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

In the town the other day I spotted that this poster had gone up.... ....and I know what your thinking....I thought the same.... ....Jesus, what a bloody awful emaciated specimen to put on a poster to promote a food festival! ....No?, well I did... It's a 'Sagra', which translates to a festival, they seem to be popular in these parts as there seems to be one every week around here. Anyhow, it's another event that's on my doorstep, in Pergo on Saturday night so I thought I'd nip up on the pushrod to investigate. But I'm thinking, if we have to eat THAT bloody runt of a Cinghiale then there shouldn't be much to go round!  It looks like the bugger needs worming! Ooh, I'm starvin'...I could eat a scabby pig! As it turned out, there was enough for everyone, all sat on long tables being cooked and served by all the local Cinghiale hunters washed down with copious amount of vino rosso in unlabelled bottles....no wonder the handlebars were playing up on ...

Over the past few weeks Iv had my head in the oven a couple of times....well, actually it got so bad I spent quite a few hours completely inside the oven. Yes, it was hot, yes it was a dark lonely place that I found myself in but at the end of the day I knew it was my own choice. I just knew I had to do it! The oven I sought sanctuary in was a very, very old bread oven. It hadn't been lit probably since the fifties and definitely not in my lifetime. It is built into the side of the house, stylishly round and measuring in at 2 metres in diameter. It is a huge space! I absolutely love the history to it. As it had laid redundant for so long, some of the bricks had 'spalled' and needed re-pointing and all of the fire-brick base had crumbled into fragments and needed removing. We bought a pallet load of new, cut, fire-brick, some heat resistant cement and a fresh load of sand for a base and then it needed someone to get in and do it.... ...I looked around and there was no-one he...

Oh, Come on! Stop sending over all that typical Northern weather! Today has been incredibly cloudy and it even rained for nearly a full nine minutes! Thunderstorms are rumbling around the valleys though! Cloudy Cortona up on the hill. No, but seriously a bit of rain wouldn't go amiss as we haven't had any for over 3 months now and there are signs that things are starting to suffer. The trees in the forest above us are turning brown and cracks are appearing in the parched earth. The local wildlife must be suffering too as the other night I caught two badgers on the lawn eating dropped mulberries and this morning two foxes 🦊, as bold as brass, were trotting down the track towards me. Maybe they were looking for a drink? All the rivers have dried up and many of the local 'Diga's (Dam's) are empty. The locals tend to be deer 🦌 , porcupines🐾, Cinghiale 🐗foxes 🦊, badgers🐩?, snakes 🐍, tortoises 🐢, frogs 🐸 and lots of lizards 🦎. The lovely Hoopoes that we're h...

Heading back up the hill in the warm evening sunshine to beautiful Cortona in a bright red open jeep wearing only shorts, shades and a   Neil Young   T shirt to my first live gig on Italian soil....does life get any better? Cortona is holding a 'Mix Festival' this week so a stage has been erected in the Piazza Signorelli and a mixture of musicians from classical, folk, pop and rock, young and old will play on the stage in the main Piazza all through the week in the evenings. I came up to the town on Tuesday to get me a hot ticket for tonight's band.......wait for it, 70's/80's rock/pop legends The Boomtown Rats with Live Aid officiano and miserable moaning Irish 🍀 frontman 'Sir Bob Geldof'! The 'Bobster' was given the 'Chuiso Di La Citta' yesterday, or the key 🔑 of the city to all you non 🇮🇹 Italians, I suppose that means he can wander round being grumpy about humanitarian issues while stuffing his face with pasta while oth...

So it's been a while since the last blog but honestly Iv been far too busy keeping an eye on the guests and keeping up with the daily jobs plus the fact Iv lacked a bit of inspiration for writing but today is different.  This morning Iv got a good start and headed up to Cortona, my local medieval town for a walk round before it gets too hot and crowded. I parked the jeep in the lower car park near to where the mysterious Mediterranean Etruscans had very cleverly built a futuristic escalator that takes you up into the town and headed along Via Nazionale into the beating 💗 heart of the town. Cortona is high on a hill and built by the ancient Etruscan brickies back about 400 years before Jesus started banging on about his book. ....so, historically quite old! It's a higgledy-piggledy labyrinth that is a great place for a walk round, lots of interesting shops, quite arty and chic with loads of cultural exhibitions, a theatre and bohemian stuff going on all ye...

Well, Iv been here for over a month now and Iv enjoyed every second of it. It took a while to settle down with the hot weather and to learn what the limitations are because of the heat but a month of strimming, cutting, mowing, weeding, repairing, renewing, watering, swishing and insect collecting and the place is looking in good shape with the guests now enjoying their Tuscan holidays. It's been a lot of work and now the management of the house, apartments, gardens, olive groves and pool is going to occupy me for a good while . Meanwhile, in the fields the sunflowers are looking amazing and seem to be almost in every field...they are very strange in the fact that they all look the same way at you and for someone who grew up with 'The Day of the Triffids' haunting my childhood I find them a little sinister if I'm honest too....are they watching us?? So today's tune has the best guitar riff 'ever' in the middle of this track played by Wild Will...