Back to the Casentino

After a comatose sleep we drove the dank hills to the Casentino to check if the house was still there.

It was dreich but mild and, yes, it was. The felled timber looks more orderly and neater than I remember. The alder had taken on that spectacular orange and rust colouring that it gets when exposed to the air. I got out various axes and splitters and reduced some of it the requisite wood stacking size.

I then finished building the storage box around the exposed water pipes from the timber released by my pulling-down-the-ceiling efforts.

The Boss cut back the 'ever-glorious ivy,' with the fattest, almost malevolent, black berries I've ever seen. She then came across a Tuscan scorpion, really (and they do sting but not fatally), and a massive snail that had cemented itself into its shell.

I went down the PO and got a letter threatening to cut off our electric. In the bakers I got milk, eggs, a local salami from literally up the road at Scarpaccia (the big scarp) which is just down the road from Omomorto (the dead man - some bloke hung way back in the mists of the 15th century).

I also bought two huge - like the palm of your hand - tortelli alla lastra (see extra with bread knife for scale).

These are a local filled pasta typical of the Tuscan and Romagna Apennines that are baked on a stone heated in the fireplace and filled with a puree of potatoes and seasoning. The shop has them on Tuesday and Friday.

Spoke to GL who has recovered from the flu that struck him down over Christmas. The scaffolding is coming on Monday to get the building work underway. (Gl is building a small single storey house  - a Friday house - as a holiday let not far from us and its is beautifully done).

All very exciting. And the woman in the bakers gave us a bag of delicious biscotti as a 'homecoming' present. How nice is that?

It's a good to be back.

And we are going out to meet friends tomoz for a BBQ whatever the weather.