Just visiting

14th May 2023

A week of sunshine and rain started very much with the latter. Monday was dull and wet, but on the positive side Stephen did return at lunchtime with the tomato and courgette plants he failed to track down on Saturday, having bought them in Montegranaro on his way home. He was a little late getting home in the evening so only had time to plant the courgettes, but at least whatever it was that started munching its way through one of them overnight will have been grateful.

Tuesday was sunny again, for the whole day at that, but Stephen again wasn’t home till 7 so the tomatoes remained in their pots. They stayed there the next day as he was conspicuous by his absence, being up and out of the house by 5.15, with a hefty bag of samples, to meet Bertrando at the top of the road as they had been summoned by the big bosses to Milan for a meeting.

The plan was for Stephen to leave the Panda in the factory car park and for Bertrando to drive them to Civitanova to catch a train to Ancona, where they would pick up the Freccia Rossa to Milan. There was, though, a bit of a hiccup as when they arrived at the station it was to the sight of various police officers and firefighters milling about due to an incident on the line. This caused the trains to be delayed, meaning that Stephen and Bertrando were fifteen minutes late leaving. They were assured, however, that the connecting Freccia Rossa would wait. It didn’t, but it wasn’t a problem as that was running 20 minutes late.

In the end, they were in time for their meeting, which went ok I am told, and the return journey passed off uneventfully. Stephen made it home for just gone 11, almost eighteen hours after he set out. He might have been a little earlier, but they made a detour in Civitanova to go and eat fish at Bertrando’s regular spot, which no doubt they thoroughly deserved.

As for me, my day would have been without any minor interest, other than another sighting of a gecko in the vicinity of the laundry basket. I’m not sure if this was the same one as I saw a couple of weeks ago, but he did look very much at home as he peeked out through the wooden lattice work. My attempts to surreptitiously open the French windows and encourage him in that direction came to nought, for when I moved forward he darted over the side and scurried behind the wardrobe. He’ll find his own way out, I thought, foolishly as he was back the next morning, this time stretched out and oblivious to the cares of the world on top of the laundry basket.

Again he was off as soon as I ventured near him, but he must have had a busy morning because when he came back later, he’d shifted to the floor and was much slower in making a half-hearted escape. He scurried under the laundry basket (obviously an item of furniture with which he has an affinity), which I moved away from the wall and with the help of a handy towel,I was able to shoo him towards the French windows, that I had opened, and he headed out onto the terrazzo in the sunshine (yes, there was some, the weather pattern having, for a few days, morphed into one of sunny mornings and stormy afternoons). Hopefully, he won’t be telling his mates about the luxury crib he’s discovered.

The weekend has been spent mostly at home. We did venture out yesterday afternoon as Stephen needed to go to Porto San Giorgio to choose something from Cecilia’s wedding list as a present for her upcoming nuptials. We thought that we would tie this in with apericena, feeling that PSG must be blessed with a choice of moda options. Not so, he was told when he asked the aforementioned Cecilia, who said there wasn’t anywhere nice. Fortunately, Google was more forthcoming and brought up as numero uno The Botanist, an ultra trendy bar down a side street and round the corner from the main square, where we had a very pleasing selection of finger food and light bites that would satisfy the most discerning palates. Just not Cecilia’s.

As for today, what else was there to do in grey skies and drizzle than the seasonal changeover of our wardrobes from winter to summer. We might, given the forecast, have delayed this another week or two had we not an eye on our holiday, less than a week away, and with hope springing eternal, we sprung shorts and t-shirts and fair weather wear in general from their hibernation. If nothing else, being lighter in weight, they’ll be easier to dry out if the current forecast doesn’t have a change of heart.