A prolonged summer

We are now in the land of Locoe for 10 days and the summer here does not seem to go away. Temperatures are still around 28/30 degrees and so far we have not experienced any rain. A very different situation from last year's unusually wet conditions.
I can now recall the different effects on different crops.
Last year very wet conditions affected the olive growth to the point we did not get any crop.
This year the extreme warm weather (6 plus weeks of daily  temperature around 40 degrees) has damaged the first cropping of vegetables. All of them except the potatoes.
Luckily the second crop has been productive so we can now enjoy a good variety of vegetables on our door step.

 We certainly enjoy the dry conditions more than the wet. We can do more work early in the morning and late in the afternoon. midday is still a no-no as the heat is too uncomfortable.

We are now watering the plants every two days and fortunately we have plenty of water at our disposal thanks to last year's continuous heavy rain.
Before it does start to rain (better to anticipate it this time!) we have put in some more work on the troublesome roof over our sleeping quarters:

All the almonds have been collected and now are toasting under the sun.
Some low level pruning has commenced on the olive trees which are promising well in terms of quality. There will be not an abundant crop but quality should be on the plus side.
This week-end we are harvesting the grapes (again not much of it on our own land, but good quality) and crushing them to produce  the well deserved wine for next season.

We are still waiting for an inspection on our vineyards in order to extirpate the old plants and replace them with new ones . This is a complex job with different stages to be achieved at different times and has to be coordinated well. If everything falls into place nicely we should have new vines at the beginning of March 2021.

This year we are trying to dry in the old fashioned way the abundance of figs. Last year in September there was nothing left on the trees but this year  we are eating them on a daily basis and my breakfast so far is all fruit: peaches, figs and grapes together with yoghurt.

One new crop that we tried planting last November was lentils.  We know that these grow very successfully in other parts of Italy and as Lesley is fonder of these than of meat, we decided to try for a protein crop!  They were very productive and  there was a bundle of dried plants awaiting our arrival in September.  It took a lot of head scratching and internet searching to discover a simple way of extracting the tiny lentils from their flimsy pods and separating them from the dried plant.....no way as easy as shelling peas!  We also now understand why you are told to 'pick over' lentils to remove stones before preparing a meal........

Seeking shade, we have occasionally been down to the stream at the bottom of our other field.  It has become shady and cool and this year we discovered a number of tiny fish have returned to it.  A good sign.  We have also replenished the wood stock a little from fallen trees at the river side.

Another crop to think about and experiment with....

Gojo berries

Back in Sardinia

Here we are, back in the land of wine, olive oil, fresh vegetables and sunshine.
We arrived on the 7th, crossing the sea from Toulon to Porto Torres. Before the crossing we had been travelling over land  by bus and train as we have now decided to ditch the air travel for ecological reasons. We hope to carry on travelling this way in the future and we will try to take the opportunity to visit places as we go, stopping in and enjoying the localities as we encounter them.

The bus from Drum to Inverness

Inverness station

Lesley checking the beds

getting ready

Last Supper in Inverness station

We left Invernes on the Caledonian sleeper to then take a Eurostar train from London to Paris in the morning. In Paris we changed station to ride with the French TGV all the way to the south of  France arriving in Toulon early evening.

Saint Pancras

Station breakfast

Euston train station

Gare de Lyon

We had chosen a hotel near the station and it was easy to get sort it and go out for dinner in a small restaurant run by a young Moroccan  boy.

Grand Hotel de la Gare

Next day was dedicated to explore Toulon, a nice medium size town with a lovely sea front looking south west on the harbour full of sailing boats of many sizes, including sophisticated 007 style multimillion  yachts.
                                                             
                                                                 

Port of Toulon

Toulon train station

Steak (?), mixed salad and anchovy sauce; Corsican beer

vegetarian burger with goat's cheese and figs

Funicular to see view over Toulon from mountain top

Moored in the harbour were also the commercial and passenger ships, one of which we were going to board later in the evening. Lots of restaurants were lined all along the seafront, offering us our morning croissants and coffee.  We then explored the town, becoming hot and exhausted, in the way enthusiastic tourists do.  Lunch in a restaurant on a tree-shaded square provided touch of  French cuisine and a well-deserved rest.
The crossing from Toulon to Porto Torres was a 10 hour smooth  gentle journey and we slept well in our comfy cabin.

Watching a sister ferry leaving the harbour

Arriving in Sardinia spot on time at 8 am (in spite of a 2-hour departure delay from Toulon) gave us a wait of 3.5 hours before catching the bus to Santa Teresa, 3 km from our house. We sat in a café' at the port enjoying a proper thick chocolate and coffee, cappuccino with brioche for breakfast and listening to the local retired oldies exchanging their Saturday morning gossip, recipes, political opinions.

We then spent a few days at the seaside in Marazzino before arriving here in Oliena. A quick visit to the house in the countryside for some cleaning was necessary before we transfer ourselves over there and start some work. Today (Saturday 14th) we are going to a wedding.
Weather is very nice and the summer was very hot and torrid for very long time. Temperatures are still around 30 and forecast still gives a couple of weeks of hot weather. We will take the opportunity to sort out the leaking roof - once and for all - we hope!  So, this job has priority at the moment.
After that we will start collecting almonds (there are not many this year), then at the end of the month it will be grape harvesting for the production of wine.