Post early for Christmas

22nd November 2020

What can we say about life in an orange zone? About as much as life in a yellow zone, which is not a lot. As far as we are concerned there is very little difference, though having to forego breakfast at Pina on Tuesday morning was something of a wrench and my lesson with Diego and Marzia in Montegranaro, after a brief return to living colour, has again been shifted to Skype - minor inconveniences in the great scheme of things, even if important to us.

Thanks to the Internet, we have still been able to dabble in a spot of shopping, and Monday saw the arrival of two parcels bearing the tell-tale smiley graphic, one being a new sock holder for the washing line and other a super-duper new strainer complete with two different gauged mesh inserts that Stephen splashed out on now that he has taken to liqueur production on an industrial scale. A non-arrival, however, was on Tuesday morning when Alessio had to cancel his lessons for the next couple of weeks as one of his work colleagues had been in contact with someone who had tested positive - how the Covid tendrils insinuate themselves into the smallest of openings.

As for the weather - for what else can we fall back on when looking for a topic of conversation – that has been of a varied nature, albeit with an underlying autumnal trend. Last weekend’s dull skies turned to dull and rainy on Monday before the return of sunshine on Wednesday, a profitable combination for Mario and Luigi as the recently sown winter wheat is already showing, giving the surrounding fields a green shimmer. The rain returned on Friday, this time with dropping temperatures, prompting Stephen to stop off at Giordano’s, the ferramenta, to buy a length of fleece which he then used yesterday to wrap the lemon trees in their snug winter bedding.

We had an early, and unexpected, taste of Christmas on Thursday when Stephen arrived back from the factory with a large parcel. When he opened it and removed the substantial packing he presented me with a round metal tin containing a ricotta and sponge cake called cassata siciliana, a seasonally traditional Neapolitan sweetmeat. This one came from Giovanni Scaturchio (check the website), one of Naples’ leading, if not the leading, pasticcerie, and looked fabulous with its royal icing and candied fruit decoration. But, I hear you asking, will such a confection last until the end of December? No, of course it won’t, and the reason it arrived over a month in advance is that Stephen’s creative grasp of anything numerical had led him to order it for 19/11/20, not twigging that December is actually the twelfth month. What could we do but eat it (not all at once, I hasten to add) and I can report that it tastes every bit as fine as it looks. The other advantage to an early start is that it leaves us lots of time to savour other festive treats; I know, it’s a tough job but someone has to do it.

After that, the rest of the week could have been an anti-climax if not for all those other exciting things, like the pizzeria still being open and Stephen using his new strainer yesterday to move the pere cotogne liqueur on to stage 2 - oh, and the fox. For a few days Harry has shown great interest in Mario and Luigi’s barn, running round to that part of the garden whenever possible and virtually rearing onto his hind legs as he strains his lead to sniff the air when we pass on our walks. Indeed, the scent is so potent that even we can get a whiff of Eau de Renard.

The answer to what was exercising him so much came this morning when he whined to be let out onto the terrazzo whereupon he ran to the side by the barn and began barking like a lunatic. Unfortunately, I was otherwise occupied but when Stephen left the ironing to look out to see what was getting him so excited he saw a fox amble nonchalantly out of the barn, take a circuitous route round the back and head down the side of our fencing as if he (or she) had all the time in the world. As for Harry, he continued barking wildly oblivious to the fact that the fox was cutting him dead – which is maybe a tactic we should make more use of in the future.