Chianti - Day 17 to 19

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Day 17
Today we cleaned the flat from top to bottom…you know that feeling that it’s not really home until you’ve vacuumed under the sofa…no,… well maybe its just me. Anyway, we spent all morning scrubbing everything until it gleamed.
During the cleaning I discovered that we had a leaky sink in the kitchen so Jaime set to work fixing it for us. Unfortunately he cut two of his fingers on the sharp ridge under the sink - we promptly flushed out the cuts with disinfectant and then covered them in antiseptic cream – don’t worry he’s fine now.
He bravely put a surgical glove on over his cuts and then proceeded to spent a couple of hours cleaning out all the vacuum cleaners (as they also seemed to have acquired that lingering smell of wet dog that we previously came across in the car).

Day 18
It’s raining again….
We drove down to the village in order to post some letters and suddenly heard thunder in the distances….and then saw lightening! We zoomed back to the house and frantically ran around unplugging all electrical devices. I think I have mentioned that the house has been struck by lightening before and we don’t have a lightening conductor – a very peculiar custom as the area is renowned for its thunderstorms in late spring.
Anyway, we only saw one lightening flash for the whole of the day so needn’t have worried.
I finished my little project with the garden sign which I think turned out well and Jaime did some more work on the caretakers manual for us.

Day 19
The sun is shining again. I decided it was time to tackle the weeds around the house and set to work with my trusty wheelbarrow. The wild asparagus was taking root everywhere and proved a tricky customer to remove with all its thorny bits, but I managed it and the flowerbeds where soon freed of any little invaders. Although I do have some battle wounds in the form of scratches up and down my arms.
Jaime was strimming another olive terrace so I helped with the rock clearing for a couple of hours and although it is taking us forever, the next time we come to strimming the cleared terraces again it will be a breeze.

The asparagus season has just started here; the locals make a big family event of this and scour the landscape for the tiny little spears. I did manage to forage a handful, although it hardly seems worth it as its one huge plant with one tiny little spear. We ate them with lunch and they were tasty but I can’t say I’ll be too fussed in future.
Speaking of lunch….I made griddled aubergine, courgette and feta cheese with salad today and guess what Jaime came out with ‘Baked beans on toast would have been just fine for me’, haha, there’s no pleasing some people.

In the evening we went for a little walk to see if we could spot some wild boar and we certainly heard some but didn’t get to see any. A couple of bats did decide to give us a little flying show though, which lasted only seconds but was fab to watch!

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