Earthly Pleasures...

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It's never ceases to surprise me when I find out who's reading my blog and it's quite obvious to me that Teresa May must also be tuning in. I'm thinking that she must've read my quick guide to 'Florence' last week and booked herself on the next flight out. I just hope she didn't book Ryanair or she might be needing a lift home!
It's been a funny old week.....(Christ, I sound like Ronnie Barker in Open All Hours!)
Autumn has arrived and I have per..per..pp'progressed up into the woodland to have a clear out of the old trees and creeping brash and working to get the ditches and drains ready for the onslaught of winter and the anticipated heavy rainfall. Armed with machete, a strimmer, a chainsaw, a rotavator and a mattock I have been tackling the terraced woodland areas.






It's kinda nice just being able to work on the land, just being outside and able to get on with practical things with no constraints or timescales to adhere to.
I still haven't done any work recording but no-ones asked for it either and I'd probably just make it up anyway cos no-one worth a toss ever looked at it....
I digress....So, it HAS rained lately but the days are now really bright and sunny.
We don't seem to have days and days of drizzly low cloud that lingers on, it just rains like hell and then it stops and the sun comes out and it's warm again....proper weather!
Now that we have had that bit of rain though, the grass has shot up so there is plenty of strimming and mowing to keep me occupied over the coming weeks. Mushrooms are my favourite thing to find in a morning now, not Porcini, which are being sold in large amounts in the market, but field mushrooms, almost as tasty but free to the finder!
The Cinghiale have also returned and are making their distinctive marks. 
Every morning freshly dug holes are appearing, mainly in the olive groves, where they have been rooting about in the night and ripping up the earth to find the edible roots. They are going to keep me busy through the winter, I'm sure...




The last festa was a local affair, in Montalla, and the main event being the 'Donkey Race'. A sack race determined who got what donkey, then a warm up lap, basically to see who could fall off the most, then 3 or possibly 4 laps of the course with a dismount on each lap to 'bob for an apple', eat a plate of  flour or drink a vino before trying to then catch up with your galloping ass and jumping back on the saddle-less steed to complete the race. The race ended with a disputed winner but a great time was had by all except for the poor old fella on the fastest donk that kept getting tossed off at every corner.....but even he finished with a big smile!....well you would, wouldn't you!!....A great end to all the summers festivals!
Maybe I will have my iPad with me for some crazy photos next year!


The blog title track is the second song on the second album by the Villagers released in 2013.

 https://youtu.be/4uSTkb3s5Xs

Sent wi' th'ipad

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