Looking after Number 1...

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 others around the world starve and then not paying a penny or a Euro for it....sounds like a recipe for a fight if u ask me?

Anyway, just time for a proper pre-gig pizza and a Birra Moretti at the 'Groce del Travoglio' trattoria on Via Dardano to get in the mood and then the medieval stage was set for 09.30.

As about 400 folk and a dog (no joke) waited patiently....Enter stage left, a lanky leopard skin suited old fella with long scruffy white hair that strutted and prowled Jagger-esque for 2 hours giving us an energetic rendition of the whole back 

catalogue of hits including Modern Girl, Someone's always looking at you, Like Clockwork, Banana Republic, I don't like Mondays, Mary of the fourth form into a John Lee Hooker medley and ending with 'Looking after Number 1 and finally of course 'Rat Trap' before coming back for an encore with a psychedelic rave fest of a track,  'Boomtown' to end the whole performance......quite amazing!

 It surprised me how many hits they had actually had!

I have to say the energy and the performance of the band great and still good guitarists too. The old fella still has it to put that much into a set.

I'm glad now that I gave you a quid back in 1984.....you're ok, Sir Bob!

At the end of the gig at about midnight I wandered back down the tiny streets while people sat quietly drinking coffee and 🍷, past open jewellery shops and designer footwear, art galleries and chocolate shops watching folk eating cake and gelato with a wry smile of realisation as I wondered to myself why I moved to this place?......Tonight, it's pretty obvious!

I can't bring myself to use the obvious 80's thought provoking child slaughter song as I am still sick to death of hearing it first time round, and I hated it then so Iv gone for a more Clash influenced alternative and first ever Boomtown Rats single from 1977 'Looking after Number One'.....described as 'breakneck sneering selfishness'.

https://youtu.be/qbi3VFR0sU4

Death 💀 on the Stairs...

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 year round in and around the old town. Last time I visited they were shooting crossbows during a medieval jousting weekend!

 Now, a week long music festival is about to begin....more about this later!' 

Im always a sucker for a hill, so with the sun 🌞creeping up the yard-arm(?), i started the lung busting climb up the tiny winding streets, past the church of San Francesco and the quiet, eerie convents, up past numerous defibrillators and to my final destination at the top of the town.

The towering 11th century, Neo-gothic Basilica of SanMargherita, home of the famous Franciscan nun that was also undisputed founder of the cheese and tomato topping!  Unfortunately, the pizza bit must have closed down but the church was still quite a spectacle with the views from the belvedere across the whole of the Valdichiana to Lake Trasimeno.

 

Heading back down from the death zone to a lower altitude I was actually still breathing and it was quite definitely brewtime, so a stop off for a relaxing morning cappuccino at Caffe Vittoria in the main Piazza Signorelli was in order and a great place for people-watchin' and a bit of bloggin' before heading off, as the merry throng of tourists start to arrive and begin to clog up all the pretty streets.

The Libertines bring you today's blog track. When Pete Doherty wasn't high on crack he made some cracking noisy tunes, this off the 2002 'Up the Bracket' album.

https://youtu.be/RyjJ-OrUl44

Beware of the Flowers....

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 Willy Barrett a great musician and if, like me, you have seen madcap John Otway manically prancing about onstage while playing a crazy twin necked guitar then you will understand(worth a YouTube look)otherwise, here is the single from 1977....turn it up to eleven and give it a blast!

https://youtu.be/afkEqz6538o

Sent wi' th'ipad

A Little Uncanny...

Iv spent the last few mornings filling in holes that had been presumably dug by the Cinghiale (wild boar) during the winter. 

The Cinghiale live in the dark, wild, wooded area directly behind La Cesa http://www.lacesa-tuscany.co.uk/ that extends all the way over into Umbria and they are a real problem when they come down during the night as the pesky creatures root about and make holes everywhere they shouldn't.

But a strange thing is happening here....

As I fill in the holes I start to notice more holes appearing, smaller but definitely new holes. More mischievous porky pigs??

Now, I have enjoyed many a 'Dick Attenborough' documentary, and quirky nature intrigues me so this morning I started to investigate further. I found some tracks coming from the woods, some new footprints but they were smaller and weren't trotter shaped? I found a latrine that didn't have pig pooh in it, then I walked further into the olive groves and came across a single apricot tree that had been recently attacked by something trying to get to the fruit...

and then I found this....

....no, not the Euro

A quill....

...so I deduced from my thorough enquiries that the nocturnal culprit must have been a local Porcupine. I looked it up and yes, the Old World Porcupine does knock about in these parts...just need to keep an eye out for one tonight!

Weather Update : Rain at last during the last few nights and again today, only 22 today and cloudy...should brighten up by the weekend!☀️🇮🇹😎

Iv become a little obsessed with Conor Oberst, Ex Bright Eyes Singer Songwriter, and especially this track...hope you enjoy the great harmonica along with the quirky lyrics!

The Album is called Salutations from earlier this year. https://youtu.be/3eJCyJ8vhJM

Sent wi' th'ipad

All the small things...

I have to admit, I'v taken up fly fishing....

Not the boring, sat on a riverbank with a flask and a cane rod, casting for some old wiley trout but actually fishing for flies...with a big net on a long pole...much more fun and I'm getting pretty dexterous at it too!

The reason behind it is to keep the surface clear of creepy crawlees and ensuring the pool keeps looking at its best and sparklingly crystal clear. Some of the lucky bugs fished out are still alive and manage to get liberated but most meet a watery end in minutes and then float about looking unsightly.

That's where I step in...

You also won't believe the amount of insect life that finds its way through and into the filters. Every day I am faced with a mass carnage of insect casualties that have nipped in for a swift drink and not been able to escape, or accidentally flown too close and underestimated the viscosity of the surface. Some wriggle about for a while before getting filtrated to the infinity end and then over the lip into oblivion, ending up in the filtration system's dark underworld.

To date there has been an amazing variety of flies, wasps, bees, ants, butterflies and moths, even a rhinoceros beetle and the occasional unlucky praying- mantis. Every morning it's a surprise as to what gets found in the belly of the aqua-vac or inside the filters of the pumps along with a few leaves. Not had a scorpion yet but Iv seen a couple around.

Tight Lines Chaps...

Oh yeah, here's another small thing I spotted on the way back from Florence today...cool eh?

Blink 182 bring you this track from the archives and a raucous blast from 1999, a great pop song from the album 'Enema of the State'.

https://youtu.be/9Ht5RZpzPqw

 Sent wi' th'ipad

Fill in the blank....

The Chianina is one of the oldest breeds of cattle in the world. A famous Italian breed that has been reared in Tuscany, Umbria and Lazio for 2,200 years....wow...Bulls can weigh in excess of 1600 kilos and as they are bred mainly for beef so it was a shame not to sample rather a large lump of the stuff.

Purchased yesterday from Claudio's, a faboulous local shop, cum deli-cum butchery-cum fruitery-cum-bakery-cum-off-licence.....(well you get the idea, it sells everything!)...any shop that has dozens of massive hams hanging up when you go in and smells of fresh bread is a winner in my book, and this one is ten minutes up the road towards Cortona. The owner, who is also the butcher, has his own farm in the next village, Montella, where he also farms the Chianina cattle.

A favourite of Tuscan cuisine, the 'Bistecca alla Fiorentina' is a 'T' bone, grilled over a wood fire, seasoned with only pepper and olive oil after cooking and served rare, accompanied obviously by a bold, local Tuscan red.....so we'll have to give it a try, eh?

I refuse adamantly to photograph plates of food so this is the best I can do here....you will have to 'fill in the blank'...

'Fill in the blank' is the title track off the 2016 album 'Teens of Denial' by US Indie band 'Car Seat Headrest' -  first attracted to this scratchy guitar track following hearing it on 6Music...you won't be disappointed here!

https://youtu.be/s_a1hPwXiWw

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Dusty Spring Field....

There are lots of jobs to do here so it's nice to have a lackey to set to work every now and then in the front fields. This lackey seemed to come with plenty of agricultural experience, some basic old tractor driving qualification and claimed that more recently had driven a 'Yanmar'!

 

She was fitted with some FFP3 RPE, safety sandals and bottle of cold water and sent off to mow the front field on the little Barbierri with the front and rear mowers!

It certainly was a 'Dusty Spring Field'.......

You will notice that I have cleverly used the wonderful 'Dusty Springfield's name for the title of the blog so you can have any song you like, I suppose, but I'm going to choose a Dusty classic ; 'I only want to be with You'.

https://youtu.be/osVaF4t-zFc

Sent wi' th'ipad