refelections on summer 2014

Back in Stockholm and the dark and cold winter is approaching, but we have a few products with us as reminder of the past summer. We managed to do a lot, namely
the terrace
a few small brick laying projects in kitchen and living room
the entrance to the guest area got heating installed and a wonderful tiled floor
all plastering downstairs except for the kitchen where we won't do plastering because the walls will be full with furniture
heating installed in the ground floor
a fantastic terrace
as well as the flower box under the terrace, an attempt to save the vines by setting up a new provisionary pergola
lots of work in the garden, with serious progress towards our own vinyard

i think we should be a bit proud..

saved again by the wonderful Silvia

The two very nice guys who made our floor in the atrio, and who made me change my mind about italian contractors because they arrived exactly when they said they would have now made me change my mind again. After many visits and promises they would get our floors done before our departure 4 October, on Monday late evening one of them called Silvia to say they won't come after all. Won't do the job. Silvia got hold of me on Wednesday cause on Tuesday we were on our trip to Valcasotto and I had left my phone at home. I was

Luckily she knew another guy who has a construction business and he came by in the evening, gave us a fair price yesterday and is scheduled to arrive Monday morning, finishing Tuesday. Fingers crossed!!!

Meanwhile I am working on the 'save the vines' project, harvest walnuts, prune the fig tree, clean up the garden for winter but also enjoy the last days of sun before heading back to the cold swedish winter in a weeks time.. Oh and I made some killer tomato sauce from the box of tomatoes that Silvias mom gave me as a present. She was taking pity on me because my 50 tomato plants fared so badly in the rainy summer. Also tested a variation of the knead-free bread which turned out quite well if I may say so myself.

donkey milk and the most fantastic cheeses not so far away

 Boel is a returning visitor to Casario and the Tanaro Valley. She is still house hunting, but this week did a study trip to get a good feeling for the different villages and parts of cities so she can do the internet house search from Sweden. She helped me saw the planks from the old terrace, now there is a nice staple of wood for getting warm in the winter.

Today we made an excursion to celebrate her birthday. We went to the local castle, which unfortunately is closed even though it was renovated with tax money for four years. Beautiful beautiful building. The castles 'stable buildings' just below is now used as a donkey farm, so we stopped by to buy some donkey milk. First time I ever tasted it. A little sweeter than cow milk, and much less fat, without any of that 'side taste' that you get from goat milk.

We took a walk to Valcasotto, a sweet little village that has been restored by a cheese producer who now uses some of the fantastic cellars to ripen his cheeses. Had lunch in a  lovely place where I ate the best ever polenta, made from corn that was milled in the village - of course I got myself a big bag of polenta flour and also some cheese from the local store. Definitely a place to recommend and come back to.

floors

after sunshine comes rain.. I was expecting the two brothers william and davide today to start on the floors. I had a hunch on friday that they would not arrive today, cause last time we spoke on the phone they said they wanted to come by again (for what was not clear but maybe checking we had done the insulation ok) and confirm the date. So they did not confirm, they did not arrive. This is not a disaster, we are expecting them to  be done in say three days max. So they can start any day this week or even do the job next week. After that, it is crisis, cause the departure day is nearing!!!
Niklas did a great job with the electricity, together we insulated all the floors and I put up the metal net for the 'sottofondo' (underfloor) to be even more stable. All is ready for the boys. Lets hope they arrive soon.

first big summer project check!

and finally the day came, the happy day. Happy because we could say a grateful good-bye to the two brothers who have worked on the plastering for the last two weeks. Happy because we now have time even for the floors. Happy because they were such great artists. Happy that a milestone has been reached. And look at the result!

Dornröschen

we have not quite won the battle against the brambles in the piece of  land under the walnut trees, but lets say the situation is under control. Maybe next year we get a volunteer who wants to dig out all the roots..

Meanwhile I have started the project "sleeping beauty 2". To save as many of the trees in the "steep slope"  as possible. While we saw the sorry state of them we ignored them earlier because we did not realize they were ours until last year.. :-) Many many generations of brambles have succeeded to crawl on top of each other, and even another plant that is making hanging vines that would please even Tarzan, but also suffocates the plants. So I took to the cutting instruments and dedicated an h or two in the mornings to this. It is actually quite fun, if also a bit painful, the brambles are not giving up without scratching quite a bit, but luckily I have the magic cream for that.

Today i had to cut off a few branches from a hazelnut tree and a cherry tree that were dead and/or broken. This was actually a very hard job, probably more craving than a full gym workout. But the sun was shining, the cat was sitting in the shade watching me and at that moment, life could not have been better.

trees almost suffocated by the brambles and vines

Pergola

a few weeks with intensive visits have passed. First Astrid and Ursula were slaving away in the lower garden, pruning the trees and making firewood out of the twigs that were cut, and there was even time for a trip to the beach with public transport. Then mom and sister with her husband arrived last Monday and stayed until this morning.Their task was to save the vine from destruction after the Pergola has collapsed from the snow. First Mom and I erected a new set of pillars for the construction, then Uta and Stefan helped raise one of the big pillars that had collapsed and now leaned against the little house that was once used to dry the chestnuts. It took a bit of engineering and some fixing with rope, but now it is done and I can build a new pergola and then put the old wine back onto it for magic shade.

meanwhile the plastering of the lower floor walls is getting on and looking good!

Uta and Stefan posing after successful work

Rebuilding the Pergola

first layers of new plaster on the walls

Making a plan of attack

smart ramp to avoid all the stairs in the house

hope springs eternal, even for a collapsed pergola

Mom happy and in pole position

Atrio

forgot to put the 'finished pics' up on the blog from the Atrio and here it comes

dem inschenjör ist nichts zu schwör

when i started studying, there was quite a lot of 'engineer' jokes going around, as the German word for engineer has a bit of an unusual spelling. So when Niklas posted 'mission impossible?' for the brick laying around the heater, it reminded me about some of those bad jokes. Well, this was NOT an easy task, first there was the problem that there were no bricks slim enough to have the front door 'inbuilt' - the bricks would always stick out a little when building in front of the legs - and also on top of the front door, where we actually found a long long brick to lay.

Then there was the problem of the height. I had to set up the scaffolding and climb up it, and since i have a mild case of being afraid of heights, i was wondering how that would go, but it worked fine, so layer by layer i built this casing and now it is up to the professional plasterers to make it beautiful. One more project done, check. Now I am keen to work on the flower bed under the terrace!

il vecchio negozio di tabacchi

..enligt Google translate betyder det den gamla tobaksaffären.. det var det jag ville skriva i alla fall för det är i det här rummet allt började. De tre bröderna som senast levde i det här huset hade tydligen en liten tobaksaffär med ingång från gatan. Det var lågt till tak men på andra sidan var ju inte människor så långa på den tiden.. Nu är det högt till tak, ytterdörren transporterad på biltaket genom 5 länder sitter på plats.. golvet isolerat, försett med golvvärme och sen allt ingjutet i en liten kaka betong.. nu är frågan vad vi ska ha rummet till?

Mushrooms from the forest

Sweden has a special law, roughly translated called something like 'all peoples right' and regulates the free access and passage of everybody to the land. You are allowed to forage in the forest and even to spend a night with your tent almost anywhere, as long as it is not too close to obviously private enclosed areas. You can pick all the berries and mushrooms you can carry. This comes to no extra cost to you, citizen or visitor.

Quite a difference to Italy, where you need to go and get a special permit for mushroom picking. If you are a non-resident, you are only allowed to use it on odd days. The fee for the annual access card is 30€ and of course the permit costs 16€ extra, plus a Euro and a half for money transfer costs. So with this taking almost 50€ out of your pocket, you think twice whether you really are so eager to go to the forest for mushroom hunting. Or I guess quite a lot of people take the risk of not getting a permit, and chance being fined when caught, what are the odds to be stopped in the forest?

Well we went down to the municipality, got us a permit and then spent a good three hours like goats in the steep mountains and got a bit lucky! With all that recent rain, and the warmth now returning, we actually hope for some more in the near future.

ZE TERAZZA

and wow, after a whirlwind of work since last week Thursday, we now have a FANTASTIC terrace, in fact as Niklas pointed out, larger than our living quarter in our apartment in Stockholm. It was a good ride, first the whole old terrace was taken down and put in a corner so we can decide which parts to burn and which parts to re-use, then we got delivery of some very heavy beams and were able to witness some awesome traktor driving, and then in just a few days as per magic, the whole terrace just fell into place and now we are HAPPY!