Keep on the sunny side

March has given way to April, but unfortunately the Director-General of the World Health Organization didn’t pop up on the 1stsaying ‘Fooled you!’ and so we have completed another week in glorious isolation at LCDDB. Mind you, we do consider ourselves fortunate, for given our situation we could be, as Maddalena observed when speaking to Stephen the other evening, on an exclusive agriturismo break (self-catering, of course). Given the steady improvement of the weather over the past week, that could certainly be true.

Anyway, to set your minds at rest regarding the cliffhanger I left you with at the end of last week, my mission to find a sensible site for posting my letter in the UK reached a satisfying conclusion as early as Monday morning. A quick revisit to a rejected site proved, in fact, to offer just what I wanted and in so simple a way that it left me worrying that it couldn’t be so easy. A quick conversion of the Word document to a PDF file, a press of a button to upload and the input of an address and bob was my uncle. An email the next day told me that the document had been printed and posted, and who am I to doubt them? Job done… hopefully.

There was little of note over the next couple of days, apart from what is usually associated with living in the countryside. Stephen had a glorious view of a couple of deer on Wednesday morning, and then the even more exciting view of Mario and Luigi working their way up the lane on a tractor, stopping every so often with a big white (manmade hessian he has added) bag and a sickle each which they used to ferret around at the side of the road. We’re not sure what they were collecting, but I guess in such time as these you have to make your own fun.

And then it was Thursday and Stephen’s day for venturing out to do the shopping, which took a little longer than last week when he was in splendid isolation - apart from the staff in Sigma, of course. What made the difference, we suspect, was that whereas last week it was dull and wet, this Thursday was bright and sunny, so waiting in the open air was more of a pleasure than a chore. As per usual, the women were queuing for the supermarket while the men were taking time out of their busy schedules to buy cigarettes. They also found the time for a few puffs and a spot of man talk before heading home, and to give them their due they did replace their masks once they had finished their cigarettes.

As per last week, Stephen also popped round to the Carellis’ to check all was well and to pick up our online shopping. This consisted of two necessities and one in anticipation of summer living. The necessities were new masks each that Stephen had ordered, being altogether more stylish and substantial, and a new pair of dog-walking wellingtons for me to replace the ones whose left boot had developed a gaping split in the ankle area. These latter Stephen unpacked at the factory as Mr C was most intrigued by them, a feeling that was, if anything, increased when he saw that they were made from rubber. What strange things these British people wear.

The third package also contained something made from an unusual material, but one very much of the zeitgeist. These were my new summer shoes from the range that Camper is doing with Ecoalf, a sustainable fashion brand. The shoes are made from recycled plastic bottles, recovered from the Earth’s oceans and seas, and have the triple benefit of looking fabulous, being light and comfortable to wear, and making you feel morally superior.

So what was there left to do over the weekend? For a starter, there was a spot of baking to keep Stephen in a manner to which he is rapidly becoming accustomed. Apart from a reprise of the jam thumb-print biscuits (this time in the form of Stephen’s pollice as he go in on the act), I also used some of my precious hoard of treacle (a product, like syrup, conspicuous by its absence from Italian supermarket shelves and kitchen store cupboards) to make ginger cakes. These are happily maturing in flavour and stickiness – one in a tin and one in a freezer – leaving us time to relax on the terrazzo this afternoon, as the weather lived up to its promise.

Stephen brought up the terrazzo chairs on Friday, always a welcome sign that winter is truly over. An even more welcome one was the hanging of the fly screen over the front door this morning, signalling that we have reached a time when we can leave the door open during the day. This is good for two reasons: one being that we don’t have to keep opening and closing the door for Bella and Harry as they try to decide whether or not it is warm enough to be outside, and two, the dappled light it throws onto the kitchen floor and the fresh warmth of the spring air bring a sense of new life – and hope - into the house.