The annual visit

The grove below our house is owned by Avvocato Finocchi who lives and works in Spoleto but spend the greater part of August in his summer house in Trevi.

Every year he comes up with Alveiro who tends them on his behalf to see what the harvest prospects are. I also work with Alveiro when pruning my trees as he has spent his life working the land and so it is good to tap into his knowledge.

They make a strange couple Alveiro and the Avvocato but it is good that he sees it as important to look after the olives rather than just abandon them as others have done around us.

Pizza pizza

The best pizzeria in Trevi has re-opened its doors again after a refurbishment - La Casareccia. We will eat outdoors in the main Piazza and have a pizza with a thin thin crust straight from the oven and not a hint of pineapple to be seen on the menu. Washed down with a bit of their decent house white and then on to listen to a concert.

Il Chingiale

I love this monoprint that Rachel has done of the Italian wild boar - Il Chingiale.

We saw them quite close to the house very late at night one time but since then the sightings have been rare and from afar. Which is probably actually good news.

Anyway, a New Yorker got in contact with rachel the other day to ask if he could use the image on a limited number of bottles of wine he is producing for friends later this year. Rachel said yes of course - as long a we get a bottle as well! Check more image out at www.rkwilliams.com

Making hay

This is a shot of the valley in Manciano where they have been busy making hay. Sometimes the round bales can look like some sort of art installation when you see them scattered around a field.

The Shepherd's Seat

It's all ready and waiting for him. Lunch is in the plastic bag hanging from the tree and there is nice bit of shade for him and the dogs for a couple of hours during the heat of the day.

Nice bit of pork

Not really but we have just planted  leeks, cauliflower and broccoli which are all excellent accompaniments to a nice bit of roast pork in the cooler days of autumn.

The orto (veg garden) is doing us proud at the moment with a regular supply of salad items as well as beetroot, zucchini, potatoes. The chillis, peppers and tomatoes are all bit behind but will soon be producing.

You can never finesse an orto in terms of what it produces so as there only two of us we give any excess we have to neighbours. These tend not to be Italian as they all have their own orto.

What are olives worth?

Here you see our house (blurred in the middle of the photo!) set in the middle of the olives groves. In times gone by olives were worth considerably more than they are now and indeed if you had olives that you were likely to be relatively well off.

The converse of this is that olives, around harvest time, were likely to be stolen and so houses or outposts like ours set in the middle of olive groves were good vantage points and so used to protect the olives. Our neighbours have told us a story that someone was shot and killed from our house trying to steal olives from the surrounding trees. This was between the two World Wars and so likely to be during the depression years.