Domodossola .. i kid you not

one minute after planned departure time we were cruising down the serpentines from casario, after having kissed the woman we call julia, silvia, rita and her husband sandro.

one of the former owners of the house passed by when i was standing on the balcony and he stared so much at the house that he almost crashed into a meeting car with his tractor.

so after a two hour car drive we got onto the train in allessandria and the cats are really much happier on the train than in the car. little eco warriors they are.. now we are at the border station called domodossola, leaving italy in about ten minutes. .. i thought they were joking when they announced that next stop was just domodossola... hamburg is next ´tomorrow midday and then home sweet home..

packing

why is it that however good you plan and make to do lists to make sure there is no last minute panic, it happens anyway? one person is late for a date, and the next appointment takes much longer and then the whole scheme starts sliding, until at half past nine in the evening you realise that there are not enough hours left until departure if you want to do all the things on the to do list and sleep a few hours in the night.

it will be ok.. tomorrow between half past one and two we depart casario and have an appointment at allessandria at half past four to get on the train. then we will have lots of time to relax until the train arrives sunday at midday in hamburg. from there we still have to plan our route.. either we drive to copenhagen and try to find a pet friendly hotel either way of the border to sweden or we wait for the ferry that departs at ten in the evening to trelleborg.. either way.. eta in stockholm is monday afternoon...

the builders and niklas did a last clean up today, so no more rubbish around the house...

off with the scaffolding

after four and a half month of standing around our house, today the scaffolding went off, and the village inhabitants got to see the whole work that has been done outside so far. lots of slow car driving in front of our house with necks turning and lots of comments from bypassing pedestrians. the sun was shining into the future living room at half past five without the shadows from the outer shell and even on the terrace there was sun coming in.

and the comparison with half a year ago shows that we have gotten done some things.

Vino

Det är skördetid. Vi har förstått att det börjar bli dags för alla i byn rengör sina ekfat och rostfria tankar. Våra närmaste grannar, Rita och Sandro, försvann på traktorn i morse och kom tillbaka vid lunchtid med flaket fullt med vindruvor. Efter lunch (och siesta) blev det en vända till. Martina och jag vill ju inteva sämre så i eftermiddag tog vi fram stegen och sekatören och rensade pergolan från saftiga druvor. Drygt 10 liter fick vi ihop. Inte så illa. Druvorna bar vi in i Rita o Sandros källare och hällde i druvpressen (ja det är våra druvor som ligger där), sen hälldes sften och skalen över i ett ekfat där det ska ligga en tid innan saften fylls över i en plasttank för att jäsa. Vårt arbete betalade sig direkt för med oss när vi gick hem fick vi en magnumbutelj... snacka om snabbvin...

crying wolf.. or fox

when we went on our walk this morning, the cats and i noticed something strange at the next to neighbours hen house. no sound and a lot of feathers. talk to rita and sandro clarified what had happened during the night.. the fox had taken himself into the chicken. killed all eleven, took away or ate four.

yesterday was the first day of the hunting season, so rita thinks it is because of that the fox got disturbed and desperate and broke into their sons henhouse. Rita herself won't leave her chicks out at night, she is locking them in every night. remember she caresses them, so she won't let her hens be eaten by the fox.

we will spare you pics of the scene of the crime.. it was not so pretty..

sad good buys and good bye

when i told the wonderful man in diano d'alba's communal wine tasting place that today is the last time we are coming to buy his great wines for this year, he said.. well then today is the last time we meet cause i will stop working here at the end of the year. his and his wifes health are not allowing him to continue to be the boss of the great diano communal center anymore.. after eleven years.. we also found out today that his name is beppo. we will sooooo miss him. the communal wine cellar in diano was one of our favourite places because of him... this is one of the real sad good byes of the year..

stilleben from the garden

todays harvest from the garden has been:

one melon, niklas thinks it is 'the worlds smallest'
two different kinds of red grapes
peaches
figs
two different kinds of tomatoes
basil

all together it makes a nice stilleben a saturday evening.. the figs will go nicely with some cheese and red wine as aperitiv

Quasi finito - Nästan klart

Ja inte klart alltså men taket är tätt och snart sitter alla fönster på plats.. det återstår 2... samt 3 som vi bestämt oss för att vänta med "tills nästa gång"..
Idag bars det stora glaspartiet ut ur garaget och lyftes helt oprofessionellt på plats. Jag har legat vaken många timmar och oroat mig över allt som kunde gå fel men nu sitter det faktiskt där... I morgon ska vi ta sovmorgon tror jag.. till 8.. minst!
Nu finns det snart bara roliga saker kvar på att-göra-listan: Åka till stranden en sista gång, åka till Diano och handla vin etc.. Det känns som vi är värda det..

Fönster,fönster, fönster

Ett efter ett sitter de på plats. 3-glas "super-energi-fönster" importerade från Svezia. Alla som går förbi på gatan kommenterar och tycker att huset blir såååå fint och det tycker vi också faktiskt. Det är stor skillnad nu när de flesta fönstren sitter i. Vi har sparat det bästa till sist. I morgon bitti ska vi bära-lyfta-upp-till-andra-våningen-och-montera det stora skjutdörrspartiet. Det blir nog ännu en sömnlös natt..

Vi hade också tänkt oss att snabbt och lätt renovera trappan upp till övervåningen. Trappan som är byggd i mitten av 1800-talet är murad med cement som tyvärr sakta men säkert förvandlats till sand. Det låter inte som en särskillt stark och säker trappa va? Nä... "via via", "ta bort-ta bort" gör om gör nytt... pust.. Ännu en container att fylla...

water works

the two bathrooms and the kitche upstairs are now connected with water and have pipes to discharge the water. Niklas had already done most of the job and today Massimo from Hydra came with another plumber and together they smoked a pack of cigarrettes while fixing the rest. so we are now connected. even though the discharge water pipe is still ending in the middle of the cantina cause we still need to dig up the ground there until the communal waste water pipe. some rooms start to look real civilized now with windows in and nice slate walls.

it will be so nice once it is done

a recurring comment of the neighbours and anyone who visits is 'once it is done it will be very nice' when we show them around or they pass by. Today the woman we call Julia said it when she commented on the windows we have put in and the frames around the windows the muratore have made. Yes it will be very very nice and on days like today we enjoy the beauty taking shape. set in two more windows in the afternoon after a morning of errands.

Casino sotto!

Vi koncentrerar oss nu på att "stänga" huset. Taket är ju klart och nu pågår som sagt förberedelser för att montera in fönstren. I vissa fall är det enkelt och man behöver bara ta bort det gamla och sätta in det nya men i det flesta fall, suprise-suprise, måste man ta bort det gamla, ta bort stora delar av väggen runt om fönstret, ta bort "balken" ovanför fönstret som nu 100-år senare är maskäten och har samma bärkraft som en ihoprullad Expressen.., sätta in nya tegel/stålbalkar och slutligen putsa fönsterhålet till rätt storlek innan det nya fönstret kan monteras.

Idag, fast det är söndag så har arbetaet varit i full gång. Ovide har blandat cement och städat och burit och "ok, ok.. just a moment" sopat och sett till att allt är snyggt och att verktygen ligger i ordning.. Jag har lagt in nya balkar på den sista fönsteröppningen på övervåningen och Netti skulle efter lunch lägga in en sista bärande balk över fönstret i tvättstugan. För att göra en lång historia kort: Plötsligt hade vi en oväntad och ovälkommen öppning, ett hål, mellan vårt sovrum och tvättstugan. Nicolas, Nicolas... Casino sotto! ropade Netti.. det betydet ungefär: Katastrof under.. Några hinkar betong senare var problemet löst och vi hade fått en ny erfarenhet.... Nån som också har fått MÅNGA nya erfarenheter är den före detta, lite skygga innekatten Mimmi som nu har vuxit och håller reviret fritt från objudna gäster och jagar fräsande bort vildkatterna.. ja kanske inte just på den här bilden men man måste ju vila också...

magic mushrooms

maybe this is just one of those urban myth, but i remember reading a story of a farmer that had problems with a meadow. his cows had been there and now magic mushrooms were growing on the dung and lots of young people were coming to collect those magic mushrooms. much to his aggravation. he had police making sure that this would stop. i don't understand what problem one could have with a few people coming to your meadow and looking for some mushrooms, but then i have not been in that situation. YET. because now we have an interesting case. our cantina has been housing cows for a long time long time ago. when the roof was totally gone and it rained lots, much of the ground in that cow stable was saturated with water. and now magic mushrooms are growing. if our gollum neighbour knew this he would surely report us to the police for drug trafficking. but .. what should we do with them?

last minute demolitions

we thought that the big demolition was done, we'd do some small adjustments and would for the rest concentrate our efforts at making sure to get the windows in and the house 'closed' for the winter before we depart the 25 of september. a date that is fixed because the train from allessandria to hamburg only goes once a week on saturday nights. i admit i am now in safety mode, meaning i don't want to take out existing windows before we know we can fix them. niklas is a bit more adventurous and started on a new window again, one that might just end up leading us to have to rebuild the whole house. well maybe not to redo the whole house, but it is a real nasty piece of work. restructuration has taken place however many ýears ago and in the most amateurish way. big cracks have appeared in the facade as a result and lots of loose pieces. once you take out the old window, it becomes clear that the surrounding is very very loose... only one thing to do.. 'via via' as the italians say. take it away.. redo.. so now we have a gaping hole that we hope to fix very very very soon. like tomorrow.. or the day after

Svartjobbare avslöjade!

På anslaget vi har satt upp framgår det tydligt. Man ska ha hjälm, skyddsskor och skyddshandskar på arbetsplatsen.
Dom är inte lätta att upptäcka men idag såg vi två av "svartjobbarna" som alla tycks leta efter. Båda saknade föreskriven utrustning men rörde sig smidigt på byggnadsställningen...

Fönster

Huset har totalt 23 fönster. Det minsta är 0,7x0,5m och det största är 3,6x2,1m. Det här är en bild på det minsta där Martina gjorde ett utbrytningsförsök för en dryg månad sedan. Fönstret har fått en snygg ram av puts. Som en tavelram kanske man kan säga. Alla fönster kommer ha en sån ram och alla fönster kommer att sitta på plats när vi åker hem den 25:e... fingers krossed... Dock har vi problem med att hitta drevning..

starting the countdown

three weeks today until departure back to stockholm. a to do list that is endless, but we have made a poriority list and a bonus list and a 'heaven knows when this will be done' list. the interesting question is which of the fruit will be ripe to take home, maybe the peaches will be early so we can't take them, and have to make marmelade instead. maybe the figs make it just in time, and how about the apples and walnuts? the neighbours have cleaned perfectly under their trees so that they will find each nut, under ours there are the sleeping beauty wines, so it will be hard to find any that have fallen down, not that it will be easy to pick them from the trees, so maybe this year we will only have a few own walnuts for christmas.

niklas had an apple yesterday that was almost good, but will it be really good in a week or two weeks or just in time for departure? it is still really warm here, shorts weather and i do not look forward to rainy and cold sweden weather, but i do look forward to the morning newspaper at six in bed..

the sad news is that our camera has a problem, too much dust i believe.. hope we can fix it.. until then we need to use pics from the archive.. it would be a shame if we can't get it to work, cause the balcony is done and is splendid.. even felice marvelled at the idea of having coffee there with the fab view.

Gammal är älst

Det sägs att man får erfarenhet med åren. Martina och jag är ganska stolta över våra tomater som vi har odlat från frö. Dom mognar i lagom takt och är stora som vanliga tomater man köper på Konsum eller Ica.
Häromdagen var vi hembjudna till Julia (som är 90 år) på kaffe. På hennes vedeldade spis stod en STOR gryta och puttrade. Hon sa: Jag har så stora och många tomater så jag kokar lite salsa.. Den får koka ner några timmar och sen slänger jag i lite basilika på slutet.
Vi drack inget kaffe men vi åt glass i köket hos Julia och tomatsåsen kokade långsamt på spisen. Senare på kvällen, 3-4 timmar senare, såg jag Julia vandra hemmåt från sitt trädgårdsland med en stor knippe basilika i handen. Antar att det var dags att slänga den i grytan. Då vet man att vi befinner oss i slow-food-land...