We awoke to let the cats in, who were hammering on the windows in the early hours, and heard what we thought was hail or hard rain. The following morning our grounds looked like we’d been shelled by doodle bugs in the night. The porcupines had been through like a ravening horde, iris left, cuckoo pints, orchids dug up and craters and were decimated, fences annihilated having been undermined or barged through, even a small tree had been uprooted. The banks had boulders dug up and thrown down to lower levels and a hole had been excavated so it looked like a badgers set had appeared over night.

The trees, bushes, everything green exploded into life and thickened up daily until the house from the road almost disappeared, this despite being thinned out 2 years ago. The acacias put on a display that turned trees into pillars of blossom and filled the air with a thick honey scent. We sat and watched a deer forage along the terrace below the pool, aware but unconcerned about us, for 10 minutes before it daintily tiptoed through our fencing. So why do they bulldoze their way through on other occasions?

With the very hot sunny days back with a vengeance the garden chores were done in the early mornings and evenings and the house clearing up during the hottest times. The painting inside continued but Mike caught a head cold that slowed him down for a week. The pale mint green against the white freshened the walls up and made them brighter. Annie’s friend brought over the paint spray gun to speed up the painting especially on the ceilings also the long awaited parcels arrived from Forward2me with the steam cleaner, Mikes birthday presents (very belated), books and sewing equipment.

Sadly uncle Sasha (Alexander) died in Russia and Lillian, a friends mum who we knew well, also passed away, neither deaths were expected. On a more positive note Mum’s broken ankle responded well to her enforced rest but Pa’s other hip began deteriorating at an alarming rate. We suspect despite their intentions to visit later in the year it maybe postponed again. We contacted our pool guys only to be told our pool man died of a brain aneurysm (he was 53) the week before. The company is continuing but everyone is reeling from the shock.

We went to try a 4 euro pizza at the hotel in front of the one we all stayed in when viewing this place. Its the maddest / nicest place yet. Nonna Rosa's "typical" restaurant has cars inside you can eat sitting in and its full of old radios - the brothers are epic collectors. We ate in the Vespa Mexican beer bar .......we started with onion rings and deep fried mozzarella sticks with a bbq dip and a mayo dip, we shared a pizza and on Thursday nights ANY pizza is just 4 euro's. It was thin, crispy and tasty. Mike had a beer I opted for a glass of wine from the restaurant as I don't like beer. 12 locals, not one under 70 or over 5 foot, came in and the racket as they caught up was astounding. They have fisch and cips (their spelling) on offer, an enormous wrestle sausage with chips and 4 dips to share between 4 (we think 6) and burgers, vegan offerings - the menu is staggering.

We got home just in time to catch the back end of cyclone Ferox. Gondola, 2 planters and a glass table went for a burton, it could have been worse but we'd been told it would miss us and Turin would get snow. Mikes friend on the French, Spanish border is expected gales of 50 mph + and hail. So the month ended with a bang.

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