Narrowboatboy’s Big, Bad Blog...Narrowboat & Travel blog based on Lancaster Canal

Experiment 1

Now, getting towards the end of the week it was time to step it up and the Barbierro was the weapon of choice for today, a nice little multi-functional tractor. With the front end mower attached it was a nimble tool for cutting around the olive trees. Later, with the rear roller and mower combination it was time to tackle the big field at the front. The woods at the rear are extensive, unexplored yet by us, but they continue right over to lake Trasimeno and into Umbria. Walkers and mountain bikers use the paths occasionally. Tuscany, however, has a serious wild pig (cinghiale) problem  and I think the majority of them seem to live here in these woods. They come down at night in large numbers and root around the property, leaving tell tale holes and trotter tracks. Plans are afoot to curtail the nocturnal activities of the tasty little porkers ....but not just now so we  headed up the hill to for our evening meal at trattoria 'La Grotta', hidden down one of the man...

Across a Wire.... The outside light, which is the home of an old crow, hasn't worked for ages so the first job of the morning was to take it down and find out why. On inspection, it revealed that the crow was indeed dead, deceased, no longer with us, devoid of life, insentient, departed from this world, passed on etc etc....and the light fitting was not much better! Off we trolleyed in the pickup into our nearest town, Camucia. We have got to know Camucia quite well now so it wasn't a problem finding some new fittings in the little electrical shop to make the repair. Being a Thursday we also knew from past experience that Thursday in Camucia was market day and market day meant it was Porchetta day!  The porchetta man gets through two whole pigs in a morning and sells the speciality cooked meat sliced directly off the pig on the stall, it has been seasoned with garlic, rosemary, fennel and olives and packed into a bun and tastes Buonissimo! ...

The sun came out again today, and it came streaming through the window as soon as the shutters opened in the morning. Shorts donned and coffee consumed and we poured out into the garden to see what the day's activities would inspire us. The iris beds up the sides of the drive had become heavily overgrown and choked so we set about digging them out....Jeez, 3 hours later we had only done a few feet so after lunch we needed a new plan. Out came the Briggs & Stratton rotavator to speed up the work. By the end of the afternoon we had done the lot.  There is about 15 acres with the property, lots of terraces and lawns and the upkeep to keep it looking well is immense. The good thing for us is that all the work is outside in the sunshine so it doesn't really feel like it's a chore, in fact it's not a chore at all...it's therapeutic and an enjoyable way to spend the days. By teatime its become chilly, so it's inside the farmhouse where the fires have b...