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Wednesday 16 June 2010

Feeling guilty...

Bless me father for I have sinned. It has been more than 2 week since my last confession... blog entry! sorry, blog entry! Sorry got a bit carried away there. I'm just so far behind, not only with blogging but with gardening too!

This is really just a quick "I'm still alive" entry with a pictoral record of what's been happening in the last 2 1/2 weeks or so.

The pilgrims left us again on their way back to France. They haven't updated their blog for a bit, but I have heard from them and they are still progressing well.



Hardly had they gone when the next batch of visitors arrived. So with them we frollicked in the sea:

...sunbathed...


Eddie proved so popular with Iana and Peter the 7-year old twins that Peter drew this picture of him:


The text on the top reads: "Dear Hako. I like your puppy so much that I sometimes think he's a rock star..."

We also went to the annual flower carpet display on Corpus Domini in Santo Stefano di Magra. Spectacular as always!



Elisabetta, our English pupil has had her first Communion (now she's allowed to confess her sins.)


We met a tortoise.


It hasn't all been idle though. I did get some work in every now and then, like a second strimming session before our land was returned to jungledom. This is me and Eddies having a wee nap afterwards. Note the grass flecks all over me of evidence that I really did do some work that day at least.



And now... It started raining again after a spell of very nice weather. So I'm still behind on the weeding, cutting side shoots off the tomatoes and tieing them up, planting out leeks, more weeding, picking more cherries, picking plums, weeding, cutting down the dead willow tree, cutting down the virtually dead plum tree, weeding, planting out the litchi tomatoes (they are still tiny, but they are showing!), weeding, weeding, weeding...

Another invasion has announced itself for September. I must make sure I'm better organised before they all arrive.

15 comments:

Ayak said...

Lovely pics Heiko. I just love Eddie.
Oh bloody weeds...don't you wish they'd just go away?!

Angela said...

Glad you have not disappeared in your weeds yet. I imagine it like the elephant grass in Zambia where the lions used to hide. Watch out that Eddie does not get lost. Is he getting a beer belly? You look pretty worked out, as opposed to him.
Lovely pictures. And never mind the sinning.

jann said...

Will you send some of that rain down to Sicily? I'm dying of the heat down here. We're going to the beach too today to get some respite. Re batches of visitors arriving in waves--I've been there and am still there! Love the pic of you with doggie.

Heiko said...

Akak, the trouble is also to distinguish good from bad weeds, like the many edible ones. So I end up weeding around weeds.

Angela, you should see the red-eyed elefants in our cherry trees. They are very hard to spot being so well disguised!

Jann, we've managed to have about 3 sunny weeks, when the rest of Europe seemed to have rain, but it has caught up with us too.

Heiko said...

Oh, and the dog isn't fat, it's all muscle!!!

chaiselongue said...

It certainly sounds as though you've been busy, except maybe in that last picture! I'm amazed that you've been in the sea - we haven't yet because we've had so much rain. Most years the sea is warm enough even for me by the beginning of June, but not this year.

Jan said...

Fat or muscley, he's cute!

Mr. H. said...

Shame on you for not blogging in so long...Oh wait, neither have I.:)

The rain does indeed make it hard to keep up with the weeds, we are way behind in that as well...because it keeps raining here too, although we did have about 4 really nice days in a row but it is back to rain again today.

I'm so happy that your litchi fruit plants have germinated, they do take forever to do so. You will love them...just be very careful.:)

Eddie looks to be a very happy and content puppy. You two do kind of look like rockstars in that picture. Glad to hear from you again.

Angela said...

Belly muscles?

Heiko said...

Yes Angela, he works out you know. He walked almost 12 km with us today!

CL, yes we seem to have escaped most the bad weather in the last 3 weeks or so... until now.

Mr' H., looking forward to those litchi toms. Some tomatillos are also showing signs of life.

Janne, he is indeed cute. The most popular dog in the village at the moment./

Stefaneener said...

Of course you're working hard. Eddie is such a treat. And the flower carpet! Wonderful. We're still trying to figure out a way back to see you all -- our children would be charmed by Eddie, but I'm not sure they could imagine anything so wonderful!
Enjoy the rain while you have it, even though it encourages the dratted weeds.

Gaia's Hope said...

it's nice to have friends around, work and blogging can wait sometimes.

I think I need the rain back. It's so hot now, so hot...

Kate said...

But Heiko, where is the amaranth amongst all this frivolity?

Heiko said...

Stefani, looking forward to seeing you again and meeting the kids!

Kate, no sign of the amaranth like with a few of my other plants (most notably any capsicums). I suspect it's just been too cold and wet after I had sown them out. I might try another sowing this week, to see what happens.

Ayak said...

There's an award for your blog over at mine

http://ayak-turkishdelight.blogspot.com/2010/06/awards.html