Regeneration

This is the scene below Casa Margherita where someone is wielding a chainsaw and bringing an old abandoned olive grove back into production. Always a pleasure to see but it will be a few years before they are back into full production.

When groves such as these are brought back into production it is often impossible to prune back to something so they cut the truck about 1.5 metres above the ground and will then develop 3 or 4 branches to produce a bowl shape from this cut point.

Valentines Day

Looking for that great Valentines Day gift idea then why not adopt an olive tree. The tree of life for the love of your life. Go to www.casa-margherita.com to find out more.

This evenings sunset

Fantastic colours.

End of the hunting season

January marks the end of the hunting season and so for the next seven months you are safe to wander the groves and hills of Umbria knowing that these hunting hides are empty.Mostly these are much better hidden than this one here.

One time Rachel almost had her head blown off by a neighbour as she walked up to her studio unaware that there was a hide hidden just off her route.

A winter's sunset

The winters sunset's here in Umbria are often fantastically vibrantly colored. A visual treat even when in the depth of winter - boiler not working, wood won't light etc.

The balm of nature.

70 years on

The Allied advance up the length of Italy was a slow and bloody campaign against the German in 1944/45.

Today saw the some of the surviving combatants gather at the Anzio landing site near Rome for what for some maybe their last visit.

There is a Commonwealth grave nearby below the imposing hill upon which lies Assisi. There is a group of Italians who look after the cemetery and they have each adopted a number of the soldiers graves. These they visit and maintain. It is moving place as the soldiers were generally in their early 20's and the war had so few months to go.

RIP

Che schifo

Browsing the net earlier I came across what at first sight seemed like a great recipe for a chocolate mousse made with olive oil. Always a sucker for recipes using olive oil I delved deeper.

For some reason the creator of the recipe listed the ingredients as including "light olive oil". What the. What is light olive oil? As my olive oil resource online says "In the U.S., flavorless and often low quality (refined) oil is sold as "lite" or "light" oil for a premium price. The "light" designation refers to flavor, not caloric content, as all olive oil has the same amount of calories. There is no official definition of lite or light". Thanks to the Olive Oil Source website.