Counting down

3rd December 2023

There was a cold – and much more seasonal – start to the week with the weather station reading a chilly 1.1° when we got up on Monday morning. This set the tone for most of the week (most, more on that later) and provided an excellent excuse, had one been necessary, for getting out our retro glasses and enjoying our first after dinner hot punch of the winter.

It was also suitably festive the next morning when Pina had added to the display of designer panettone in the window with a selection of Christmas bits and pieces on the table just inside the door – including a small but select choice of Christmas cards for, if my memory serves me correctly, the first time. We snaffled a couple, and though we were sorely tempted by the sparkly sequined Christmas keyrings we resisted.

This can’t be said of some of our country neighbours back at LCDDB, who have set up in competition to Bella for the abundance of fruit still hanging on the persimmon tree, even though many have already fallen to the ground. And this is where she is at a disadvantage; she has to wait for them to ripen and plummet, whereas the host of field mice that Stephen saw in his headlights as he arrived home on Tuesday evening can shimmy up the trunk to get a good feed. They may have been slightly startled to be caught in the car’s beams but with a display of sangfroid, they merely wiped their sticky snouts, gave him a wave and headed home to sleep on full stomachs.

Wednesday saw Stephen making an unplanned return visit to Pina in a hasty search for chocolate. You may recall a couple of weeks ago we were very pleased with ourselves for buying a couple of Advent calendars from Flying Tiger. If we had stopped to think rather than succumb to the excitement of the moment, we would have realised that it may be cheap and cheerful, but even Denmark’s flagship company (after Lego, of course) isn’t so generous as to sell a calendar packed with twenty-four little gifts for €5 – as Stephen discovered when he was gathering together his decorations to take to work to imbue the office with seasonal cheer on Friday. Hence his mad dash to Pina to buy forty-eight little chocolate goodies to avoid disappointment for whoever opened the corresponding door (i.e. Cecilia and me).

Me for two reasons: (a) Stephen did the filling so he has had his fun; (b) he has his very own calendar which was waiting for him when he returned from the early morning walk with Bella and Harry, as well as a glittery Father Christmas keyring (see above) and a Christmas pen, given in the spirit of the season by an unknown admirer with exquisite taste.

December arrived, marked by dinner at Pomod’oro following my new resolution to eat there on the first Friday of the month, because why not? We were joined on this occasion by Marco and Maddalena. They hadn’t made the same resolution, and were unaware of mine, but were happy to tag along. We were in the main dining room, the gazebo being given over to large parties making an early start on the work’s Christmas do carousel. Don’t worry, though, they were not left exposed to the elements as during the winter season (which, of course, in Italy runs from September to May, concurrent with the obligatory wearing of padded jackets and scarves) the vinyl “windows” are pulled down to keep the outside outside. And a tough job they were having as whilst we were eating, the wind had got up, billowing them not a little.

The force we encountered on leaving the agriturismo was matched by the increase in temperature, reading around 20° when we got in Marco’s car. Neither this nor the wind abated overnight, the weather station reading 19.7° when we got up, and the wind continuing to blow strongly for the rest of the day. It didn’t stop, however, a couple of surprise, and very welcome, visitors to brave our road yesterday morning when a small white van pulled up in front of the house and beeped its horn.

It was, to our delight, a man from the Comune with a contractor (not the one who has carried out work previously) who had come about said road. After introductions, they told Stephen that, as long as it didn’t rain, the man would be back sometime within the next four days (yes, including today, Sunday, though he hasn’t appeared despite the day being much calmer, just maybe a bit too cold and grey) to sort out the surface. It was smiles all round when Stephen came back in and told me, though two questions do remain: (a) is it because of Luigi going to shout at the mayor or because we left the matter, together with photographic evidence, in the capable hands of Oreste – I will let you decide; and (b) will they really appear? To find out, stayed tuned for the next enthralling instalment – same time, same place, same channel.