Jan, Feb, March 2008 (From Western Telegraph)

Jan, Feb, March 2008

12:17pm Friday 2nd October 2009

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New Year, New Challenges – Jan, Feb & March 2008 New Year is a blast, literally. They spend a small fortune on fireworks, which several factories make and import locally and the news is full of impounded illegal fireworks being smuggled in by the container load from China. Being on a hill with a clear view of at least 5 towns we get a wonderful display without the noise, crowds or expense. The sales also start this month but are regulated by the government, what isn’t? The various major towns have the sales start date announced on the news and the powers that be dictate how mush each trade can discount their goods, so as not to undermine the economy, or more importantly the tax revenues. It doesn’t deter the dedicated shopper at all.

While grabbing a warming coffee in Chiusi we bumped into Jan who lives in a farm just below Citta della Pieve. This was one of the most fortunate meetings for us as she asked how we were getting on and we told her, chapter and verse. Jan quickly grasped that not only were we paying far too much for our accountancy fees but she could take us to her accountants. They were much cheaper and probably better able to assist us as they dealt with most types of businesses and despite our inability to communicate properly they happily took us on. She also said she may be able to help us out with the olive grove problem as she had enough that she could rent us to conform tot he agritourismo levels but all land leases were done through the local version of the NFU and were done November to November. So for this year we’d have to find someone to look after the grove we had custody of and in September give 3 months notice and then apply to rent her land afterwards. Over two coffees and a cake each we had solved many of our problems.

The fist two months are usually the coldest and windiest of the year and this year was no exception. We had to be so careful when burning the last of the bonfires in case they blew over the terraces and set fire to the woods. Bonfire burning is restricted to the autumn winter time to try to prevent fires getting out of hand as the ground is wet and less likely to catch ablaze.

February is Carnaval time. Venice has the most famous of all in Europe but several other places do their best to compete. Foiano less than an hour away has one of the best. A tiny town perched on a vertical hill top, they cannot cope with the masses of people who arrive each year so they have arranged a park and ride system with the local outlet village. You pay a tiny fee, to cover the bus and cleaning, to pass through the town gates and what a site there is to see. The floats just fit between the houses, squeezing their extending, twirling and reaching mannequins within the walls. Children dash around squirting silly string and throwing confetti, the many girls and boys brigades of each quarter are dressed Brazilian style and the bands play at top volume to be heard in the uproar.

There were more floats, most not as extravagant and mechanical but representing smaller firms and clubs. The figures were constructed on metal formers with shaped polystyrene over, which were then covered in paper and painted. We think they keep the same characters for several years and then change them, using the same forms beneath with all their hydraulic systems intact. Where they store them is a complete mystery as the town has just one main street with the cathedral at the top of it, maybe there are tunnels beneath like so many Etruscan founded places.

The local Comune had applied for a grants from the EU to give free Italian lessons to foreigners. They advertised it in Italian, but the lady at the bakery pointed it out to us as she knew we had been looking for lessons and trying out new words with her weekly. They were to run until April, an evening a week, so we joined up. Mostly there were Eastern Europeans working as house keepers and companions and speaking a Latin based language they did very well very quickly. There was also a large number of Signalises who all spoke English so we helped each other get by. We were invited along to an animal service at a Vatican owned church out in the countryside. About forty horses, masses of dogs, two goats a pet sheep and a hawk were in attendance. Naturally the service was held outside, in full regalia, and at the point where communion would normally take place the priest blessed the animals as the walked by him. Some of the horses were rigged out in true Maramara cowboy fashion, high leather saddles studded with silver, bridles to match. The black horses gleaming with manes almost to the floor strutting and prancing forwards with their rides equally well turned out. We were told the cats, small dogs, fish and caged birds were blessed in the cathedral in town, as mixing the two was not practical. We could imagine the scene where hunting dogs met cats who were intend on stalking the caged birds down the aisles.

Spring exploded in March with us scooping tadpoles from the cover of the pool, which the local frog population thought was an ideal place to bring up a family. We didn’t have the heart to pump them out over the bank to die, so surreptitiously we’d carry a bucket of tadpoles and frogs spawn, wedged between the knees of the passenger, down the driveway to the local river and tip the bucket in. The locals are convinced we’re totally eccentric and can we deny it?

Having discovered that winter here was nothing like the warmer Pembrokeshire climes we asked Max about getting the bio-mass wood burner and he furnished us with the details to apply for planning. The geometra said it would take longer than a normal application as we had to have the boiler room inside the house, sectioning off one of the entrance hallways to accommodate the system. This was because we would not be allowed to build within 10m of the house as it is a listed building. News to us. Because of this local quirk we had to have plans drawn up and the permission would have to be passed by the Perugian Regional office as we had to create a doorway through an internal wall that had once been external and needed RSJ’s fitted. Their technical lot would stipulate the building requirements. Then the application would have to go to the Health and Safety, who we were still waiting for to give us the o.k. to open, and on to the local Comune. Never complain about 6 weekly sittings of the local planning office in Wales again.

The brambles were sprouting as vigorously as ever, the cutting and burning seemed to have given them a boost so we inquired what would kill them off for good at the local farmers co-operative. They sold us a half litre bottle at the enormous cost of 18 Euros but it had to be diluted 10ml to a litre and spot sprayed. We bought a hand sprayer and what ever is in the stuff it works on brambles but oddly not on thistles, those we have to dig up.

While spraying the banks of the terraces to eliminate the blackberry bushes I walked under a tree. I thought I felt a stray hair brush my brow so I passed my hand over my face and continued on with the spraying. That evening at language lessons, the teacher asked what I had done to my face as my brow had swollen and I looked a bit puffy in the face. I said nothing but perhaps it was a reaction to the weed killer I was using. The following day I could hardly see and felt quite odd so we went into town to the chemist, it was closed. Stopping for coffee we asked where the nearest open chemist was. The owner looked and told us to go to the accident and emergency room at the hospital straight away.

We walked, as it was just two minutes down the road and the place was empty, we wandered around and found an ambulance man who told us to sit and wait and get a doctor to see us. A few minutes and a doctor invited us into a consulting room. He took our particulars and asked if I had been bitten. I said I had been working in the garden and had felt something brush my face the day before. He seemed surprised but told us that I had brushed a hairy caterpillar and the swelling was a common reaction. He gave me a cortisone injection, 4 tables and a prescription for a course of pills with an itemized list of my treatment for us to pay the chemist. I felt much better the following day and the full cost of treatment we paid the chemist was 3.65 Euros as it was an emergency caused by a natural hazard, not stupidity. The local Comune here in Umbria hire hunters to blast the football sized web nests of the tent caterpillars from trees above public paths and roads in case they fall on someone. The internet provided the answer to why I had swollen up the hairs cause an allergic reaction and those who are very sensitive can swell up alarmingly in minuets and need hospitalization to drain off the fluid caused by the reaction. Lesson learned and despite the cause we were pleased the hospital had been so efficient and effective in their treatment of us.

Recipe: Tuscan Bean Bread and vegetable soup 2 cans cannellini beans, ½ red cabbage chopped, ½ white cabbage chopped, 2 potatoes diced, 1 leek washed and sliced, 1 stick celery sliced, 1 large tomato cored and chopped, 3 onions diced, 2 carrots diced, 9 oz saltless bread (Tuscany bread is always made without salt), oil and seasoning.

Drain beans and make the stock up to 1 pint using a vegetable stock cube in a jug. Blend all but a ladle of beans into a puree and put aside. Sauté 2 of the onions in the oil with the carrot in a large saucepan. When tender add all the veggies and a ladle of the stock, season to taste. And cook with the lid on for 10 mins. Add the remaining stock and cook for 50 mins more. Heat the oven to 400 degrees F. Slice the bread and add together with the bean puree and whole beans and simmer until warmed through. Put the soup into a heatproof bowl and sprinkle with more sliced onion and a little oil. Bake until onion is golden. This soup thickens and doesn’t usually pour serve warm by the dollop.