Flavour of the month

7th July 2024

With the hot weather continuing (albeit including a couple of damp afternoons early in the week) and a certain enervation settling over LCDDB (if you discount Stephen going to work and seeing to the garden and me doing some sweeping and tidying up outside) any action has been down to the local wildlife again.

While there have only been fleeting glimpses of the sparrow hawks, there have been another couple of sightings of our neighbourhood hare and although hearing the rustle of geckos in the grass and seeing them scurrying around the estate isn’t anything unusual, two appearing to have taken up residence inside might be.

I first noticed them on Wednesday when I was hoovering in the sitting room and first one then the other scuttled out of the corner and under the display cabinet. Normally I would be concerned about them being trapped, but as they were obviously very young, and very tiny, only five or six centimetres long, the thought that there were enough cracks to offer an escape route consoled me. Not that they could have found one, as the next morning when I went round with the hand attachment to hoover the corners (I’m Virgo remember, organised and methodical and just that little bit anal) one shot out of the same place while the other had found its way into the bedroom.

Only one of them showed its face on Friday when I was in the kitchen, darting back and forth until it found a safe hiding place, but then Saturday it eventually made its way outside with a bit of help from Stephen. He was cleaning the floor with the mop, one of those flat-headed ones with a microfibre cloth, when it appeared. A little nonplussed, it seemed to hesitate about what to do confronted with this new apparition, but then decided to hop on top of it, allowing Stephen to carry it to the nearby door and let it run free.

Now we are into the summer period proper, the start of July marks the start of the Thursday evening markets in Fermo. Usually we wait a couple of weeks, especially if I still have a 7 o’clock lesson, but this year we were quick off the starting blocks, taking along Marco and Maddalena as reinforcements. Of course, we started with aperitivo at Art Asylum, and while Maddalena, on the eve of her birthday was ready to enjoy herself, Marco looked less convinced about eating somewhere new. He quickly came round, though, when he discovered that the food was actually good and something he recognised, and when he was able to suggest a white wine for us to try after we’d downed our spritzes.

That part of the evening having been taken care of, we had a very pleasant stroll round the various stalls. I was particularly happy to see the honey man from Rapagnano, having recently exhausted my store of artisanal made jars, necessitating buying one from the supermarket. As I am still working my way down that, I invested in three jars of his remarkably fine fruit enhanced honeys (pomegranate, mandarin and blueberry – very good for breakfast, but also as an accompaniment to a salty pecorino cheese). We then invested in another couple of bracelets, but not from the usual lady with the friendship ones. Led astray by Marco, who also purchased, Stephen treated is to a new beaded bracelet each to add to our collections (I still have a bit of catching up to do compared with him). Mine is various shades of variegated orange – just right, now I think of it, to go with the mandarin honey.

Living purely for pleasure (and having got my cooking - cheese and ham torta and chicken polpettone - out of the way in the morning), we made a second trip out for aperitivo in one week yesterday, though this was just of a liquid variety (if you don’t count the crisps and peanuts). We thought it was about time we supported Chupito, the summer kiosk that opened up the little park near the tennis courts and car park, a few weeks ago, especially as it was an evening when bff Manuel’s son was manning the bar. Those with long memories may remember that in our first couple of years here, Vittorio of Bar Corradini, ran a bar in the car park in the summer in a little hut. He stopped doing that in response, word had it at the time, to various local politics but has obviously, now the Comune has renovated the park area, decided the time was ripe for a comeback.

We were very taken with the setting: in the trees with a large decking area and seating with the octagonal kiosk (Chupito il Chiosco, powered by Bar Corridini as the sign says) to the side. It’s a welcome addition to life in MSP, and whilst it has live music on a Wednesday night, we were more than contented to have a spot to sit and enjoy a pre-dinner g&t in the quiet and warmth of a silvan setting (if that is not getting too carried away).

The only thing left is the cliffhanger of our beach walk and what we decided to do after last week’s experiment. It won’t, I think, come as any surprise to learn that we’ve gone back to the old routine and returned home much happier, with sand-free feet and our perspective on the world recalibrated - a bit like post-election UK you might say.