One year on and another wedding

Eggy eggy

We seem to have a problem, we hope it might sort it's self out, it's soft shelled eggs.  It's a bit like some one was having a practiccal joke one morning leaving a water balloon type egg in the hen house, but no it's a real egg.  So far I've discvoered that it can be quite common for chickens to lay a soft egg every now and then, but if it continues it means there's a problem, either not enough calcium (which they should be having and most the other eggs are ok) or a poorly chicken.  What makes it harder is how to work out who's is who's egg. 

 

So while we woke up early to sit and watch the chickens to find out who laid when and what egg, drinking tea, I decided to leave Jo and make some scotch pancakes for breakfast.  Using my griddle pan which fits beautifully on the new oven and has two nice gas burners burning equally underneath.  The first time I've cooked on it with out burning the food at some point.  What a yummy breakfast and so far no signs of wobbly eggs.

Chick chick chicken

We have some new additions to our family... chickens. We rescued them with the help of these people from a battery farm who no longer needed them. Boy were they in a state, these photo's have been taken four weeks later as they explore there freedom in the garden, acess all areas including the carrots which may no longer be growing thanks to the fact that the feathery tops have been eaten by the chicks.

Let me introduce you to them Egwina (the boss), Chickpea (the noisey one and so named because her head was bold), Poulet, the rather sickly one but by no means at the bottom of the pecking order) and my favourite because she stayed near me to get away from the pecking Henreitta (the darkest and featherest of them all).

Thier fluffy white feathers haven't taken long to come back, in fact it was about a week that we noticed that they looked a little bit more plump, they still have bold patches. Poulets neck was the best seeing the feathers grow starting with the quills poking out of her neck almost prehistoric looking, and then waiting as the feathers poked out from within the quill getting longer and longer bit by bit.

RIP Tobias

Sadly our much loved family dog was put to sleep yesterday evening. Old man Toby was suffering from a cough for a few months and as the weeks went by he stopped eating and stopped jumping before it was decided that his heart wasn't strong enough to cope.

We'll never forget you jumping up at the kitchen window to see if we were still inside while you went out. Even how you reclaimed your youth when the youngster pups came to play at your feet and all you could do was jump up and down and bark. How you sat at the bottom of the stairs to make sure you weren't forgotten as we all talked and laughed upstairs. How your snoring became as loud as dad's. How you grew old gracefully with your silver beard.

RIP old man, Tobias, Toby, Thank you for all your laughs and love x

Day 7

An early start one that begins with the twitter of the chatting birds. To full from yesterdays meal we manage to eat our last egg from Casta Bellavista with some freshly home baked bread. Our suitcases packed and the bill paid (all I can say is Happy Honeymoon and it's breadsticks fort he rest of the week), we make our drive down the motorway to Florence.

This is the part were my mind will now be blanked, but before it is may i warn you DO NOT DRIVE INTO FLORENCE it's worse than London, well maybe not but lets say the stress levels were high. We managed to drive into Florence fairly straightforward only one wrong turn, but lots of Arrrrrggggghhhh's. With the car checked we decided to walk to the train station as it was just around the corner, we had an hours wait and on top of that the train was delayed.

The train from Florence to Rome was a eurostar non stop direct route, with booked seats, a very nice train journey that made the 1hour 15 mins go quickly.

At Rome we were greeted by our chauffeur who was waiting to take us to our hotel, through the hustle and bustle of the main roads to squeezing through the narrow cobbled ones.

Our hotel is off the main shopping street so we have easy access to a lot of areas, it's tucked away amongst lots of other buildings and is very basic but nice. We check in feeling exhausted and sit back and make our selves a brew (good old English for Jo and lemon and honey for me) before we brave the busy outside.

Fruity strawberry and peach – Day 6

We went for a drive to Pienze, Jo’s second favourite place. It’s not very built up, a little bigger than Cortona, but the little ‘old’ part is built up on the corner of a road, drive to fast and you might miss it.

Down pedestrian streets, passed little shops, lazily soaking up the sun gazing up at the variety of buildings, walking to the end to be hit by an open landscape of rolling hills, green fields the best we’ve seen and here we enjoy our Ice cream (more like sorbet for Jo (my) lemon and cherry flavour).

From here we move onto Montepulchino diverting via La foce to see if Jo can find her rows of tree’s she’s seen on many a postcard. We think we’ve found the spot miles down a dirt track road to an old castle no one loves and sitting in the shade of an Italian rooted tree we stop to look out on our view that includes a path of her cypress tree. It’s here that we sit to take our lunch, bit’s and pieces we gathered on our way. Half a cheese and tomatoes sandwich (so much better than home) with tomato and herb style pizza only the toppings in the middle, followed by a cake, more like a biscuit base with a thick layer of cherry jam and more biscuit on top sprinkled with almonds.

We continue on our drive but there is a change of plan now we are heading to Montepulciano. On the way Jo isn’t satisfied with her road of those tall tress to guide her way and as we drive discussing it’s authenticity we realise the twisting, sharp down hill bends, we’re meandering down are lined with those dark tall cypress tress, may be this is the one. Shortly after we find Monticchiello and park in it’s lonely car park, with the guide books advice of an hours tour we enter and leave in 10 (10mins) to venture of to our original plan of Montepulciano. There's something about this place I don't like. Maybe it's the tall towers leaving narrow corridors of cold and darkness it seems busy but with so many paths it soon becomes eerily quiet.

They charge you a fortune for a lemon soda and an cold espresso shaken over ice and served with a frothy head and a grunt from the waitress. So it's time to go home and on the way just by chance in one of the archways we find a little biscuit shop, we enter empty handed and leave with a mix of the most delightful yummy local biscuits.

Tonight Simonetta is cooking for us. We don't know what, or how much (food or money) just that it's at 8. We arrive downstairs and are seated at our private restaurant for 2. We start with a Rose wine at E25 but it's very nice. We're served with our 1st course, a local dish of fish, capers, potatoes, sun dried tomatoes and a lot of Tuscany with every mouthful. This is followed by Primipatti of Ragu, which we discover is made with pork, veal and liver and tastes full of deliciousness. Our Secondi patti is chicken stuffed with ricotta and spinach served alongside a type of runner bean that's tastes sweeter and chopped roast potatoes (but oh so much nicer). If that wasn't enough we have to finish a delicate dessert from the French border, a chocolate kind of egg custard with a biscuit cake type top, that just melts in the mouth. Almost gone in one. Before the night is over we invite Simonette to drink coffee with us and we chat over Italian coffee and a helping of Tuscan sweets, before taking our glutenous bellies to bed.

Creme (something with eggs) and pistachio - Day 5

A trip out to the Chianti region. We woken by the Americans getting ready to leave.

Finally got ready to have breakfast another delicious breakie with the change of cake to chocolate marble cake, before we set off on the hunt for petrol as the gauge reached empty. We find a garage, it's Sunday, it's closed ! Don't panic, we drive down the road, find another, it's also closed. We drive back towards the direction we're meant to be going in, phone Simonetta she reassures us that there's a petrol station (lots of them) along the autostrada. With the empty light on and 15mins drive we find one, and after some help of some Italians with little English (but more than our Italian) we work out that you pay the machine first then it fills it up automatically for you, and to Jo's surprise a little,goes along way here.

Off we drive to Chianti towards Sienna then off to Cat.. stop at Bostia look at the outside of a castle, drive off to ..... nothing to see but lots of beautiful views along the way...

so on to Vertine take some photo's...

try some wine (very nice wine), hope we don't have to pay E10's for it and order some brushetta, and a pastry pie (imagine a Gregg's pie for posh people) very nice, with freshly squeezed juice, followed by a fruit tart and an apricot type cake, in a peaceful setting with tweeting birds swooping by and the odd meow of a scruffy cat.

I love my wife x (Thanks Jo nicely added touch)

Then off to the next village while listening to Elbow, the seldom seen kid, singing along loudly to the Fix. Actually no we decided to drive to Arezzo, strange place, we drove into the new centre seemed a bit like a foreign Stevenage no roundabouts just lots of traffic lights. Most of Arezzo was destroyed during WW2 and we seemed to feel it’s sadness as if it had been forgotten as we walked through the quiet streets of the old town centre.

By avoiding the crowds we found a scary but beautiful deli where we brought cheese, salami, ham, bread and pizzas sticks, along with a newsagents where we got some drinks and walked up to a park to eat dinner, relax...

and again watch the sun set and the people play before walking through the main street to find a very busy Ice cream shop, so we couldn't’t resist.

We make our way back to the B&B for a quick read on the balcony then finally an early night, where Jo (for a change falls fast asleep first).