Blooming lovely

A slightly belated happy Easter to both my readers, and I hope that you managed to pass a pleasant bank holiday with your choice of chocolate confectionary and something approaching a proper hot cross bun. I have it on good authority that you can now purchase salted caramel ones as well as rhubarb and custard flavoured, but I am pleased to say that, as yet, no such abominations have contaminated the traditional Italian paschal version of panettone, colomba.

The welcome news is that the good weather of last weekend continued during the week with daily temperatures increasing so that by the time Friday came around I was able to walk Bella and Harry after lunch and in the evening in shirtsleeves (and trousers, of course). Other signs of improving weather were the first sightings, at dusk, of the bats flying through the trees, and a fine display of blossom: on our cherry trees, and Mario and Luigi’s apple trees at the top of the lane. The quince tree at the bottom is yet to burst into colour, but the leaves have bushed out considerably and yesterday there were the first tight buds promising future flowers.

Stephen has also continued to make headway hand weeding the lotto, and the right hand side is showing freshly upturned earth, even if it is not in the regimented furrows left by Mr Carelli’s rotavator. The left hand side has some evidence of the vegetables planted last autumn, and he even managed to pick some purple sprouting broccoli for dinner early in the week. Generally, however, that side has continued to be a bit disappointing, fruition wise, so much so that yesterday he moved the six remaining artichoke plants over to beside the herb patch on the very right, in hope that they might do something. We did have a vague plan to revamp the area this spring, maybe with decking and raised beds, but obviously that is not going to happen now. Maybe next year.

When Thursday rolled around again it was time for Stephen’s weekly shopping expedition. This took a little longer than last week, perhaps because people were shopping for Easter and partly because he had one or two other tasks to see to. The good news was that when he arrived at Sigma Marco was waiting outside, a couple of numbers ahead of him in the queue, so he had someone to have a less than private conversation with, given the requirements of social distancing. He is still going to work three half-days a week, but while she has to oversee her school work online, Maddalena hasn’t left the house for over three weeks.

Once inside, it was the usual dance around the fruit and veg section; these seem to be a little more expensive, although it may just seem that way as we are buying a week’s worth at a time rather than for a few days. Pia was her usual cheerful self at the meat counter, keeping the shoppers’ spirits up with her banter but also adding to Stephen’s time by excusing herself twice while serving him: once to take a phone call and once to come to the aid of a lady of much more than a certain age and her order of a side of lamb. Looks like someone was expecting visitors.

The other reason Stephen was a while getting back was that he had to make a stop at the garage to put some petrol in the car (the first time while we have been in lockdown – there are some benefits) but also to have our jerry can filled with an oil and petrol mixture. You won’t be surprised to hear that the grass in the garden is well past a time when it should be cut, having reached that point where it is easy to lose Bella and Harry, but our nice man from the village is not able to come and sort it out for us. Stephen is going to have to take the drastic step of setting about it with our (i.e. his) motor strimmer and to do so he needed the mixture. And it may be an even more drastic step than we expect as, in her ignorance, the woman at the petrol station, having received no definitive answer from Stephen, had to mix it in the proportion that she hoped was correct.

And then, as these things happen, it was the weekend, and a holiday one at that. Under normal circumstances, we would have marked Good Friday by attending MSP’s traditional Passion play, and the weather was certainly conducive to a night watching this very moving re-enactment but of course this, like every other public event, has been cancelled. So how did we spend the day? Well, I took a holiday from my daily lesson preparation tasks and made a polpettone and a cheese and ham torta to portion up for the freezer and for meals over the weekend while Stephen continued on his mission of weeding the lotto.

It was yesterday evening, however, that provided the excitement of the weekend, for me at least as Stephen was engaged in his ablutions following his work in the garden. I had just fed Harry and Bella after their afternoon walk when they rushed out, barking, onto the terrazzo, and when I went out I was more than a little shocked to see the police Panda, used by the local guardia, heading down the lane. In a moment of panic I was trying to think what we could have done to warrant a visit; surely walking up and down a deserted unmade road hadn’t broken any regulations? I needn’t have worried, for as it drew up in front of the house I recognised the smiling face of the mayor in the passenger seat.

He was, it turned out, on a tour of the town, visiting the residents to leave a gift from the Comune of a facemask each, being a healthier and less fattening option than a chocolate egg. He pulled his own mask over his mouth and came to pass, at arms length, our present through the railings, wishing us a Happy Easter in the process. I returned the compliment and as he and his driver headed off up the lane, I was left thinking how nice it was to have a visitor, even for such a brief period, and, much as I love Stephen’s, to see a different face for a change.

As for today, we have spent a lazy day, but at least we were able to get some holiday goodies - and I don’t mean the coffee yogurt and chocolate cakes I made this morning. The Easter bunny was able to deliver not only two eggs, one for each of us, but also a box of Easter goodies all the way from Café Florian in Venice. Yes, we may be in lockdown and yes, many shops, cafes and restaurants may be closed, but it is uplifting to know that nothing stands in the way of chocolate.