Junefinnigan's Weblog

Benvenuto to all my New and Loyal Followers

Yesterday was Father’s Day and we set off for the local town of Tavernelle to meet our beautiful daughter and grandchildren for coffee and aperitivi.  They all looked wonderful, glowing with sunshine and olive oil skins.  It is my birthday on 23rd June and my daughter has booked my man and I in for lunch at the five-star restaurant in the Borga di San Pietro near Siena next weekend.  http://www.borgosanpietro.com  She is the Hotel’s PR and publicity agent and apparently we will be rubbing shoulders with even better known celebrities than ourselves!  This was a lovely surprise, thank you darling girl x.  Later over lunch my man, who is a well-travelled ex-military guy, and I raised a glass and he said “To family, whoever and wherever they are around the World!”  Don’t ask………

Aeron Smith New Zealand
Photo Martin Hunter/Getty Images

My man was very excited to find that Caffe Solferino in the main piazza of Certaldo, has sky television and so we are able to watch England vs New Zealand rugby test matches on Saturday mornings.  However, with the onset of the football world cup, they have moved the TV wiring outside into the smoking area so the calcio mad Italians can watch it on a big screen at midnight!  Despite this, we can still watch the rugby even though it is a little too light outside to get the best picture in the mornings.

The countryside is incredibly noisy at present.  Tractors are constantly passing the villa, loads of tourists are cruising past to see the view and on Saturday we had a convoy of open top vintage porches, the passengers of which may not have appreciated the dusty track conditions that surround us in dry weather.  We are also near a blind bend, and rather than slow down the Italians take it wide and fast, tooting loudly just in case!  But we don’t care about that, life iz good, life iz now……  We have had some much-needed, if thundery, rain over the last few days which will dampen it down a bit, however, the forecast for my concert weekend on 28th June, is looking very good indeed – hurrah!

Grilled asparagus with parmesan from on-line recipe.

In Certaldo last Saturday, I picked up some lovely fresh slim asparagus which I shall roast or grill in olive oil.  Now, I know many of you are very good cooks, but I am not.  I only discovered a recipe recently which included grilling these lovely things, I was amazed and its so easy!  Easy is the operative word.  I am so busy working and writing that I never seem to find any time to do creative cooking.  I adore good food, but must admit, I prefer to let someone else do the cooking.  However, whilst my man is fantastic at everything else, he does not cook…..  So, I have to do it if randomly!  Many of you will know that buying locally grown fruit and veg in Tuscany is a wonderful thing.  Also, local cheeses, yummy.  So at least I can stock up on salads and easy cook veg.

I will update you on Silvio Berlusconi in two weeks time, as the next two weekends will be full of guests arriving and the Rock Concert Party.  So do forgive me if I only send you a brief note during this time.  I will be sending out concert invite reminders this weekend, so if you are in Tuscany on 28th and do not have an invite, drop me a line at june.finnigan@virgin.net – I need groupies!

Have a great week and its back to the office for me.

Salute June x

PS visit my author site at http://www.amazon.com/author/junefinnigan