Clearing the land

Spent this afternoon cutting the grass in the grove with a grass strimmer. Because we had so much rain the grass this year is very high and think and is still wet and claggy underneath making it quite slow work to cut it down. You might think that it would be best to wait for the grass to dry out but each day is slightly warmer than the previous and I have 10,000 sq metres to do so I need to get going.

Inter Milan completed the triple over the weekend - La Liga, Coppa Italia and on Saturday the Champions League. This will obviously make Jose Mourinho even more unbearable than he is already but at least it seems he won't be working in Italy next season or ever again. I don't think he has particulary enjoyed his time here.

Trevi Farmers Market

Today was the 4th Sunday of the month and so it was the monthly farmers market in Trevi.

For the first time this year the weather was sunny and so there was a good turnout of stallholders - including Casa Margherita - and there were a lot of people browsing. These included a good number of tourist from the UK, Australia, America and other parts of Italy.

So overall everyone was a bit chattier and friendly and it was therefore a nice way to spend Sunday morning.

I bought some potatoes and a kilo of peas which were lovely and sweet most of which I managed to eat at the market.

Came home and within a hour saw two quite large grass snakes one of which was around the house being chased by our Westie, Winnie, and the other in our veg garden which I dispatched with a rake.

La Panda

Here it is, the Casa Margherita company car. A classic 1986 Fiat Panda 750 Fire in a rather fetching light olive drab!

Affectionately known as Alf (short for Alfonso) its a great car - basic in the extreme but goes and goes and goes. No expensive extras on this one.

These are a very common site here and its easy to see why as they are small, go forever, cheap to run ........... style icons.

Umbria - Cuore Verde

Umbria is known as the green heart of Italy. As well as being in the physical centre of Italy, one of the reasons for this could be the quantity of olives being grown. There are roughly 6.5 million olive trees in Umbria.

Those trees produce nearly 10 million litres of olive oil but most of this production is by small businesses such as, Casa Margherita, with a relatively small number of trees.

Umbria is also the only region in Italy where all of the production of olive oil is covered by DOP status. So you can be assured of the quality of Umbrian oil.

The sun returns

After what seems like forever, bit in reality is only three weeks of very wet weather, the sun has finally returned.

This has signaled a frenzy of activity on the local hillsides with people pruning olives, moving the grass in the grove, burning prunings etc. A release of the pent up frustrations of the past few weeks.

We also today have finished our small garden design project and we think it looks good - our neighbour does as well which is the most important thing. Will post a photo when I can.

Hoopoe

This pair of Hoopoe were photographed this morning as they searched for insects amongst the freshly cut grass of our neighbours grove.

They are migratory birds that we often have around here and are generally quite inquisitive and playful as well as being very striking to look at.

Garden design update

The rain has finally relented here so we spent a few hours working on our friend's garden. We planted the lovely Prunus they have bought together with the rambling rose and the hedging plants. Will go back tomorrow to complete the planting hopefully.

Thought Alonso had a fabulous drive in Monaco starting from the pit lane and finishing 6th - subject to the Mercedes appeal. Still think Ferrari in with a shout.