month. Oh joy.

Social scene

Went for a great BBQ the other night. Some people we know have a great place with a pool that they rent out but this week there were no guests so they decided to have a do. Absolutely brill. We met up with the people who rescued Bertie and his siblings. Poor bloke, he recently fell off a ladder doing some arboreal work. Broke his back. Fortunately he fell very levelly(?) and the break is quite healable. Apparently if you break a vertebra from the side, that is a completely different matter.

The library is going well but quite slowly. I am on duty this afternoon. Hopefully there will be a few people through the doors.

Travelling down to Pescara next week for lunch with one of the people who belongs to La D’s Writers Abroad web group. She actually lives in Bangladesh – her husband is in the UK FO – having just moved there from Belgium. She runs a writing course in North Abruzzo once a year.

Bertie and Freya are going to spend the day with their friend Lola. I do hope Lola’s people know what they are taking on! I’m sure they do.

Talking if dogs, here is a picture taking today during our early morning constitution. The sun is just rising at this time and it creates beautiful dappled light in some areas where we go.

Had a lovely long ‘phone call with my number three son this week. He and one of his friends are thinking of coming to Italy for a week in August and was sounding me out about some places. Have given him lots of info on places in Le Marche but also in the South (Sorrento peninsula) and North West (Italian Riviera, Liguria). So we’ll wait and see.

No more news on baby Annalise. Some photos have appeared on Facebook, but that is all. It’s rather sad really as Facebook as most of you know is a massive personal networking website, with people able to acknowledge others as friends. My son only has two friends on it. Rather defeats the object.

Ciao, mantenere la fede

New Granddaughter

It’s been confirmed that her name is Annalise. They are not sure if she will have middle names at the moment.

There is a new book that has just been published about very small children. It is a book for parents and is called “Go the f&*k to sleep”.

It is a bedtime book for parents who live in the real world, where a few snoozing kitties and cutesy rhymes don't always send a toddler sailing off to dreamland. Profane, affectionate and refreshingly honest, it captures the familiar and unspoken tribulations of putting your child to bed for the night.

It has got some brilliant reviews. Perhaps my son and his wife should hold off on the official naming thing until they have all got used to living together. You never know, the experience might throw up some fairly apt names.

How about Enyo, goddess of war or perhaps Anushka, goddess of temper. You just never know.

Haven’t had any photos through yet but it’s early days.

Freya

Larger than life. She weighed in at 22 kilos last week. Up from 15 four weeks previously. Gulp. I’m going to weigh her next Friday when she will be 5 months old and see what the brute weighs then. Still gorgeous. Doesn’t appreciate her biting strength. Adores Bert and follows him around a lot of the time. Shedding her coat like billy-o.  Still very timid of people, sometimes even us which is a bit odd. But what is really strange is that if we meet up with fiends to go for a walk with the dogs, Freya will not come near them whilst we are getting ready. As soon as we set off, she’s like their new best friend. Running up to them, wagging her tail, trying to lick and jump up at them. It’s like a switch has been thrown, the effect is immediate. Odd.

Weather

Yes. Lots of it and all roasting. Saw a temperature sign above a pharmacy yesterday reading 45° at about midday. Glad Wimbledon is on. Shut the shutters, sit slightly apart from La D – nothing to do with personal hygiene, just tooooo hot – and watch some excellent sports men and women. We saw the matches between Venus Williams and Kimiko Date-Krum and the one between Li Na and Sabine Lisicki. What absolutely riveting tennis.

The forecast looks like more of the same. Oh dear. More out with the pooches just after 6 am.

The only problem with these early morning starts is that we are not alone! We were joined this morning by this lot.

This the third time we have seen them in the past couple of weeks

 What else?

One of the little kittens passed away yesterday. It wasn’t growing or suckling mum so we are not surprised really. Still the remaining two are doing well. Their new owners are hopefully coming over today or tomorrow to have a look at them They’ll probably go from us about 5 weeks, once they have weaned.

Ciao, mantenere la fede

A Special 14th June

Fourth granddaughter born this afternoon. Called Annalise or Annalisa. Still to be confirmed. Mum had to be induced yesterday and forceps were required at the end. Both babe and ma doing well by all accounts. Weight unknown, to me, at present. Will revert.
Over and out.

Ciao, Mantenere la fede

Freshwater Fun and Frolics

Bertie and Freya get down and clean in the Fiume Tenna. Great fun.

http://youtu.be/6f9YRdwxlyY

We take the dogs out very early these days because of the heat. We have been going down paths mainly because we want to get Freya used to regular exercise and paths are not too onerous for her. We will gradually build her up to some decent lengths of walks. The other day we took her into a field of uncut grass. This is a picture of her after we got back. She seems to shrink by a third when her coat gets wet. It’s more obvious when she is in the river but it is still quite clear even with early morning dew on her coat. 

Pussy(ies) Galore

We have more kittens as of yesterday morning. Got up to let the dogs out at 05:30 – yes, that’s right, half five in the morning – and instead of two cats on the mat there were five. Tigger had three kittens.

Lovely colouring especially a little tortoiseshell one. Haven’t sexed them yet as they are very small. Just hoping that the male cats don’t come and take them away when they are a couple of weeks old as they did to Daisy’s a few weeks ago.

We hope we have homes for them all. Will keep you posted.

Orti

The veggie patches are doing great guns, just like all the other vegetation. We have had lots more rain and with good temperatures the rate of growth is phenomenal. Last pea picking tomorrow then we will take them out and plant some brassicas. I think. La D is the Director of Operations (why am I so surprised?).

Had first of our new potatoes yesterday. Absolutely gorgeous they were too. Having some more tomorrow a la Patate Dauphinoise as it’s our wedding anniversary. I wonder what would happen if I ever forgot our wedding anniversary? I tend not to think about those sort of things, it makes me go all queasy, weak at the knees and funny up the bum!.

Galline

The chickens are fine. Still getting three eggs a day. Friends and neighbours have been benefitting from our girls’ largesse. Freya seems to have gone off the idea of chicken biting. Not completely, but almost. So hopefully she has grown out of that particular phase.

Lurgi

I have been attacked by the vegetation. Very itchy and pretty disgusting to touch. I have these sores over my left arm, hand and knee. A litle bit on my right arm and knee. It should go soon, hopefully. At least ti keeps the women at bay. Ha, ha says La D!!

Ciao

Mantenere la fede

It's Freya again!

Here's a video we made last week down at the river. Freya adores the water as you can see. It won't be long before she is chasing after the sticks with Bertie!

http://youtu.be/CrBAsmYKt58

Ciao, mantenere la fede

Freya Update.

Freya continues to delight and annoy us in equal measure. No, not really. She is a lovely big pup.

The D-i-L came over a couple of weeks ago and little Freya took a few days before she was  comfortable around him as she is terribly shy of new people she meets. But she was soon won round with D-i-L’s general pleasing demeanour and, it has to be said, his terrible jokes.

She has already been swimming, although not intentionally. She was trying to follow Bertie whilst he was chasing sticks and got quickly out of her depth and had to doggy paddle to get back to the shallows. She absolutely loves the river. We have been three times now and every time she is a little more adventurous.

We went to Lago san Ruffino early this week with our friends who have Lola. Freya absolutely loved the walk and the water. We let her off the lead and she was very good. A lot of chasing after the other dogs, then back to the humans to check we were all there. Looking for a quick pat. The off again. An immensely happy dog.

Bertie, we think, is loving having a pal. La D was right, of course. (“Of course I was right!” La D speaking, sorry, writing.) A friend for Bertie would be a good thing, and so it is proving. They play a lot together. Tumbling all over the place. Bertie is often on his back with Freya trying to bit his neck and other bits, the unmentionables. It says a lot for his confidence with her that he lies like that. Of course there is still the occasional snap and corresponding whimper when Bertie has had enough. But these are few and far between and Freya seems to bring him round to more play or else goes and has a kip in the shade of the hazelnut tree.

She also loves the chickens. So much so that one of her favourite games is to sneak up behind and grab them by the tail feathers. It’s an odd sight to see a chicken with a large white dog attached to its rear end. We tend to discourage this sort of behaviour as it may affect egg laying, but so far it hasn’t as we still getting out tre uova per day.

As I have already mentioned, it really is a good time of year to have a pup as they are outside all the time and of course there is plenty of space for them. The weather also helps. It’s has been pretty lovely the last few weeks. The odd shower but then back to mid 30s and glorious sunshine.

Garden Update

Those of you with a keen eye will have seen that La D now does a gardening blog associated with this one.

We were out at 6 this morning planting some more tomatoes (pomodori), cucumbers (citrioli), beans (fagioli) and courgettes (zucchini). La D has also planted quite a few flowers around the place so we should have wonderful colours over the Summer. Somebody we knew who lived briefly over here left us a Bottle Brush plant rather than take it back to the UK. Lovely isn’t it?

English Library

Together with a few other “Inglesi” we have opened a library in a town near us, Servigliano.

There must be well over a 1000 books now with more coming in. There is a tremendous breadth to the books as well.

We are open twice a week at the moment and take it in turns to play Librarian – not the way of Peter Sellers in ”Only Two Can Play” mind you!. We have been given a room by a charity in a fabulous old “palazzo” in the middle of the town. The architecture is quite stunning.

Activity is slow but we are hoping that will slowly increase as the library becomes more known.

It will definitely save on Amazon orders!

Spring has Sprung

As usual at this time of year the local felines have had kittens or are pregnant. One of the ones that hang around our place, Daisy, had three a little while ago, but they mysteriously disappeared when they were about 16/17 days old. We understand that the male cats come along and take the kittens off somewhere, so that the queens will again come into season then the toms can get their end away again. All seems rather brutal to me, but there you go. C’è la vita

Ciao, mantenere la fede

Once again I apologise

For the tardiness I have shown recently on blog updating. I’ve been that busy. Heard that one before have you? I expect so.

Anyway a quick fill in before the big, and I mean BIG news.

La D had a good time with her siblings and pa but it was rather lovely to pick her up from the airport.

With the lumberjacking done, I had been in charge of the slash and burn of the ground to liberate it from the weeds and general overgrowth. It was great. When La D got back it was time to move the timber up to the house. It was hard going but we managed it over several days and now have a good wood stack which I am hoping will last perhaps two years.

With the advent of some warmer and dryer weather we have also done a bit of decorating in the kitchen and sitting/dining room. We had the doors and windows open all the time so the smell of the paint didn’t get to us too much. Looks very good.

The lovely Spring weather has also meant we have been eating breakfast and lunch  outdoors for about three weeks now. Lovely.

Veggie gardening is about to go ballistic as we head into the major sowing season although our fava (broadbeans) are ready now. Lovely with sheep’s’ cheese. So there will be lots of weeding and putting up of support canes. Good fun. In fact one of things that La D have been thinking about is perhaps going into a sort of partnership with some friends and working out what we all grow best and set up a small cooperative venture. If we grow toms best then we grow all the toms, if somebody else grows onions best then they grow all the onions, etc.. Or something like that. We’ll see. We haven’t talked to anybody about it yet.

BIG NEWS TIME!

La D has been banging on about something for quite a while now and I have been resisting – not that hard mind you, just a bit to give her something to push against!!

When we heard that what we have just got was likely to be “at risk” quite soon, we took the plunge.

We now have a friend for Bertie!!  She (another dog might prove problematical in the future, temperament-wise) is just about 12 weeks old and scrummy.

Her name is Freya and she is one of six pups from a farm not too far from here. The shepherd’s dogs had 5 bitches and 1 dog. Whilst the shepherd has no problem with a dog, they don’t need bitches as they tend to breed. Surprising that. So he wants rid of them. Mind you she was expensive compared to Bertie. We had to give the shepherd a packet of cigarettes, when Bertie cost us nothing! The shepherd was more than pleased someone took on one of the pups and he was thrilled by the ciggies.

Some friends have seen the pups since they were born. They do in fact have a sister of Freya’s from the previous litter.

Freya’s great. Very pretty, clumsy, fluffy, bitey but licky too, and almost house-trained already. When you think she spent the first nine weeks of her life living in a field, she has taken to domestic living very quickly.

Bertie has come round rapidly. He was a little distant at first but I expect couldn’t resist the way Freya just threw herself at him, literally, to get him to play. Bertie is just coming to the end of his moulting and we often see Freya with a mouthful of white fur from where she has charged into him, mouth agape, nipping him. He tells her off sometimes. Not often.

The time of year is of course brilliant. The dogs are outside all the time. Of course a lot of puppy-watching is essential to her correct upbringing.

Here are some photographs.

So you share in our delight you can have a look at a couple of short videos we have put on Youtube. Here are the links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBpCRACQprg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHKg54OV_A8&feature=related

Happy viewing!

I will keep you informed of progress and probably put some more videos up on Youtube too.

Ciao, mantenere la fede