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

So today, Friday 13th, has been the second and final day of the 2019 Vendemmia for the organic Syrah wine of the Doveri Cantina, near to Cortona. An early six o clock start saw us sipping coffee and munching creme- pastries, a usual pastime before a busy morning in the vineyard....and was it busy, wow....In the cool of the morning I watched many big strong, rough looking girls and boys scurrying up and down the rows, snipping away at the bunches of ripe grapes as the morning sun came up and before long the crates were overflowing and were being loaded on the awaiting truck. I thought it best, as a non paid-up union member, not to get too involved so I took on a self-appointed overseeing management role otherwise I’m sure I could have lost a finger or two or worse, at the bottom of one of the longer rows where no-one would have heard my pathetic whimpering screams. So, after an hour or so watching (managing) this impressive spectacle of organised labour the boss and I returned...

There are probably a number of folk out there that have a fair bit of wine knowledge but as some wise old scabby pigeon once told me “you never stop learning...” so I thought I’d share my wine experiences and knowledge with you as this week we had the Vendemmia...the Italian word used only for the harvest of grapes for wine production. Per  vendemmia  si intende la raccolta delle uve da vino, in quanto nel caso delle uve da tavola si usa semplicemente il termine raccolta. This in short is the day when the grapes are declared as ready for harvesting as they can be, the moons is in the right phase and the man from Del Monte has said  “YES”.  At this point in time you need a crowd of folk to pick them, some clean plastic crates to put them in and a big truck to take them back to the ‘Cantina’ for processing...and just for all you wine romantics il just quash this notion right now....it’s hot, sweaty and hard graft to fill up the crates in the hot suns...

Im sorry Father but it’s been nearly a year since my last confession...well 9 months or so...the time it takes to make a baby👶 , grow an avocado 🥑 , mature a wine🍷 , develop an ulcer🤷🏿‍♀️....errr, or none of the above.  Yes, I returned to the sunshine state of Tuscany 🇮🇹in the deep south of the Mediterranean homesick blues and have been here that long, contemplating and capitulating life as we know it. So now, as we head out of the summer sun and into the autumnal shade I thought that maybe it’s about the right time to put finger to keyboard again and spend a small amount of my loose time lolling about with my creative thoughts to blog critical comment and witty repartee as and when the mood takes me. So I looked back at my last post for a reference point to start from and saw the world at the time of my last post was being slated for being in such a mess, so, a good nine months on I’m glad all that is now behind us and the future is now looking incredibly ros...

What is wrong with The world these days? The whole place is in turmoil... I have just turned the idiot lantern on again for some uplifting festive cheer and there is Old MotherTeresa, the leader of the free world, stood there looking very old and grey and sporting a pained expression like she had just passed a big milestone...her backbench backstoppers voted her to go through to the next round but already I can hear the dulcet tones of Sir Allan of Sugar telling her ‘“It’s with great regret, but I’m going to be quite blunt...You’re a lightweight....You’re Fired! “ As temperatures plummet across Europe the vultures are circling and no-one seems to be in control of their own destiny? The Italian mafia have said that they are not going to supply any more drugs for the festive period unless Arch angel Angela of Mirkleshire stops sending them migrants.  In retaliation she has posted a selfie on Salvini’s Facebook page from the late night fling they had at the l...

elixir /ɪˈlɪksə,ɪˈlɪksɪə/ noun 1.  a magical or medicinal potion. "an elixir guaranteed to induce love" synonyms: potion ,  concoction ,  brew ,  philtre ,  decoction ;  When you have collected all the olives you have to get them to the local frantoia. These places are dedicating to processing the olives into oil and can get very busy. You need to book a slot so that you know the time your olives will go through the system so that you can be ready to collect the ‘Elixir’ at the end.  We arrived early and had the first slot. The weighed olives are tipped down a hole and sent up a belt to have any leaves blown away, then washed and augered up into several macerators before finally being pressed to death to make beautiful green peppery olive oil. For every 100kg, (quintale)of olives you get about a 14% ratio of oil, so about 14 litres. Bon appetito... RIP Pete She...

‘ Raccogliere le olive’ For the uninitiated, the olive harvesting in Tuscany goes on from October to December every year and peaks around tupping time, November 5th when absolutely everybody, whether they have olives or not, get out their nets, boxes, trailers and stand under their trees. It’s in their blood here and they can’t stop doing it and talking about it....everybody...everywhere! All the olives that are picked here are for processing, usually at the local frantoia, and pressed to turn them into a delicious green, peppery oil and it’s big, big business. You can forget that crap stuff you buy at the Lidl, this is the real deal. You need a few tools to do the job: Paletti = stakes for holding the edges of the net to stop the buggers rolling away. Cassetti = boxes take about 25kg and this year, with a bumper crop, one decent tree can fill 3 of these! Rete Olivastra= a bloody big net! Rastrelli = little rakes to use by hand to strip the olives off the branche...

Here you find us today in the Upper reaches of the Okavango delta... ... .through the morning mist a rare glimpse of a native hornbill and the eerie haunting call of a young lonely male Orangutan can be heard in the misty distance.... Ho..ho...only joking...not really....high up but still in Umbria. Quite atmospheric with the clouds still hanging about after all the recent rain...it’s been as wet as a tramps vest for the last few days! As the year starts to close, the wine and the oil has been pressed and bottled, the warm sunshine has retired and the vast woods have started to change to a golden colour, while large flocks of birds gather to fly off for their holidays and we find ourselves winding down with the clock... It’s quite a change from the summer and sorta feels quite sad.... Still.. .there’s more to the picture than meets the eye... . But look on the bright side....It’s Black ‘feckin’ Fridey!!.....Whoop, ‘Feckin’ Whoop!! You can’t esc...