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

Well it's the last day of September and we are still averaging 22/23C with almost everyday being incredibly warm and sunny....I keep banging on about it cos it's sooo different from the weary inclement weather in the north of England. It makes a real difference. Things are starting to 'green' up again. And a bit of winter veg is planted and growing nicely in the 'Orto'. It's a fantastic temperature for working outside, getting the garden sorted, getting the grass cut and having a hour or two of solitude every now and then with the strimmer. Admittedly Iv had to visit 'Trenti's' a couple of times just lately so that Maximillion, the main beardy fixing man round here, could put new bearings in the rear mower when it ceased and also fit some new drive belts but he's only in the next village and always very helpful with a smile. Proper rural service by proper rural fixing men! Iv also been spending a bit of time up in th...

Iv always thought that it's a strange word....foraging! To forage:   a wide search over an area in order to obtain something, especially food or provisions. synonyms: scavenge ,  hunt ,  search ,  look ,  exploration ,  quest ,  scout ,  probe "a nightly forage for food" Basically you are nicking stuff from Mother Earth...or is she is providing it for you to nick? Well, I'm guilty as charged....and I'm having great fun doing it. This is a great time of year for it and Iv been out in the mornings, carrying a brew and having a good scavenge. The local markets are currently full of 'Porcini', retailing at about €20 euros a kilo which is a 100% profit if you been out and got them for nowt on a walk. Iv not been as lucky as to find porcini but i do seem to do ok most mornings for the run of the mill fresh fungi that pokes up in abundance in yonder front field. There's loads of st...

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. ...

September is a great time to start to visit places like Florence. They get far, far too busy during the scorching summer months and you can't move for selfy-sticks fastened to idiots with paper maps. Today, the weather is perfect so I'm off on the train to the big city! Going from the little local station of Terontola it takes about an hour and a half until you get off at the end of the line at Santa Maria Novello(SMN),bang in the centre of Firenze. I know that there are days and days worth of museums and art galleries but today is just a stroll around my new nearest city of culture, just to get my bearings and I can tell from the start that its going to be slightly better than the previous city of culture I visited......Hull! Five minutes from SMN I head up through the busy Central Market, a foodies paradise and then passing through the Piazza Di San Lorenzo I suddenly turn a corner and look up.  You can't help but be impressed as you take in the sight of the huge 'Cat...

Ok, I admit that's sums were never my strongest area but I was good at Chemistry! Well it didn't take long for some 'Clever D...Trevor...ick' to point out that it was 5tons of logs and not 50 so I don't feel as good about stacking it all now...so thanks!🤓 This track by the late Ian Dury from 'New boots and panties'....great title too. https://youtu.be/eiulgP9kR7c Sent wi' th'ipad

As I settled down in my hammock for an afternoon snooze there was a knock at the door....well, there wasn't cos no-one knocks around here, they pull up the drive, honk and wait for someone to find them. This time it was the local woodsman from the top of the road who annually fetches the winter wood order, sometime in October. He is obviously keen this year and we must be on top of his list as on enquiring as to when the logs would arrive he uttered a word I wasn't expecting, "Adesso!"(Now!). Ten minutes later a tractor and trailer was backing up the drive and had dumped its full load full of logs at the back door. Right.....that will be the winter fuel here then... You order dry, seasoned firewood for the winter by the Quintali here. One Quintali is equivalent to 100kg or a ton, we just had 50 quintali delivered!  You can't get anymore Italian than "Cinquanta Quintali"... The load was a mix of local hardwoods from the nearby woods, dry and well seasoned...

The reluctant but happy guests left this morning and headed off to Florence and I headed off the other way, 35k along the 'Strada dei Vini' to Montepulciano. The place is synonymous with fine robust Italian wine but that is not, surprisingly, why I'm here. Todays visit is for a folklorist event being held here. The 'Bravio Delle Botti' is a popular annual event that takes place on the last Sunday in August. The spectacle is basically 8 teams of blokes from neighbouring districts of the town having a gruelling race to see who can push a barrel up the hill the quickest. It's been going on since medieval times and is still a popular event in the Tuscan calendar. The pushers (spingitori) have to push the barrels(Botti) full of delicious ' Nobile Di Montepulciano' up the steep cobbled streets to the finish at the steps of the Duomo in the main Piazza Grande and then the winners get a cloth flag(Bravio)...Is that it?? It...