August 2014

We went with friends to the Montilaise faire and had a wonderful time one of the best community food events we've ever attended, based around the duck although we started with a mixed Tuscan hor'derve, 4 slices of beget with different pates and heaps of salami, prosciutto and bressola followed by Mike had pici al ragu and I had a pizza with mozzarella and pesto, lovely and crisp too, all that and a ltr of wine for 22 euros, amazing. Our friends had pici with walnuts, steak and chips so a real mixed offering. It all arrived hot and plentiful. It was attended by people from all over the area and seating was at a premium, we were glad to have arrived early on the 3rd day too. We'll certainly go back in September to the next event which will have a different theme.

The 1st Sunday in every month there's a street market in Citta della Pieve where artisans, traders, food producers display their wears. We went for the first time and bought some wonderful cards and gift. We only discovered this through a friend who was astonished we knew nothing about it, typical of the comunes they tell you little about anything they assume you know, we ran into lots of people we know and enjoyed the festive atmosphere. We did find a poster announcing the fact that every weekend there would be some sort of market and musical event for the month, so lots for holiday folk to do and suddenly most large local places also have a market on the 1st Sunday so another to try next month.

While shopping we got offered a beautiful Jaguar car by a harried looking Italian man who said it was his wifes and too big for the garage. Very tempted but it wouldn't have made the drive up to the house, not to mention the gas gussling engine.

We had very strange clouds over the house for 2 days, they looked like UFO's. Then the biggest brightest moon for 20 years shone light day from the 9th through the week making it difficult to watch the falling stars but it looked so close you could reach out and touch it.

Had yet another surprise Sally and family rented a villa for a week near by and came to lunch on her birthday with her 2 girls, so grown up and polite (perhaps they were just shocked into compliance by meeting us for the first time), and Andrew who took a bus-man's holiday and sorted out an issue with one of our spare hard drives so Mike could back up 4 years hard work creating scenery for his computer flight simulation system. It was a very pleasant afternoon, chatting and watching the girls play in the pool.

Mike went to fly his radio controlled planes as the weather had improved so much, but strange cross winds and down drafts kept him on the ground and he watched para-gliders struggle to get air-borne as one was dragged face down across the field another had the parachute twist and collapse before he was air borne, not for the faint hearted was his comment, he's going to stick to fixed winged planes.

Helen and Pat arrived via Fabro, so much easier to get on and off, in the last week – it doesn't seem like a year since we all saw each other at all, and spent the last days of the month lazing by the pool, watching the squirrels steal the walnuts, run along the fence and dive into the woods to hide them – very entertaining. The grass seemed to have stopped growing so all we had to do was water the plant pots each evening and keep the pool clean.

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