A Belle Epoch experience

We have pulled ourselves away from our piece of paradise for a few days of abandoned pleasure at the Italian lakes with our friends. Yesterday was spent strolling around Stresa and Mergozzo, then dropping into one restaurant for lunch and two more to meet the owners who are friends of our friends. It was not too difficult to accept their offers of prosecco, homemade bread and air dried meats and dinner was certainly unnecessary after a day of continuous dining. Tomorrow we will venture out on Lago Maggiore to Isola Bella and spend a few hours at the island's palazzo and formal garden before returning to Mergozzo to enjoy a tasting experience at one of the restaurants from today, a Michelin 2 star establishment. But that's tomorrow. Tonight I watch the dark shapes of mountains on the other side of the lake and listen to the geese chattering on the shore.

 

 

 

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Even better!?

I continue to be flabbergasted with my climbing rose. At the risk of boring my readers, I post a third photo...I am sure it is even better than earlier photos!?

 

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14 plates!?

Yesterday we had a break from house and land duties and escaped with some friends to a litte hilltop village near Alba called Bossolasco. The village hosts a rose festival every year on the first Sunday of June. Today the roses were hung heavy with buds and some roses were already blooming. We walked the streets first before stopping at a bar for an aperitivi, then settling down at a restaurant for lunch. The lunch consisted of 4 courses and 14 plates. Mmm...we didn't really need that aperitivi after all...

 

 

 

 

 

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Retaining walls and steps

We have recently discovered the ingenious ways in which local farmers use scrap timber, bamboo and prunings to landscape and shore up their steep land. Stu has been keen to use these ideas on our own land and has created a retaining wall and steps. He has even used some of our rubble as a firm base on which to lay the bricks for the steps.

The retaining wall will support our asparagus patch. After constructing it, he planted ten very strange-looking asparagus roots which will apparently give us spears next year. Now we wait...

The steps will transition us from terrace to terrace. This first lot of steps will take us down from the main garden path to the lower vege patch where Stu will soon plant carrots, lettuce, zucchini and peppers...

 

 

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The jackhammer's out again!

During winter, I had a "good idea", which involved removing a wall to make a bigger, brighter and airier space for the downstairs bathroom/laundry. The wall had compromised the integrity of the original house so has always been a source of annoyance to me. As with all of my ideas, this one was met with horror and resistance...so I planted the seed and waited for it to germinate. And sure enough it burst open in the warm spring sunshine and developed into Stu's idea (!?). So this week we started on the preparation and demolition work for the job. First we moved the bathroom sink and shower into the rustico for storage and safe keeping. Then we moved the washing machine and tub into a temporary laundry in the rustico bathroom. Finally we moved the linen cupboards into their new permanent location in the cantina. We had to leave the claw footed bath in situ because it was too heavy to move. Stu then demolished the brick and gyprock wall which has been dividing the space into two rooms (it used to be one room). There was plumbing in the wall so he had to tie the pipes to the ceiling to support them and be careful with the jackhammer. He left a section of the wall which will form part of the cupboard in which the laundry will be located. Next, Stu will lift the floor tiles to completely expose the plumbing so that we can progress with the next job: an upgrade of the septic system.

 

 

 

 

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A celebration of seasonal food...polenta and asparagus

It is polenta and asparagus season and both are celebrated in Piemonte with local festivals held in villages all over the region. Today I made my own little celebration for lunch..."fresh asparagus grilled with garlic and balsamic on a bed of soft polenta"

 

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Cinghiale buster stage 2

A few days ago I posted a story about the threat that cinghiale pose to our growing potatoes. Being halfway through Spring, it is highly likely that they have piglets by now and are hungry. We have heard them across the creek for a few weeks now but one night this week I heard one very close to the house, so close that it woke me up. For half an hour I stood at the window scanning our paddocks for rogue boar in the moonlight. Today I was weeding the garden when I heard a grunt that seemed to be only metres away. I dropped my tools, fled inside and locked the door! We are now obsessed with protecting our tatties. Every morning we rush out to the potato patch to see if it has survived the night. Yesterday we invested in a roll of red and white tape which Stu placed around the patch before dark. So far so good...

 

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Full bloom!

Ooh lovely! How will I survive when they are finished!? If you look closely at the bottom photo, you will see a little self-sown walnut tree that I am nursing until it gets a bit older when I will transplant it. How do I know it's a walnut? Because I thought similar seedlings were weeds and have been pulling them out only to find their roots stemming from a walnut! This season I am also finding countless wisteria seedlings, which I have also been uprooting only to pull an entire wisteria pod out of the ground! In my newfound wisdom, I am now saving every little tree that tries to survive in my garden beds...

 

 

 

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Strange veges

I often find strange veges at the market stall where we buy our fresh food. A few months ago a friend encouraged me to buy turnip greens which I had never heard of. He also showed me what to do with them and we have since become dedicated fans of these leaves. This week, I spied gigantic beans on the market stall so I purchased a few handfuls of them. As soon as we arrived home, I sought the assistance of internet to figure out what they were and what to do with them. It turns out that my mega beans were broad beans which I utterly abhorred as a child! Since the website also called them fava beans, which I have heard good things about, I read on. I learned that these beans actually have two shells: the thick outside pod as well as a soft shell on each bean! I was instructed to remove the light green beans from the pod and parboil them in their soft shells, then remove the soft shell and parboil the dark green bean. Well, I'm afraid I didn't get as far as the dark green bean because the bean in its soft shell (previously known as a broad bean) was exquisitely sweet! How could I discard all that soft shell fibre when it already tasted so good? I put them aside for dinner but admit to spending the afternoon snacking on them. Luckily there were just enough left to show a little green in the pasta I cooked for dinner...

Fava beans in their pod (left) and their soft shell (right)

Fava beans in our pasta

 

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Poppies

The poppies are coming out! In previous years, I have been excited just to have one...but this year we have quite a few! This time of year always makes me think of our ANZACs...and living in Europe makes the story even more meaningful. For those of you who are not familiar with the acronym, ANZAC stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corp. In 1915, the Corp fought in the doomed allied expedition on the Gallipoli Peninsula. Eight thousand Australians were slaughtered on the beach and steep cliffs before the allies finally withdrew.

 

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Cherries!

Our two little cherry trees are trying hard to give us fruit. One tree has a total of 23 cherries on it, while the other has 6! Not quite enough for cherry pie this year...but we live in hope. Good things cant be rushed.

 

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Cinghiale buster

Our friends have advised us to decorate our potato patch with bright colour to deter cinghiales. We have seen fruit trees draped in aluminium foil so we thought we'd try this first. Although we suspect this might be to deter birds, we hope that it will be effective for cinghiale too.

 

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Potato patch

A few weeks ago, Stu planted our seed potatoes. While friends have complained about cinghiale digging up their entire patches, we have so far escaped such an assault. Of course, this could mean one of several things: that we have no cinghiales, that our patch is too close to the house for cinghiales or that there is nothing worth eating under those luscious leaves!

The patch two weeks ago

The patch today

 

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Shade under the wisteria

Where once there were flowers on the wisteria there are now leaves. They have given me the perfect excuse to pot some flowery plants and don the table with a brightly coloured tablecloth. The leaves are giving us a beautiful cool shade over the pergola for our breaks on sunny days. The much younger wisteria on the fienile isn't doing too bad either...

 

 

 

 

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Stu's incinerator

We try hard to be self sufficient at least in terms of growing some of our own food and managing our own rubbish. Enter Stu's incinerator, one of about five old standalone wood fireplaces that we found in the house when we purchased it. Using this will allow us to keep on top of our paper and cardboard during the warmer seasons when we don't have our fireplaces going. It also means we are less likely to cause a bush fire! Stu has put it on an old ceramic tile near the rock wall in the vege garden where it will give him a good close supply of ash for his potatoes, tomatoes and gooseberries.

 

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More roses

Here's the climbing rose again with the sun on it and in ever more bloom. The perfume wafts into our bathroom and floats around us every time we walk past it. To the right of the climber we have two non-climbing roses which are also blooming...the cream one has been established for a couple of years but the orange one was a gift for my birthday yesterday and has only just been planted.

 

 

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