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.