Junefinnigan's Weblog

Welcome to all my loyal and new followers,

Warming a nice bottle of local wine.
Photo J Finnigan

Yes, its freezing cold and when  Chianti wines are served at room temperature in the winter its enough to make you tremble with the chill of it all.  So we are now keeping two or three bottles in the nook next to the fireplace that is specially made for this purpose.  Even so, it still needs a little more heating in front of the fire along with the glasses, before it is the right temperature for drinking!  Yes we do have central heating, but it drys the air so badly and the gas is very expensive.  It’s best to dash out of bed in the morning, manually put on the heating upstairs for half and hour, drape bath towels over the radiators to warm up and climb back into bed with a hot drink and wait.  This is also the best time for reading a book, while snuggled up with my man who is generally playing with his Smartphone .  I said Smartphone.  My current book is ‘The Beekeeper’s Apprentice’ by Laurie R King, a really gripping & beautifully written Sherlock Holmes story.  In my studio, I am butted up to an electric fire which our daughter delivered to us when we met for coffee in Fiano last Monday.  Our lovely girl was concerned about my poor aching joints, sweet thing, and thought it would help as I spend so much time working at the computer!  By choice, we live in an old villa which, by its very nature, is a cold house.  all the windows and doors are well fitted and double glazed, however, the cold always manages to seep through the roof and the high ceilings upstairs don’t help.  Despite this, I have to say, that since we left England almost ten years ago, I have barely had a sniffle and only a couple of viruses.  In England I lost whole months of work every year due to heavy colds and flu!  There is a lot to be said for homes warmed by  things other than central heating and fitted carpets.

Well, I don’t know about you, but keeping moving is the thing and its amazing how warm you can get trying to cover the plants with white muslin in a high biting wind.  Last Tuesday, I filled my pockets and mouth with clothes pegs and frantically pegged away at the flapping cloth and then tied it all down with string, leaving the pegs for extra security.  Now granted,  it does not look all that pretty, but it was a job well done.  The day before, my man had erected the polytunnel and all the vulnerable potted plants went under cover.   We were just in time, because come Wednesday, when he had flown to London, we had the first frosts.

Prince and Princess Michael of Kent fly to Pisa looking a little overdressed.
Photo Mail online

On the subject of flying to and from London, my man was joined by Prince and Princess Michael of Kent on his return flight to Pisa on Friday.  Now it was quite obvious that the Prince did not know the rules when flying in a lower class than he had become  accustomed to.  He had arrived at the front of the plane at the same time as the other ‘priority passengers’ and decided that he preferred the front  aisle seat to the one he had been allocated.  However, passengers are allocated seat numbers and when the chap arrived who had paid for and booked that seat, the Prince was asked to move!  Oh dear, but then the chap was a regular, always sat there and knew his rights!

The lovely little cafe bar, at Terra Viva, in Poggibonsi, with the shop beyond.
Photo J Finnigan

On Thursday, I popped down to Poggibonsi to visit ‘Terra Viva,’ a vegetarian shop and cafe bar, as I particularly wanted to buy some vegan margarine to make some stuffing balls.  This is a new recipe that I found on the vegan website, so I thought I would try it out in plenty of time for Christmas.  ‘Terra Viva’  is a treasure trove for vegans, fresh organic fruit & veg and a kitchen that serves up vegan lunches.  They also sell lovely perfumed oils, candles and mini water fountains set in crystal.  I had a caffe latte there made with organic coffee beans and rice milk – it was surprisingly delicious!  Whilst we are not fully vegan (I adore cheese and cream) I would like to be and we do have some vegan friends to cook for.  I have also been reading up on vegan dishes and its amazing how creative one can be without dairy produce, so I must have a go.  If anyone can recommend some good ideas for a vegan Christmas, do let me know.

And how is the virtually challenged, but gorgeous Silvio Berlusconi doing?  I’ll just go and check the latest news and come back to you.  Poor old SB,  the news is not good.  He must feel like he’s walking trough a wind tunnel, one step forward and two back.  It seems the courts are now claiming that SB “gathered women together at his Milan mansion last January,” then they suggested that “he paid off the would-be show girls with 2,500 euros each a month in return for giving almost identical testimonies  in court, playing down the sexually charged nature of his ‘bunga bunga’ parties!”  Oh dear, they are also claiming that “many of these women lived in apartments owned by SB, wore gifted jewelry and drove cars given to them as birthday presents!”  You don’t say!  Well, of course SB has responded  saying that “it was simply in his nature to try to help people in need.” Well bless his warm and generous heart….

Well, enough of that, it’s now December 1st and everything is getting very Christmasy! I must go and get the Christmas box out of the storeroom and check the state of the crushed decorations and wrapping paper.  Then off to lunch at one of our lovely local ristorante.

Book Cover for ‘My Father, The Assassin’

Have a great week and don’t forget to check out your Christmas books, especially ‘My Father, the Assassin’ by J W Finnigan on http://www.amazon.uk (eu or com) and at http://www.goodreads.net where you can download an e- book at a discounted price!  Enjoy…

Amore June x