August 2012

The crops were visibly withering in the fields. The sunflowers, smaller than their normal height of 5 foot plus were ready to be cropped by mid month, as was the sweet corn. Wheat, hay and barley had been gathered in the first week and the resulting straw quickly bailed before it became a hazard. Our fruit suffered as well. The apples rotting on the branches, the plumbs were small and almost turned to prunes, those that were left for us. One night something, deer we suspect, stripped the greengages completely. So the jam made this year is intense and thick, a cheese, and not much of it.

Fires broke out in the tinder box conditions and for a week our house was a pivotal point for the water bearing airplanes that scooped lake Trasimeno and flew behind mount Cetona to dump their load on the burning hillside before swinging around on our side of the mountain and flying over head for a return trip. Thousands of hectares burnt but no lives lost fortunately. For some time the water to the house has been cut off for several hours each weekend to supply the farmers to sprinkle their crops. There is going to be huge shortages this year, sugar beet is already 50% down on production with, wheat, barley and corn 40% lower and other crops dropping by 20-30% on the normal annual returns.

In the midst of all this, naturally, our builder who'd been promising to make us a new driveway from the top of the slope outside the house to just beyond the gate earlier in the year, informed us of his intension to arrive at 7am to start work, if not earlier, the following week. Knowing that we'd not be able to use the road while work was going on we quickly ordered our winter wood, hoping we'd get more logs for our money as they'd be really dry, and giving us time to stack them before the onslaught.

Valantino duly arrived with 60 quintarli (6 metric tonnes) with reports of his brothers olive grove being spare of olives this year. The spring high winds had stripped the blossom and the drought had done the rest. Others also confirmed this was going to be a poor area for olive this year too. He told us of several places teetering on the brink of liquidation as the ressession gathers momentum and that the sagras and the palio's were poorly attended this year. Normally families would go every night but this year they were attending just the once and being very careful about their spending. We didn't attend any as we were still waiting final accounts from the builder, geometra, comune and notary for privatising the property.

Our builder turned up promptly, terrorised the Mach1 with his mini digger (they do dislike change!) although PK investigated his lorry and the digger and had to be watched carefully to ensure he didn't hitch a lift. The cement lorries were late, 3 hours late by which time the full midday sun was beating down and we had to hose off the concrete to slow the curing process. I wasn't sure they'd make it through the gates and they did have to remove them to give just that little extra space but it was a close thing. It may seem an un-nessesery expense in these times but having to lug barrow loads of gravel back up the drive, which is a lot steeper then it looks, 4 or 5 times a year after heavy rains (at the moment we wish), having people rev their cars and spin gravel all over the grass and get stuck half way because they're not used to driving up a graveled slope, mud, gates blocked by mud and stones that have to be dug out to open them and ….well the moan list goes on. We considered it a “quality of life matter” and that's important to us, like central heating and double glazing are taken for granted norms these days as its no fun freezing if you don't have to. Posh eating out, theater trips and expensive holidays are not on our wants list but a nice easy life is and we continue to work at it.

As we were able to only work from early morning till about 10.30 then starting again at 6pm , we sheltered inside catching up on paperwork and other things. The computer consumed a lot of time, getting to grips with Ubuntu 12.04 and its associated programs. In many ways it was like returning to a dos system of 30 years ago with windows applications thrown in. Its been as difficult as learning the Italian language with bits that seem familiar (as in Latin based words) and others that are so remote we've no idea whats going on. Jam making with the kitchen at over 38 degrees is no fun either but it is like being able to bottle the sun-shine for drearier days in the winter.

Watering is a daily evening chore, not that there is any produce to salvage but simply to keep what we have from dying, hopefully. We also have a bucket near the grotto for the deer to drink from so they are not tempted by the pool, chlorinated water can't be good for them. One evening we were startled to discover a red capped woodpecker sitting in a bedraggled and waterlogged state in the bottom of the bucket, fortunately it wasn't deep enough o drown the poor bird. Gently we tilted the bucket over to drain it, the bird sat totally still with its beak raised as he studiously ignored us, so we placed bird in bucket on a seat facing the supporting tree hoping it would venture out and up the acacia to dry out. The following morning no bird, nor were there feathers to indicate a sorry end, so we assume it did recover and fly away.

In the last week the temperatures started to drop, after a small thunderstorm that cleared the air nicely, to a manageable 28+ during the day and around 11 at night so we could eat our meals outdoors again. The pool temperatures also dropped and with the promise of more storms on the way we decided to phone the boys to close to pool when they could fit us in, probably the 1st week in September.

Another month past in a blink of an eye............