Junefinnigan's Weblog

Welcome and Benveuti to all my Lovely Followers Around the World,

Phew! Things have calmed down a little now after horrendous storms bringing heavy rain yesterday and overnight. The sky remains grey and there is a steady light rain. We can see some quite big branches that have been blown off into the garden and It will be much worse if we went further afield, which we have no intention of doing! North and south of us the country has had terrible flooding and people have been evacuated from their homes. So, the fact that we are not supposed to travel is not such a bad thing.

The view from here remains beautiful. December is the month when the European Oak tree turns coppery orange and there are thousands in Tuscany. So for the uninitiated, Tuscany looks like it’s in the midst of Autumn. We love it! The misty rain has highlighted a giant cobweb in our garden. A very big or very industrious spider and a beautiful work of art!

Meanwhile, Tuscany has now been moved from Red (High Risk) to Orange (Medium/High Risk) from a Covid point of view. So for the time being, we can move about on essential trips and go outside our immediate commune, but this will be much stricter over the Christmas Period. Currently, we cannot go to restuarants, bars or coffee shops except for take-aways. I really miss my lunches at Paolo’s! I rarely cook pasta at home as I have to cook gluten free for myself and I always destroy it. It’s only a matter of seconds between being just right and falling to pieces! So we eat a lot of potato and rice dishes.

Anyway, my man went for a Covid Test on Friday and the next day our lovely doctor Flavio emailed to say the result was negative! Hurrah! Mind you, my man will tell you that having the test is not a pleasant thing. It was two long cotton type buds up each nostril and beyond, then a throat swab at choking depth! Very uncomfortable indeed. Whether it’s done this way everywhere, I don’t know. You need an appointment through your doctor, then you receive an SMS with a date and time for a drive through test. My man’s appointment was very specific to the minute and he was to arrive 15 minutes early. The queue must have been at least thirty cars and they had not yet got everything ready. So if you go to the Certaldo for a test, be very very patient!

On a much lighter note, I laid the Christmas table this morning. The usual dusty old cloths and table centre, but we love it. I know, it’s still the first week in December, but as everyone else has started celebrating I was easily encouraged to do the same. Thinking about Christmas get togethers, we should make better use of Skype or Zoom this year and look up family and friends we won’t get to see otherwise. What do you think?

Now you may remember that I like to follow the English language on-line Magazine called The Florentine. It keeps me up to date with what’s happening in Florence and the surrounding regions. It also picks up on some interesting facts and historical snippets like the article on the very elegante Grand duke Pietro Leopoldo. Quoted on Saturday 5th December “#OnThisDay in 1786, the Grand Duchy of #Tuscany became the first state in the world to abolish torture and capital punishment.  A progressive leader, Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo was the one who made it happen, inspired by Cesare Beccaria’s 1764 essay “On crimes and punishments”. Well, yet another first for Tuscany! https://www.theflorentine.net/

And, finally, don’t forget I’m giving away free copies of my short story ‘The Man in Black’ to all readers who send me a photo of themselves, cat or dog holding one of my other books. Email me at june.finnigan@virgin.net. I can’t wait to hear from you!

Visit my website at http://www.junefinnigan.website for lots more information.

Have a safe week, Salute June x