Week 21 - The Road & Countryside Pursuits

This week has basically been about our road.

The picture below shows you how perpendicular the angle was and our bumper was beginning to touch the road, scraping it and doing it damage. A quick temporary fix had been implemented to enable us to get out and about.

As a result of the constant friction between ground and bumper, our car is now under repair.. k has been busy fixing it, 3 new tyres ordered, which arrived mid-week after only a few days. My heart in my mouth every time we went up and down.The image below really doesn't do the terrible condition of the road justice. The middle bit was extremely steep!!!

Anyways, at least it was better than it was in December 2013.....

 
News Update
Our road has been fixed by the Comune, and it is now looking a lot better in the most terrible sections!

It looks rather rocky, and indeed big stones have been laid down in some parts.  We are hoping the Comune will add a finer layer on top of this..

Part of the top layer of our road..

 

What we would like to be added to the road...

 

We are very happy that this work has been undertaken, and we are very grateful towards the Comune.  We have heard through the grapevine that parts of our road may even have tarmac added, and this would be amazing.  Watch this space!!

Grubs
This week I have been out in earnest catching snails and then depositing them in our field as far away from my plants as possible.  I read that if they are placed 65 feet away from where you find them, they won't come back to the same place (ie pots).  Let's see if this works!  They have been decimating my plants, and this is not ok!

I have also been digging out all my fresh compost from the compost bin, to add to the veggie plot and towards the bottom I found quite a few of these grubs.  Please look away if you are squeamish!

I then placed them in front of the chicken pen and Freddy and co had a feast gobbling them all up in an instant!   

Thus, the life cycle goes round and round and then the chicken droppings will go straight into the compost bin and the grubs will turn the mixed contents of the bin around to make lovely fresh friable compost.  Nothing at all is wasted, and the book below, Soil, Humus & Manuring, printed in the year I was born, is providing me with invaluable advice about the gentle art of composting!!  It makes for fascinating bedtime reading, and I am not joking :-)  It's a really practical handbook.

 

Contents of the compost bin have been dug out:

 Not much left!

 

Added to the veggie plot area, ready to be spread out before planting begins in earnest at the end of May.

I have also been using this fresh compost in my flower pots and for seedlings.

Furkids' Update

One of the new kittens peeking out of a box

Samantha gazing out

It has been a very busy week, but ultimately very satisfying.  Roll on Week 22!

Week 20 - 22 Years Have Flown By!

This picture sums up my week!  I took it early on and used it for several occasions: to say goodbye and finish of an online course, to send to some friends just to say 'ciao' and as a thank you to someone who had helped with my father's Italian pension.  

I like it because it makes me feel happy, the flowers are all grown from seed, and the posy was made by following the instructions from a book I have had for ages, but never really looked at 
 properly.

I created a 22nd wedding anniversary card by pressing one of the anemones growing in the garden and then using some of my craft bits.  K used a wedding photo which he embellished nicely with one of my craft diamantes for the earrings.

Below one of my favourite wedding day pictures of me 22 years ago with my 2 sisters.  I had made my own bouquet from fresh flowers just a few hours before walking down the aisle!  All the garments in the image below were made by hand by my mother!

Picking flowers played a big part in this week!  Some wild flowers added to one of the girls' 'Orlando' dog tins:

 The same posy as in the top picture:

This week my bedtime reading has been about weeds, as the garden is overrrun with them!

 Freddy having a quiet moment of reflection below:

Today (Sunday) the weather has been lovely so we have had a barbecue, with arrosticini, my favourite Abruzzo food. 

We opened a bottle of Montepulciano D'Abruzzo red wine.  The grand cost was approx 1,49 Euros! It is a lovely wine, and in England this would be very expensive indeed.

We were surounded by furkids who mostly behaved themselves very well...

 A chance to relax after our meal...

Next week the weather is set to be very nice, so hope to carry on with jobs in the garden.  I am keeping a very close eye on these potato plants below.  I am growing them in a grow-bag, as it is the very first time I have planted potatoes, so am very excited to see if they will grow ok...... 

Week 19

This week didn't start too well, as Karl had to go the doctor's and then to A & E in Penne to get his swollen and very painful wrist seen to. It was a pleasant surprise to see such an efficient service in place, with X-rays taken and plaster and sling put on.  

That very same morning, the water pipe broke, so no water for 24 hours...another emergency!!  At the same time, the road was still heading towards the valley......  

Apart from these 3 things, a very quiet week really!

3 new adorable kittens with their mum Olivia all happily squashed into a cardboard box.  We collect Coshida boxes as they are useful for all sorts of things....

Below, Olivia contemplating her life, will it ever be the same again with all these kittens?

 
An increasing collection of pots with seedlings and plants, mostly cat-proofed with lots of sticks!!  This area is in addition to the cold frame, which houses a lot more seedlings and plants, ready to be added to the veggie plot.  I need K to cut some bamboos for me, but with his wrist being rested at the moment, I will have to wait til the end of next week, when hopefully it will be much better...

Picking the wild poppies that abound near us in the field..

 

I re-use everything I can, and below you can see the 'Orlando' dog food tins make very handy vases!  I would like the whole house to be full of flowers and every evening, when I go for a walk with K and the girls, I collect lots of wild flowers from the garden and surrounding fields.

 It's been very relaxing to view the spectacular Abruzzo countryside from the balcony...

A visual collage created with Muzy sums up my very relaxing weekend!

Next week, I will have a bit more welcome free time after Tuesday, when the online course I am currently moderating, finishes.  I'll miss the daily interaction.

 

Roll on Week 20!!

Week 18 - Cocullo Snake Festival

This week was dominated by our trip to Cocullo, a little village in the Abruzzo mountains.  We went there by train from Chieti, and travelled with Sangritrana.  It was very well-organized, and we would love to do other trips with this company!

It was the most incredible day trip I have had in ages and we were in Cocullo to witness the ancient pagan tradition of the Snake Festival.  This blog post by Life in Abruzzo blog sums it all up very well indeed, and is worth reading to get a feeling of the atmosphere and excitement of this quite unusual tradition.

Snake lovers from all over the world descend on this tiny Abruzzo village to see the statue of St Domenico, the patron saint of Cocullo, being covered in writhing, slippery snakes and then carried all around the village with great fanfare and excitement...

The train journey from Chieti passed spectacular scenery and we were serenaded by a band of musicians playing traditional Abruzzo music.  We were offered Cantucci, a traditional Abruzzo type of cake, coffee and chocolates.  This was a lovely way to enjoy the journey!

When we arrived in Cocullo, we walked from the station to the centre of the village with 2 of the group leaders.

As you can imagine, the centre of the village was absolutely packed, but we were able to get quite a good position on a slightly raised pavement and in front of the church where the statue of St Domenico, would come out of.  

 

There were thousands of spectators, and we had to wait patiently for a couple of hours in the bright sunshine until the moment arrived, the appearance of the statue coming out of the church.  I am afraid there was a sea of cameras, ipads, mobile devices everywhere in front of me so photos were a bit difficult to get! You can just about see the statue of St Domenico in the middle of the picture below.

 












Below you can see a few photos, which I have enlarged for a better view:

 

 























Other photos below of 'serpari' with their snakes, who didn't seem to mind being handled and phtographed by curious onlookers!

For someone like me who doesn't have a particular affinity with snakes, this was quite a challenge for me to overcome! Being surrounded by people carrying their snakes around freely within very close proximity, was a bit amazing.  So many of the snake owners (serpari) said 'Permesso' (excuse me), and then the crowd would instantly part, and make way to let the snakes through.  This was an unforgettable experience.

The brass band members getting ready for the procession...

We saw girls dressed in traditional Abruzzo clothes.....

and one girl was also carrying a snake!

 

We were treated to an incredible fireworks display which was so loud it made the whole surrounding area reverberate strongly!

We went for a walk away from the crowds below in the many stalls selling food and souvenirs, which were mostly of real-looking toy snakes!

The old quarter was empty, and we enjoyed walking around the cobbled alleyways...

At 3.30pm we met at the town hall to attend a special book presentation of Viteliu. It was very interesting to learn about the content of this book from the author himself.

Time to go home at 5.30pm and we caught the train and were given lots of nibbles and tastings in the form of Abruzzo food such as 'fava' (beans), cheese and wine.  A musical group dressed in traditional clothes played music of Abruzzo.  

It really was a lovely way to end a very exciting day!

My Animoto of the day trip.


Trip to Cocullo