In the zone

8th November 2020

If you thought last week was a slow one, wait till you see this one as Italy again tried to come to terms with rising Covid cases and new regulations were introduced. Fortunately, despite the village telegraph telling of someone who knows someone whose cousin third removed has tested positive, Le Marche has been designated a yellow zone, the lowest level in the new three-tier system the government has introduced (sound familiar?). Part of this means that we have to observe a curfew from ten at night till five the next morning, which, despite Mrs Carelli reminding Stephen pointedly that we couldn’t go out during those times, is hardly going to affect us. Where Mrs C gets the idea from that we habitually frequent the hedonistic night spots of Civitanova till the early hours, heaven knows, given that our outside light is set to switch off at 10.30.

Given all this, the start of the week should have been quieter than ever with it being All Souls Day. While this is not an official holiday, it is sometimes regarded as one and the Carellis had told Stephen that they were not going to work, but when his Italian mobile went of shortly after breakfast we knew that things had changed. While he went of to see to things at the factory, the tractor man appeared to put his finishing touches to the sowing of the wheat, something that attracted a not inconsiderable following of white birds, which we have on good authority (Google) are cattle egrets. Indeed, if I scratch to find a motif for the week, then it would be animals.

After the flock of birds – of not quite Hitchcockian proportions, but enough – we were visited by a grasshopper on Wednesday afternoon, which spent quite a long time on the bathroom window. Despite its persistence we thought it best not to invite it in. On Thursday morning Stephen spent some time before breakfast investigating the fence at the corner by the small copse in the place where some creature had previously chewed a hole. Despite a thorough investigation he wasn’t able to spot anything, even though the rustling sounds persisted, but whatever it was must have given it up as a bad job as all has been quiet on that front since.

While all this excitement was going on we managed to continue our Yellow Zone lives. Tuesday marked our return to breakfast at Pina after its brief Covid related closure, when we had to leave the car way down in front of the church as it was standing room only in the square. We’re not sure what prompted so many people to be out and about, but breakfast and shopping took somewhat longer than usual as it seemed we couldn’t turn round without bumping into someone, whether they were queuing outside the Post Office, parked up for a conversation in the street or hanging around the supermarket.

One good thing about the past week is that the fine weather has continued throughout with pleasantly warm temperatures while the sun has been high enough to make its presence felt. The downside of this is that clear skies overnight mean a chilly start first thing. Yesterday it was only 8C when we got up and today it was down to 7C. Still, by mid-morning Bella and Harry were again basking on the terrazzo, allowing Harry to be in prime position when the motif of the week resurrected itself and a group of riders came down the lane for the second Sunday in a row.

We thought it best for the sake or our eardrums and the safety of the riders to put him inside, thinking his mad barking might disturb the horses – especially the one which, when Stephen suggested to them that they cross the field rather than continue down the lane to the dead end, refused to step over a dead mouse that was lying at the side, which didn’t, from what we could make out, appear to be wearing a mask. I don’t want to heartless, but if you will go around flouting the rules, what can you expect - and I bet it was out after curfew, too.