Back to the Land: 2 weeks to go

Thursday, 17 May 2018

2 weeks to go

16/05/18

As Battistino is still busy on the third Carasau marathon – this time making enough bread to last the family into the summer months, including their month’s stay in the nearby coastal resort of Cala Gonone, I have taken over at the keyboard, making use of the free wi-fi here in Oliena.

Well, we’ve decided it must be me who is the water fairy – no sooner had I alighted from my giant orange bird-plane on May 1^st, than the heavens opened again and the sun hasn’t really recovered since! I can count the number of sunny days since we came in March on one hand. Consequently, the afore-mentioned trip to Bosa has been postponed until next Tuesday – just as well, as we later watched footage of submerged vehicles in the town, and even someone swimming down the high street! It seems the river had burst its banks.

Locoe river on our return

Bamboo tomato trellis

The weather hasn’t stopped progress with the food production, however, and we’ve now added several rows of different types of tomatoes, along with aubergines, zucchini, various types of summer beans, cabbages, lettuce, onions…..you name it. Thank goodness the frequent showers mean that we have not had to spend too much time watering in the evenings. Having said that, the grass and wild flowers have flourished rather too well so our nephew, Andrea, has his work cut out after school, strimming the paths and spaces between the vines and around the vegetable plots. I am rather pleased that he is so keen on using machinery as it would be impossible to keep on top of the work without it.

Grow, grow, grow.

My wild flower garden

Only two weeks to go before we return to (hopefully) sunny Scotland, and it looks like the roof will still be the bane of our lives when we resume residence in September. Any amount of silicone, expansion foam and cunningly recycled pieces of metal guttering don’t seem to manage to prevent the place from leaking……..mainly on top of the beds (correction: Batti’s bed!) The extension, meanwhile, is pretty watertight and now sports a fetching shade of Ronseal ‘Cedar’, procured via Amazon at a less than amazing bargain of £35 per 5 litres!!

......blending in?

4x the size of a dandelion clock....salsify!

The expedition in the Goceano was cancelled due to bad weather, but – hurrah! – last Sunday we did succeed in scaling the dizzy heights of Monte Corrasi and Punta Carabidda, two of the peaks that form part of the mountain group behind the town of Oliena. It really is a spectacular hill, with a decidedly negative ‘bog factor’! Slabby grey-white rock surfaces fringed with flora, including lilies, peonies, rosemary, cistus, cyclamen, orchids, hawthorn, juniper and loads of ‘alpine’ plants.