In Sardinia

We  arrived in Sardinia thinking that we never left Scotland...it was cold and it rained for the first 3 days. We must admit that the rain here was very welcome as it was much needed. The first two nights we stayed in Oliena  as we still had a few practical things to organize before moving to  Locoe where we planned to stay.

We found that a good job had been done in providing the little one-roomed house there  with a new window, new door, new floor - all expertly organized and carried out by my brothers in their spare time. Also walls have been re-plastered and painted. In addition to this an Aga style cooking stove has been installed and is working really well keeping our place warm in the evening and through the night.

The mornings are still very cold and wet with dew. But when we slept the first night in Locoe, the comfort of the room was a nice welcome to the place and the next morning the birds were singing around 6.30 am and the sun was sneaking through the shutters of the newly-installed window. It was a  magnificent first day.

The early sun from our window

I spent some time starting the vine-pruning  on the river side of the land and weeding around emerging pea plants in front of the house. Cleaning took place on the other parts of the house shared by our relatives and some time was spent collecting wild asparagus.

Wild asparagus

Plenty of wild flowers are already going mad at this time of the year and the place is as green as Ireland. This won't  last for very long as come May everything will dry out and rain will be a thing of the past for possibly another 5 months.

Saturday: We are now in our 'seaside' house and as we went to the beach for a walk we collected more asparagus and wild fennel which we will probably be using tonight for a (probably) pasta dish.

It is warmer here and lying on the beach was a pleasant change (albeit fully clothed).

We will be back in Oliena a day earlier than planned as my brother and aunties have decided to make the Sardinian bread, so we will go back in time to try to help.

Some pictures for this event will be posted around next week end.

a wild Orchid

The " Aga " stove recycled from my brother Antony.

Postscript from the Spellchecker:

Sometimes I may want to add a bit of - probably totally superfluous - punctuation to Battistino's account.... the occasional exclamation mark, the odd set of brackets expressing a thought which is more akin to my own experience of this adventure. I can't help it - I'm a stranger to this land, its language and its customs and, unlike Battistino when he decided to just 'go for it' in Scotland at the age of 36, I first of all need to rekindle a desire for  adventure and fight the temptation to look for security....at the age of 63.

That being said...........this is an amazing place...and I will be trying to give names to some of the plants we come across....not having any local knowledge whatsoever, I rely entirely on books, so I guess our orchid was a.............well,...er.....some kind of Ofride......!  Anyway, who cares?  It was just amazing finding orchids all over the place..... oh, and what I swear were wild Freesias today on the way to the beach. 
As to Locoe....so far, my thoughts have revolved around my experiences of camping.  This one is more akin to a 'private' campsite, i.e. you don't have to stumble/tiptoe past other campers' constructions and obstacles to reach the toilet block, but you do, nevertheless, have to make that decision - often in the middle of the night, whether to ignore your insistent bladder or enjoy a blast of night air, and make the trip to the loo.
I don't mind not washing - either myself or my clothes.....as we are both in the same state ...but then I did really luxuriate in the hot shower I enjoyed this afternoon after our walk to the beach.
Batti forgot to mention the donkeys.....beautifully lush with enormous eyes and ears, surrounded by wonderful home-grown thistles and lush verdant grass....yet still trotting over to entreat us for titbits.