Week 30 - Feeding Time Mayhem

What a chaotic and hectic week with full-time furkid duties!  Trying to feed a horde of animals takes a lot of skill and planning and sadly I lack the military precision necessary for a smooth operation.  There is a clear and strict order of events, chicks off to their pen first, then cats are fed, then girls are walked and fed.  This week it has all gone a bit pear-shaped with the chicks refusing to go to their pen, hence kitties working themselves into a ravenous frenzy desperate for food.  I got my timing all wrong on Monday and the chickens ended up scoffing most of the cat food and everyone tucked up way too late... a bit of a disaster really.

 Socks waiting for her dinner...

Freddy waiting for me from outside...

The problem is that Freddy has turned on me twice now and it hurt!!!  He knows I am afraid of him, so I have to wait til he voluntarily goes to his pen at night before I can shut it and then feed the cats, then the girls... He deliberately hung around in the garden with his beady eyes waiting for me to come out with the cat food plates on a tray.  I dropped the tray and the plates and ran for the door, leaving all the masses to fight amongst themselves.  It is never mayhem when K does it, but he has had military training and this certainly comes in very handy for such duties!!

Tuesday was a bit better, but still Freddy and co got into their pen at 7.45pm, way past their usual bedtime of 6.15pm. Wednesday I had everyone fed, watered and walked and tucked up by 8pm, and I felt I was getting somewhere at last! At least the girls obey me and we have a nice time walking in the beautiful countryside.  They don't go near their food bowls until I give them a special signal. They sit obediently until I clap my hands and say 'OK!' and then they dash to their bowls.  They are not allowed to start eating until I give them this signal.  I wish cats were as polite and restrained as dogs! 

Samantha and me .....

 This statue of 2 cats is tucked into my mini salad area....

My cherry tomatoes are coming along fine, but so much smaller than the usual tomatoes I have sown in the past!!

 

I was so glad I was protected from this giant hornet by the mosquito frame we have installed.  It was buzzing around angrily just outside the kitchen window and it couldn't fly in through the mesh, thank goodness!  I hate hornets, because they can be very dangerous.

 

It rained buckets and there was lots of thunder and lightning during the weekend!! I had lots of buckets to collect as much of the rain as possible for me to use for watering my plants!!!

 

It was nice to be cheered up by this Castelli mosaic on the coffee table in the kitchen.  It was also lovely to have family visiting and we had a lot of fun together, despite the terrible weather....

We all listened to 'Happy' by Pharrell Williams!  It is used in Zumba classes and for school assemblies for motivation purposes.

 


My niece made me this lovely beaded chain to hang around my neck when I wear my glasses.  It is really pretty and I won't lose my glasses now!

I suggested interesting places to visit in Abruzzo and this book, called Travels in Abruzzo by Ed di Vitto, is full of lovely cartoons which tell a story about Abruzzo and all the beautiful sights.

This week was very busy but enjoyable!  Roll on Week 31

Week 29 - Post holiday

This week has gone by so quickly that being away in San Marino now seems light years ago!!  

A little bit of post holiday blues threatened to take over, but once in the sunshine back in Abruzzo and sorting out my veggie plot, I soon settled back into my routine.

Moderating a lovely group of online students is keeping me busy, and battling the weeds inbetween is what I am spending time doing now.  In particular, the plot has been invaded by a rather pernicious weed called common purslane:

Google search image above

I am handpicking each one individually as it is the only way to remove them forever.  Apparently just one weed can reproduce itself thousands of times if left in the soil, so I am up against a real monster weed, and total extermination is the only way out.  This is going to take time and a lot of patience.  You can eat this weed, but I don't really fancy trying it out, to be honest!!

Garden Pics
One of my favourite pots bought in Prague from a quirky shop, in the shape of a cat!  It now houses an ivy plant.  Sadly the other one I bought was broken by one of the furbies, but it is still usable.

This lovely garden light statue was a gift from my 2 sisters when I left UK to move to Abruzzo.  I love it!

That's it for this week - it's been really quiet!

Week 28 - ACIM San Marino Trip

This week was spent mostly preparing for and then travelling to San Marino to attend the 6th ACIM motorbike meeting.  

ACIM stands for Aprilia Caponord International Meeting. Aprilia Caponord motorbike owners and their friends came from all around Europe, including Slovenia, France, Switzerland, Greece, Germany, UK and a lot from Italy.  

It was the most wonderful holiday and we enjoyed ourselves very much, meeting new people and making new friends. The whole experience was efficiently organized, and a special thanks goes to Maurizio and his Aprilia Caponord team, who helped make it such a memorable occasion.

I managed to practise a little bit of French, German, Greek and of course Italian with some of the motorcyclists and passengers.  
 
In total, there were 42 bikes and 69 riders and pillion passengers, including myself, (in the blue jacket) seen below during one of the frequent stops on the road.

We travelled a total of 550 miles during the 3-day trip and we took in a lot of beautiful sights.  Being part of a group riding in convoy was lovely and wearing the specially designed souvenir t-shirt was a thrill.  The Grand Hotel Primavera where we stayed was superb. 

We visited many different sites and attractions including the Aviation Park Museum, just outside San Marino.  There was an excellent open air display of old aircraft from around the world.  

I spotted an East German flag on one of the planes....I would recognize this symbol anywhere, after having lived in East Germany in the early '80s. Here's a link to a guest post I wrote a few years ago about my Life Behind The Iron Curtain.

The highlight of the tour was this 1944 Dakota which had been owned by Clark Gable.  

 Marilyn Monroe had been a passenger on this plane, and as she is one of my favourite movie stars, I had to sit in one of the seats where she had probably sat!!

We travelled to San Leo a small hill top village with a beautiful and impressive cathedral.

We enjoyed a lovely BBQ meal on the Saturday evening and there was a raffle, and we won an extra t-shirt!  Below you can see me accepting the prize and saying thanks. I am proudly wearing the blue ACIM 2014 t-shirt.

The hotel was just outside San Marino and we explored this tiny republic state on the Sunday morning.  I managed to grab a photo of us setting off in convoy.

Our expert guide Francesco from San Marino, was very knowledgeable and spoke excellent English.  

We learned so many interesting facts from him about this unique principality, and about its successful way of self-government. 

The views from the top of San Marino were truly spectacular!

The San Marino guards in front of the National Palace:

This was a truly amazing trip and the lovely people we met made it even more memorable.  We would love to go on another ACIM trip next year and hopefully meet up with the same group of riders and catch up on their news.

Thanks so much to dear K for your brilliant motorbike riding skills.  We had a lot of fun, didn't we?

Week 27 - Sunny Days

This week flew past, with family visiting Abruzzo and time just to relax, with no Internet - bliss!  These sunflowers were just around the corner from where we were staying andat the moment are everywhere in Abruzzo.  Below these are fields just near home.

 .... this is one of the lovely views of where I stayed.

We ate out every day and this is a view of one of the restaurants we went to, called Lago Paradiso.  The food was excellent and truly delicious.  All homemade and local produce from the Abruzzo area.

It was lovely to have my mother and sister with me and we had so much to talk about. K stayed behind to look after the land and furkids, and was happy for me to have time out with them.


I went to the Giulianova beach a few times, and it was still low season, so it was very quiet indeed.

 This is where we ate a few times on the beach front.

When I got home at the end of the visit, there was so much catching up to do in the garden!  The excitement of unearthing my very first home-grown potatoes made my day!!  Below some of the new potatoes I dug up from the grow bag:

I boiled and then fried them in our olive oil, with rosemary thrown over them - truly delicious!!  I still have a crop growing in the veggie plot, and I will leave them a bit longer until I dig them up.

I picked some of the gladioli that were in bloom - almost as tall as I am, so I had to cut their stems, otherwise they were too tall for my vases!  

Below a Murano vase given as a wedding present by my Godmother - I think the pink gladioli fit perfectly in them!

I placed some of the flowers in a smaller vase to enjoy them for longer.









My lavendar bush was well and truly squashed when I got back ....

..and this little fellow is probably one of the culprits - lying in it for its catnap!

I quickly picked a few fresh sprigs to add to this special lavendar jug!

Week 27 was very enjoyable and relaxing and it was wonderful to spend quality time with family. Just catching up after being away has delayed posting this, but better late than never!

Week 28 post will hopefully come after the weekend, because again it is going to be a very busy week!