Welcome and Benvenuti to all my Lovely Followers around the World,
I was shocked to see my new British passport arrive this week? Why shocked? I hear you ask. Well, I had given up on ever seeing it, especially as I was reliably informed it had been posted from England on 28 April! It seems that the secure courier had returned hundreds to England due to Covid as they were not able to safely ask for signatures! Now OK, but wouldn’t it have been nice, despite the shortage in staff at the passport office, if they had sent a mass email message saying that had happened? It would also have saved me several telephone calls and waiting in queues! So, where am I off to now that I’m free to travel? You ask. Precisely nowhere, I reply, but that’s not the point is it? And, I prefer my old foto and can’t read any of the small print in the new passport. But then I am waiting for new reading glasses……. Grumble, grumble.
But on a much lighter note, we are pleased to see the restaurants busy, only because our few favourite ones need to recover from a four month lack of income. Paolo at C’era una Volta in Lucardo, is rather pleased as he is busy serving both locals and tourists again. I confess to our going to Paolo’s three times this last week, somehow I keep losing the way to our own kitchen and pretend to be disorientated, so eating out is a better option! (Ha,ha)
Now we sometimes meet some nice tourists, who will want to talk from a nearby table. We are British, but have lived in Tuscany for sixteen years, so we are an odd combination of being Italianised and speaking the language (badly) but with English features. My man could also be from northern Europe as he is tall and fair-haired. Some years ago a rather snobby English lady who owns a property close by, but lives in England, introduced us to her friends at arms length and said, “These are the Finnigans, err they live here….” Now, if you are an upper class Brit, you don’t ‘live here‘ you just own a property, put in a housekeeper and make occasional visits! So they quickly turned away and talked amongst themselves!
But yesterday, we met a really nice Italian couple from Piedmont, near Milan, who were visiting their daughter here on the edge of Chianti. For some reason the wife wanted to know my man’s age, so he tried to fox her by saying the year he was born, without the 19 in front. But the husband was too quick and worked it out. “Oh,” he said looking a little shocked, “you’re……….!” The wife leaned forward and looked a little closer at my man’s face and said “Have you had a face lift?” That was hilarious, but my man is related to Peter Pan and his hair is still dark blond and thick; he does look a lot younger!
Meanwhile, back here at our converted monestary farmhouse, Phil the Pheasant has returned to his former noisy self, after having been missing for around two weeks and then returning with a very disheveled look about him. Phil is wild, but we think of him as one of the family as he came with the house. He looks much better too, his bright colours have returned, so that’s a relief.
Sadly, our wildlife pond is now completely dried up due to the lack of rain. It is a protected one, surrounded by fencing and trees, hosting a wonderful collection of toads and attracting lots of birds, small animals and insects. We are now desperate for some heavy rain, but we are only expecting a little as the high upper 30’s temperatures are expected for another two weeks at least! The countryside is now burnt to a crisp!
Oh, lest I forget. Did any of you local readers spot a black long-haired goat trotting along the road? It looked pretty wild, like this foto but scruffier and not the slightest bit stressed when we drove past it. This was a couple of weeks ago, no sign of it since! Foto file.scirp.org
OK, time to think about Sunday lunch. My man has requested roasted potatoes, bless him, how can I refuse when he looks at me with those gorgeous blue eyes. He often offers to help in the kitchen but I am better on my own as I am so impatient, so I usually decline the offer!
Anyway, I do hope you and yours are well and safe in your little bit of the world. We continue to wear the masks, cleanse our hands and get spaced out. (Well you know what I mean!)
Have a great week and do drop me a line; I love to hear from my readers.
Salute June x
PS Visit my wesite at http://www.junefinnigan.website
Yes, it’s yet another Beautiful Day in Tuscany and I’m feeling very chipper. Last thursday I finally returned to my lovely estetista Irene in Certaldo, for a manicure and pedicure. Now in normal times this would not be something to post that was really newsworthy, but when I look at my feet now, it’s like a gift from heaven! For me beautiful hands, feet and hair are so very important. What with my being famous in Fiano, I have to look my best! It’s also to do with that ‘feel good’ factor, which is so important in all our lives. What do you think? Things remain strict here in Italy, you know, masks, hand gels and distancing wherever you go, but this gives me much more confidence about going to these places.
Now whilst this is not strickly about Tuscany, you will probably know that Italians love music and in particular Rock Music. I live in the music world here and many friends are mourning the passing of Peter Green at the young age of seventy-four. He was considered to be one of the UK’s greatest guitarists and was a co-founder of Fleetwood Mac.
On a happier note the world is celebrating the 77th birthday of Mick Jagger, hugely popular with Italians and who always includes Florence or Lucca on the Rolling Stone’s European tours. More are planned for 2021; Rock On that man! The brilliant drawings included for both these guys were done by UK artist Gary Wing, whom I follow on Linked-in. I also own an original of his, not a musician, but my lovely cat Farty Barty who went up to the cat concert in the sky three years ago. Bless him.
Meanwhile, back here in this beautiful part of Tuscany, we are not far from Toscana Resort Castelfalfi, a favourtite haunt of our son-in-law who is a keen golfer. They have opened their new Country Club House and restuarants that look very inviting. I am reliably informed that for people staying there, there are a few things not quite ready yet like the swimming pool and spa centre. However, the re-opening will be welcomed by those who enjoy luxurious facilities and a 27 hole golf course in the most breathtaking Tuscan setting. 
And, what else? Oh yes, on the subject of travelling, I hope you have a passport, because I don’t! If I have to be marooned anywhere, it would be here in Tuscany of course. This is fortunate because, having applied for a new passport last April and being told it was on the way at the end of that month, it never arrived! You may already know that due to the Covid thing, there is a backlog of thousands of UK passports. I only found out a couple of weeks that the secure delivery service given the task of bringing UK passports to Euopean residents, returned a whole batch of passports to London! Meanwhile, Easyjet, in their effort to reward frequent flyers, like my man, made him a member of their exclusive Flight Club. Unfortunately, they stupidly registered me as the member and not him. So when I rang to change a flight free of charge, which is one of the benefits, they said no, we would have to pay £60! So here we are, me with no passport and my man without a decent airline. But we don’t care about that, life eeez good, life eeez now! Here is a picture of my man gazing at the Tuscan countryside and dreaming of returning to the UK, I don’t think!
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