It’s like magic, innit? On 15 March the first seeds poked baby heads above ground!
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Monday March 7th, 2011. Posted by Alex:
It could be worse. After all, although there is no reason to believe he is actually stupid, he is clearly not particularly bright. He was trained from birth to believe that he was a thick cut above almost anyone else. This putative superiority is inherent. It does not depend on the things the rest of us try to trade on: wit, intelligence, looks, charm, physical prowess, hard work, artistic accomplishment… That’s pretty much what “hereditary monarchy” means, isn’t it? He gets his £249,000 a year from the queen just for being, well, a cut above. After all, it is unlikely but not inconceivable that he could become King of England. So he really is a cut above, isn’t he? If I may borrow a term from computer marketing, these “features” of his personality are probably just what’s needed for somebody who is going to swan around fixing arms deals with the oil-rich leaders of oppressive regimes. Correct me if that’s not what his job was. So, well done Andy for that. And if you think it’s immoral, as you may well, take it up with the British Government and the arms manufacturers, not the poor old Duke of York. If the royal family actually had significant power, somebody with those features could be a tad more worrying. It could be worse. Friday February 25th, 2011. Posted by Alex:
If you search for “Tuscan Garden” on the net you will find more about how to make mock Tuscan gardens in Melbourne or in Oregon than about gardens in Tuscany. And if you add “how to” into your search criteria, you are more likely to find out about the bits you need to make your mock Tuscan garden in Surrey than about how to look after a garden that happens to be in Tuscany. What is more, there are plenty of blogs about renovating houses in Tuscany, but not much about trying to get a garden going. Perhaps we have found a niche? I doubt it, but this seems as good a place as any to record attempts, successes and failures. Look for the “gardening” tag! There is more than half an acre of land attached to the house, and it is very varied. At the top, next to the village pond, there is what with laughing optimism we call the “lawn”, which is on one level with a tiled “patio”. The tiles were an extremely bad choice on the part of the lads who renovated the house. You’ve heard the saying “slippery when wet”? I’ll say no more. This patio was graced with an instant “gazebo”. Not being fond of it, somehow we forgot to take the fabric down in the autumn, as a result of which the snow brought it down, rather more permanently, in the winter. Moving down a level there is a stone-paved area for which we have great hopes, although it can be extremely hot in the summer, and at the moment it’s necessary to walk all the way round the house to get to it, so we didn’t use it a lot last year. We have plans, but that’s for another day. Moving away from the house, but staying on this level, we have what with laughing optimism we called the “meadow”. On arrival last May it was overgrown with a spiky, not very pleasant weed that is common in this area and whose name I haven’t yet found out. Did you notice the past tense in the first sentence of this paragraph? That’s because it is now part meadow and part “orto”, as vegetable plots are known around here.  Meadow 2009 - picture from estate agent
 March 2010 - some clearing started
Beyond the meadow the ground drops away towards the local creek. Part of the drop is extremely steep – a small cliff, to put it bluntly, and part of the drop is more gentle. On our arrival it was overgrown with brambles, creepers and other fast-growers; it could be seen to undulate, and there was a suspicion of old terraces under the vegetation. At the bottom of the slope we reach the boundary of our land, and the ground continues for another 30 flat metres before reaching the creek. The next picture really only shows how overgrown it was – the configuration of the land makes it hard to take a photograph that shows what’s what. At the right, which is the bottom of the slope, you can see the tomatoes in the neighbour’s orto, on the flat ground next to the river.  July 2010 - undulating and overgrown
The greenery also makes the next picture hard to interpret: we are looking from near the river straight at the green bank which we now know to have terraces underneath.  July 2010 - the undulating slope
Last summer I did a bit of work and started to bring order to some areas. It was soon obvious, though, that if there was to be any worthwhile success we would have to change over to my favourite kind of gardening. In a nutshell, this is the “get-a-bloke-to-come-and-tell-him-what-to-do” method. The first thing was to find a “bloke”, but we did, and what it good find he has been. The next picture is very much the same view as the one above, taken from just a little bit closer. The cast iron bath had been dumped over the edge off by previous owners. Some weeks after this photograph was taken it succumbed to the mightiest of blows that I could manage with a heavy hammer, and has been taken away piece by piece.  November 2010 - the terraces appear
The brown patch in the middle of the picture below is where the bath was. You may see steps being created leading from the meadow down to the terraces.  December 2010 - two terraces
With the help we needed, the clearing the meadow has gone on apace; a section of the meadow has been very thoroughly dug over to prepare it for vegetables; the undulating slope has been cleared to reveal terraces (though, hey, I got started on that myself!); rustic steps have been put in to help get from the meadow to the three terraces below; the “lawn”, “patio”, and “meadow” have been fenced, so that we can share them with the dogs without having to watch them all the time or have them tied up; the orto has been fenced, so that the dogs won’t dig holes in it. And more. It must be admitted that at this stage things are not exactly looking pretty. But they are looking hopeful!  January 2011 - frost and more clearing
And then the big day: the first vegetable seeds were planted: early peas. Two rows of them. The 23rd of February 2011 was, admittedly, a little bit on the late side, but you can’t do everything all at once. They were also planted in what is held to be the wrong phase of the moon – according to local lore, peas should be planted when the moon is waxing. You can get leaflets from the seed and plant suppliers to help you coordinate your sowing with the moon’s phases. Saints’ days play a part too, so it’s a jolly good job there are experts to work out the calendar for us. There is obviously scope for somebody to publish a timetable that also takes into account the movements of planets through the astrological houses, but I haven’t seen this done yet. Anyway, by the middle of March little green curly things should start to come out of the soil, and by the end of April we might even be eating them.  Feb 25 2011 - orto prepared
 Feb 25 2011 - the work is under guard
 Early peas
 The very first seed goes in
Frankly, it looks a bit of a mess at the moment – but wait until spring really gets going!  Meadow and orto
 Feb 25 2011 - the terraces now Monday February 21st, 2011. Posted by Alex:
I love the Bourne trilogy. But I do know that it is a trilogy of, yes, films. Fiction. For entertainment. The real CIA, however, seems to want to live that lifestyle out. Raymond Davis, initially said to have been an “administrative and technical official” attached to the American consulate in Lahore, is now supposed to have diplomatic immunity. It has become clear that he was a CIA agent – his wife referred reporters to an enquiry number in Washington, which turned out to be the CIA. The television company who made this discovery has, apparently removed the CIA reference from its website at the request of the US government. (The Guardian) What does he want diplomatic immunity for? Well, stopping at traffic lights and shooting two men in the back several times, at least one of them as he ran away. I really didn’t know that “diplomatic immunity” gave “diplomats” licence to charge around foreign cities with a semi-automatic Glock and shoot people dead. I don’t doubt that “diplomatic immunity” is abused, but surely it doesn’t permit murder on the open streets? Just to make matters worse, two armed Americans rushed out in a Land Cruiser with false number plates to try to retrieve this “diplomat”. They crushed a motorcyclist, killing him, in the course of this dismal, failed enterprise. I’m sure they felt like film stars at the time! Davis, at least, is for the moment in prison in Pakistan awaiting legal process. America would not allow the Pakistani authorities to question the two occupants of the land cruiser, who have now been spirited out of the country. Okay, there are two unrealistic things about Jason Bourne: mostly he succeeds, and he is not devoid of morals. As far as we can tell, the real CIA agents here only have the running around and killing people to their credit. Tuesday February 1st, 2011. Posted by Alex:
Oh dear, no other blog since the last bonfire! Still, perhaps it works well to have the two next to one another. This time it was the turn of the San Geminiano boys to try to outdo the San Nicolo crew. In the last blog post I had tried to give an impression of the way the fire blazes up, so this time just a small extract. Wednesday January 19th, 2011. Posted by Alex:
In January of each year there are two huge rival bonfires in Pontremoli. You can read more details at the Ciao Lunigiana blog, so I’ll mainly give a few pictures from Monday night. First, the flavour:
(That isn’t Voldemort at the top is it, by any chance?) It’s preceded by drinks and nibbles:
Finally a view of the houses in the firelight:
Tuesday January 4th, 2011. Posted by Alex:
Oh dear, late again! Other local bloggers have informed the world about the cold, the snow, and then the mighty rains – I’ll have to try and catch up briefly later. But first I wanted to report on our visit to the Questura (Police Headquarters) in Massa in pursuit of the documents proving Sarah’s right to stay here. We had heard worrying stories about this place, but I have to say that in fact it all went reasonably smoothly. Having read others’ accounts, we did at least realise that while it is necessary to go on the morning of your appointment, the time of your appointment is – what’s the word? – merely notional. Basically, you turn up early and you stand in the queue. It’s also true that there is nothing that resembles a (naively hoped-for) waiting room. You stand on the steps and wait your turn:  Hopeful queue Again, having been warned that things could be difficult, we were given some extremely kind help by the bilingual Giorgio. So while a visit like this is not my favourite way of passing a cold morning, it must also be said that once we got to the top of the stairs we were seen, papers were examined and stamped, no strange or unexpected further queries were raised, there were no unexpected problems and we were able to leave with a reasonable hope that the application will be processed. So take heart – they are not monsters! Tuesday December 7th, 2010. Posted by Alex:
When Cyndi Lauper sang those lyrics it sounded like such a good idea. But the song did not have the politicians’ coda: “… but mine are a matter of National Security”. The Guardian is currently carrying a piece by John Naughton, and I’d like to encourage anybody to read it. Here are a few lines that I found particularly to-the-point:
You would do better, of course, to read the whole article. But before I go, I’d also like to repeat one of the comments (yes, mine):
Sunday December 5th, 2010. Posted by Alex:
Look, after several years in Australia I got to know several people from New Zealand, and jolly nice they all are! This is not about them. It’s about the bush, vine, tree, call-it-what-you-will, two of which were flourishing in the garden here in the Lunigiana when we moved in. If ”flourishing” is really the word – they are large. They get bigger at a speed that makes them invasive and hard work to control. They produced a lot of fruit, and a lot of leaves that I have scraped together to make compost. That all sounds quite a lot like flourishing. Here is a picture I took this morning:
The problem is that even now, as the fruit hangs unappetisingly amongst the grey branches and withered leaves, they are still as hard as potatoes. I’m starting to think the whole thing is a waste of space. Friday December 3rd, 2010. Posted by Alex:
You might think that I’m talking about the jig, “Apples in Winter”. Here is somebody playing it quite nicely. But no, it’s not even a tune that I can play. It’s just that I couldn’t resist showing you this picture:
On a more prosaic level, we have been clearing the slope below what we, with laughing confidence, call the “meadow”, revealing some nice terracing and some very difficult areas.
If you are interested, “A” is the common path, which takes a bend just off the bottom left of this picture and goes down to the river. “B” is the lowest of our terraces, fit for growing something, and larger than it looks here. “C” is the second terrace, quite wide and promising at the far end but at the near end (bottom left) it peters out into a slope “D” that would be difficult to cultivate. Now that it is clear we have discovered – as you have no doubt noticed – plenty of junk that had been thrown down from above, including, yes, a cast iron bath. “E” is the highest of these three “lower” terraces. At the far end it is pleasant and flat, passes under the kiwi tree. A kiwi tree might sound cute, but it is not necessarily a good idea in this area. Then again, this terrace meets the difficult slope, “F”, where at the moment we are thinking of putting rhododendrons to cover it tidily and keep the soil from crumbling away. Summary: a lot to do yet. |
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