Fun week with friends

8 giu.
Buon weekend everyone.
I have had a wonderful time visiting with friends from KC here at Nascondiglio di Bacco! Tom and Wanda came in Wed. night and just left yesterday for San Remo and we explored the local sites including Offida, Le Caniette (one of my favorite local wineries), Ascoli Piceno and a bit of the seacoast as well. Dan came in night before last after surviving a wedding in Florence and trying to keep up with a bunch of late 20 somethings. I can relate after the master's program. He has now caught up on his rest and will head back to Florence today and then back to Milan to fly home. We all went to a great seafood restaurant in Grottammare called Don Diego where the fish is all extremely fresh and wonderfully prepared. The owner, who I have met through his mother, showed us all around his little property on the beach which also rents lounge chairs and umbrellas. He has all sorts of herbs and flowers which he uses in his cooking to great effect.
Giorgio, our fellow UNISG grad also came in day before last to attend the Juvecaserta-Jesi basketball game. It is part of the finals to advance into the Italian major leagues of Series A and unfortunately, Caserta lost, but lead the series 2-1 and need to win one more. The next game is tonight.
After Gio and Dan leave we have a sack of work to do. Finish cleaning practically all the rooms, clean the front patio of all the gravel which is its carpet right now as tomorrow they will pour cement as a base for the ceramic tile. Then, of course, there is always the hoeing which is constantly available.
I will feel better when i finish the next 6.5 rows of montepulciano, then i can rest a few days before tackling the pecorino.
The pictures are weak today, but include a faint rainbow to our east and southeast from a couple of days ago at dusk, the continuing pool saga, the patio before (after to follow in a week or so) and "cheap toys are the best, dad!"
Thanks for reading and feel free to leave comments whenever. I had to put a little control on there as I was getting comment spam!
dds

What to do?

4 June
What am I going to do now, read now, think about now that the Democratic primary is over. All the fun and games of the last 7 months finished! I guess I will have to read Hollywood gossip and wait for the birth of the Brangelina twins!
The concrete pond is moving ahead and by now everyone knows my frustration. My advice, which I was to ignorant to heed, is to put a penalty for late completion in your pool contract. It is now looking like late June for the grand opening.
For those with a really great memory, Michele and Teresa have had a little girl and the baptism is coming up in 10 days. Exciting stuff for us UNISG grads.
I am still hoeing the vineyard and making some progress, but there's still a month of solid work ahead along with the B&B jobs. We currently have 19 people staying with us which will increase to 21 when Tom and Wanda arrive today. It is impossible to house more than that without some folks in tents or on the floor.
The pictures show the new retaining or sitting wall which will be stuccoed and you can see the drop for the infinity pool water and in the middle, the slot for the waterfall to the lower pool. Also at the far left is the subterranean room for the filters and pumps.
Ciao
dds

Over 1 Year of the "New LOD" blog

1 Giugno
Happy Sunday everyone. Here it is a slow news time, but here is a bit of a weekend update. The blog from the Marche started 29 Maggio, so I am sorry i missed the real anniversary. I did manage to get in about 191 posts during the year.
I am changing flower pix from roses of rome to geraniums from our little collection.
It has been 80 something of late and clear, but with a bit of rain coming next week. perhaps.
We have completed another plowing of a sort in our vineyard, so I am not ashamed to show you a picture of some of the cabernet franc vines heading down our hill.
We had 4 rooms full last night, but fill up completely for the next 4 days, after which I will be pleased to see my old friends from KC, Tom and Wanda and then Dan, my favorite hospital administrator.
There will be no work on the pool today or tomorrow as it is another national holiday. Aiiiiiii!
I am making cinnamon rolls for our guests tomorrow so you know I am bored, but I was taking a hoeing holiday since it is Sunday and my hands are a disaster. This is my 1st attempt to make them and in true american style, they are filled with butter and sugar and cream (only 2 tbsp)
Last night I harvested some of our garden's spinach and cooked them with oil, garlic and guanciale (pig's cheek, you can use pancetta or thick bacon) and it was great!
Our codirossi have fledged and hopefully are foraging on their own with a bit of help from mom and dad, but man, that was Fast!!
Finally, a photo of Bacco enjoying some shade on a hot day.
Ciao!
dds

Quadruplets? Pool update

30 Maggio
Our codirosso family seems to have become quads instead of twins. Do you see another couple of pairs of eyes under the dominant duo or am I just seeing double?
Hillary and Jeff are visiting just now from the states and I have known Hillary for a score of years I think. They are doing a nice long tour through Italy and using our stop as a pause for a deep breath before heading up to Venice today.
I continue to slog away with my hoe and my sausage shaped fingers are not happy, but they are putting up with the need for their assistance.
The cement pond has turned into the rebuilding of the twin towers as delays continue to haunt us. As we are full in the next week, we had to clear the worker's equipment out of room 2 and disinfect and clean that mess. They did pour concrete yesterday, so you can see the final product beginning to take shape.
The olive blossoms are falling, leaving in their place, teeny little olives. Of course, all of them won't make it to big daddy olive size, but fun to see, nonetheless.
I am doing a bit of work in the old vineyard, tying up branches and thinning redundant ones, so the vine can put its energy into the "rami" with the little grapes. That is a work I enjoy much more than hoeing, so I do that job when it is really hot or I need to "warm up" for the hoeing (zappatura)
Our garden is filling up with lettuce, spinach and beautiful zucchini with flowers which I can't wait to eat! Also, the tomatoes are growing a bit and finally, the artichokes are on their last legs; time to plow under the plants. I will miss them.
dwight

Late Spring at Nascondiglio di Bacco

27 Maggio
I will try to catch up with my pictures now. As I said in the previous post, Bacco and I take a dawn walk of 45 minutes or so each morning to drain him of the energy which leads him to stray far from home. It is a 40 minute round trip walk to the east and about 45-50 minutes west to the main road to town, so we alternate one with the other. Here are some of the scenes we viewed in the last couple of days showing our surrounding countryside with Nascondiglio in the foreground or background and one of a house nearby surrounded by one of our abundant weeds (poppies). Finally, a picture of olive tree blossoms. About 3% of these little flowers will become olives in a good year. Check out the post below for more from today.
OK, I have procrastinated long enough-time to hoe weeds.
We have extra hoes for anyone who wants to join me!
dwight

TWINS BORN AT NASCONDIGLIO DI BACCO!!!

Hi everyone. My luggage finally arrived 5 days behind me and all my cool stuff is here like cables to download my camera pix, recharge my phone, etc. So, here are the photos I promised showing the pool which is BEHIND schedule. Why am I not surprised?
Also, a picture of our new arrivals who were born in the 500 year old wood burning oven on the back stairwell. For those who want to meet the parents, use google image and plug in Codirosso.
Currently, I am hoeing the new vineyard and thinning the redundant branches in the old one. We are waiting on our full house which is booked for 3 june when a convention is coming to Offida.
I am walking every morning at dawn with Bacco to wear him out a bit and yesterday morning the valleys were full of fog with the air full of the scents of the countryside, like freshly mowed hay and the eventual destination of the hay-cattle. Our neighbors put a contraption on the back of their tractor and helped extirpate our weeds between the rows in the new vineyard and I followed behind with the handheld equivalent and cleaned up between the grapevines.
Last night I cooked a fine steak on the grill as well as bread for bruschetta and some of the lettuce from our garden.
More pix later of the open wineries weekend, but to finish my 5, I put a new pic of Bacco, a cat without a home we saw on one of our walks and the progress of the grape bunches in the old vineyard.
dds

Lost luggage, Cantine aperte

25 maggio
hi everyone. sorry, no pix, but until i get my camera cable back which happens to be in my luggage which is somewhere between st. louis and Offida, there will be no photos. This is the 2nd time in 6 months I arrived before my baggage. There are a slew of things I want and need inside including some surprises for Raffaele and Bacco as well as essentials such as Celestial Seasonings tea, headphones for Skype, and miscellaneous junk which costs less in America and so I help pay my airfare with my savings.
Bacco is back behaving better, but that may be because we are getting up between 530 and 0600 to walk an hour and get our roles redefined ( i am capobranco-pack leader and Bacco is my devoted follower). We took him to the winery open houses and everyone loves him, even other dogs.
When I returned there were 8 hours of work to get the yard presentable and an equal amount to get the inside ready for what we hope will be a busy period ahead. The swimming pool is behind schedule which is no surprise, but is frustrating as we were hoping for a june 1 grand opening.
Today, after our little walk, Bacco and I worked in the old vineyard and cut away duplicate branches and then I harvested almost the last of the artichokes. I will miss them, but i made a nice artichoke, wild asparagus and tomato quiche for supper.
Cross your fingers tomorrow my luggage will arrive and I can update you with some nice photos of cats on top of light poles, growing little grapes and Bacco.
dwight