Monthly Archives: May 2026

Some fixing up

8 Replies

We have an amazing handy man. Roddy Gee. Send an email to me and I can share his details if you’re in Umbria. So nice to have a competent person to help around here with the many repairs and “improvements”.

The first picture is one of our planters. Made of masonry. Covered with stucco. Roddy scraped and repainted 2 years ago and then, like before, the moisture leached through the masonry and bubbled up the paint. Back in the U.S., we bought a sealant against moisture that went on the wall inside our basement. So I asked him to see if there was something like that here. This is the scraped, sealed and repainted planter. Looks nice. Now to see how long it lasts!

This next one is the cabinet whose door was ripped off in a windstorm. Roddy got new hinges and a new latch. All set for summer use!

Finally, my favorite thing. This wall was butt ugly. Dark gray paint which was bubbling up and waiting to slough off. I got the idea to cover it with a trellis. I asked Roddy about it. He found some panels that worked perfectly. Anyway, I find this so much warmer and inviting than that ugly wall. I can’t stop looking at it! PS, the pink was the former owners choice. I am not a pink person. Someday I’ll get that repainted.

We are enduring a very early heat wave in all of italy. Not quite as bad down here as further north in France, Germany, England, but still, a harbinger of things to come. Hope you’re having nice weather wherever you are! Ciao!

Pizza night

7 Replies

Pizza night with friends! Our nearby Degusto pizzaria. The pizzas are stellar. The crust is stupendo. I love this place. Here are three of our pizzas,

We are having great weather now. It went from cold, wet spring to hot summer practically overnight. I’m fine with it! The orto did not like that cold, damp, gray weather. Now, with the hot sunshine things are starting to grow. I took some pictures, first my impromptu potato crop to be. They are doing great. Potatoes are easy to grow. The tomatoes are doing well. Two have baby tomatoes. I’m not sure about the third. It gets a bit less sun so maybe it will start to produce. The pepper is very slow to get going. Even with the sun it is not thriving. Crossing fingers. The basil was also affected by the weather but it may start growing now with the heat and sun. And all my herbs are looking great.

The poor jalapeño plant is in front of the tomatoes next to the white flower. It is tiny.

On Saturday night we joined Susan and Gary to celebrate their anniversary. They came from Florence for a couple nights in the Calagrana agriturismo. Our friends Christie and Jane also came and Jane surprised Christie with an overnight there too! Fun. The food, as always was great, as was the company.

Labor Day – May Day

9 Replies

Friday was Labor Day in Europe. Also called May Day. I see the U.S. also had a big May Day walk out. Italy always has lots of strikes and also parades on this day. Umbertide always has a parade too. It’s made up of the labor unions and also lots of tractors all shiny and clean blowing their horns. The local mill is a union operation and all of its trucks rumbled past. Oh, and of course the Umbertide town band, who were sporting spiffy new uniforms. They actually seem to have improved a lot recently. They even had a few flags against the Iran war. They said “war is not our business”. Sentiment here is very high against that war. Here are a couple of pictures with captions.

Umbertide band.
The tractors. My favorite is the tiny Ape in the middle. He had a loud siren 😆
Big guy
That sign says War is not our business.

Diesel fuel is now up to 2.05€ a liter. That works out to about $9.50 a gallon. This is hurting a lot of people here. And the airlines are canceling lots of flights internal to Europe due to lack of jet fuel. Lufthansa canceled 20,000 flights. This will start to hurt the tourist industry hard. I read Americans are rethinking their plans to come to Europe. 20% have decided to wait. None of this is good for Europe. No wonder they are anti-US administration. Of course that administration is threatening to close the U.S. bases here because they won’t support the war that it started. Closing bases would hurt the U.S. more than Italy and Spain. The U.S. needs those bases. Enuf of that.
~~~~~~~~~
Our weather is spectacular right now, the Umbrian countryside is verdant green. I had my inaugural Campari spritz of the season last night at Bar Mary in the Piazza with newly returned friends and friends of theirs who have come to visit. Lots of fun and laughter. Salute a tutti! 🍹🍹🍹

Umbria primavera.