Tuesday, July 24, 2012

A view of Trevi this morning




These are rainclouds and not smoke. Today we have had quite a lot of rain which has been a relief to everything as it has been too hot and too dry for too long.

Monday, July 23, 2012

The scourge of southern Europe



No not Mrs Merkel in this instance but wildfires. This is smoke hanging in the valley just the other day. Nothing like as serious as those in Portugal, Spain and Greece but the first time I have seen this here.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Do I not like that


We've had a summer heatwave now for about a month with temperatures in the high 30°c. This on top of a winter where we had only about 40% of the normal rainfall means that the olives, whilst very hardy are starting to let some of the fruit go. They dry up and are dropped from the tree. Not a good sight.

The forecast has some very heavy rain forecast over the next week which may halt this process.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Don't publish in summer

Obsessing as I am about the Casa Margherita cookbook - Cuoco I finished off the ISBN application today. For those who don't know the ISBN is the bar code on the back of a book. Each country has it's own body that issues these numbers. The Italian one is closing down for holidays soon which means that any application for an ISBN received after the 25th July will not be worked on until they return on the 27th August. You relax guys take the weight off................

Monday, July 9, 2012

Gerard Depardieu

Feel a bit like his character in Jean de Florette at the moment as the pump for the water tank that supplies all the outside taps is broken so we are having to siphon water from the house water tank and water the garden and veg patch by hand. It's blistering hot as well.

Life on the land eh.

Saturday, July 7, 2012

We are nearly there...


It's getting very very close. Can you feel it?

The recipes have been cooked and eaten. Cooked and eaten. Cooked and eaten again. The text has come together and the photos all taken. The design been designed. and now it's at the printer............