Santo Stefano

I listened to the Ships on R4 first thing. Gales in ALL sea areas as Bella wound up her winds. It’s a storm system about the size of Europe. There isn’t actually room on the map to be bigger.

Here it was raining on and off with snow at the 600m line. Really pretty miserable. As the day wore on the cold blustery NE Tramontana began to wiffle around. I made a fire on the lee side of the house with walnut logs. Later I cooked a small shoulder of lamb over the coals with potatoes. It was bracing and we braced ourselves with a glass of Morellino di Scansano which is made in southern Tuscany near the sea. The food was good with a steamed cauliflower from the garden.

The wind is still banging around outside tonight. A hard frost is coming and maybe more snow.

St Stephen was the first Christian martyr. Sentenced to death by stoning (lapidazione in Italian) he died in AD 36. In a rather macabre twist he is patron saint of builders and stone masons amongst others. His saint day is December 26th.

It was only by mugging up on Santo Stefano that I realised that the Italian word for Christmas ‘Natale’ means ‘The Birth Day’. Better late than never, I guess.