Welcome & Benvenuti to all my Lovely followers around the World,
Now, its always been my policy to get my Christmas List sorted the first week in November. This is important because deliveries here in Tuscany can be very unreliable particularly if using the Post Office. Deliveries have often arrived a month or more after having been posted outside the EU & regularly comes with an an import tax to pay! Thankfully, I have discovered some very good on-line retailers here in Europe and in particular Next.it. The warehouse may well be in Germany, but thats not a problem. We also have Amazon.it and M&S.it. We had some quick deliveries from Nike Italia too.
So, it’s time to get my own books out to the world again. Whilst I know many of you lovely people have already read them, they do make nice presents. There’s nothing like unwrapping a book for Xmas, then curling up in front of the fire for a good read. I shall be concentrating on gifting lots of books this year! You will find my books on any Amazon site and numerous other sites if you don’t use Amazon. To remind you I write thrillers with a vein of romance running through them. The order in which I wrote them is My Father, The Assassin, The Bolivian Connection then The Italian Connection. All three follow the continuing Adventures of Joanna Wilde and her undercover activities around the world. Go to my website for lots more information and, you can buy there too: even signed books are available. However, The latter should be ordered early as they will be posted from Italy. http://www.junefinnigan.website As a treat, you can download a short thriller based in London’s Theatre land for just 99p!
Meanwhile, here in our lovely little bit of Tuscany on the edge of Chianti, we are thoroughly enjoying the new wines and the mouth watering taste of Cold Pressed Extra Virgin Olive Oil. It’s an annual reminder of just how lucky we are to be here. Thankfully the busy tractors and trailers are less frequent now, whilst necessary to do the work, the squeaking banging and clattering along our track can get a little tiresome.
My man and I are just about recovered from a virus (not covid) that he brought back from a trip to England. The 18 years we have lived here has been a blessing for me as I don’t seem to catch Italian colds or flu. When I lived in England it was one cold virus after another, my doctor advised me to move to a drier climate, it worked! Onwards and Upwards!
Anyway, time to tidy up this blog and get it off to you. Sorry for the lack of blogs over the last few months, I hope to make up for that over the next few months.
Have a great week, life eeez good, life eeez now!
Salute June x
Welcome and Benvenuti to all my Lovely Followers around the World,
We have developed a liking for Il Bar Querceto, which is an easy walk for us. They serve up the most delicious LavAzza Espresso and you get free biscuits too! You can sit inside, but it is tiny, so for social distancing it is a maximum of four people. The bar is rather beautiful with an inglenook fireplace and wall murals. Over the fireplace is a painting of Oak Leaves from where the name of the bar is derived, The Oak Tree is called Il Querceto in Italian. And, where is this bar? Ah, now that’s our secret, can’t have the place filling up with tourists, now can we? We still pop up to Fiano once or twice a week for coffee but things have yet to return to the easygoing breakfast visits we made every day before lock down. However, there is a lovely new assistant called Ullie, who works from Monday to Friday. She is Austrian and is trying to learn Italian; so we speak in English…..
This last week we made the decision to go to Brico and buy fixed framed mozzie curtains; Tende per Zanzare. We bought three and allowed half an hour for each one as they have to be assembled and cut to size if necessary. Three hours later we had managed to put together one in the kitchen, it was worse that putting together IKEA furniture and the instructions were severly lacking! We worked out the hard way about measuring the opening! What the instructions did not say was to reduce your upright measurement to cater for the plastic foot on the uprights and curtain roll container at the top! Fortunately everything can be cut to size, but what a headache. We have two more windows to do, but we’ll leave them till next weekend! Phew……
Well enough of that. We have been enjoying lunch at least twice a week at Paolo’s, that’s Ristorante C’era una Volta for the uninitiated, and coming away with loads of Zucchini as his vegetable garden is overloaded this year. Our daughter says her sweetcorn are five foot high and she doesn’t know what to do with the huge quantity of tomatoes! There is a limit to the number of bottles of passatta she can fill! So it’s a good year for the Tuscan ortos (vegetable gardens) and the fruit and veg markets too. So, no need to grow my own, I just love it!
So sorry, but unforeseen circumstances prevented me from blogging last weekend. But you’re not forgotten and here is a beautiful picture of the discarded husk of the reborn Cicada! We found lots on our garden bench this last week. Enjoy and I’ll be back this coming weekend.
Now, one thing that has been missing over the last four months is entertainment and the Italians so love cinema. So I was delighted to see that Certaldo Alto, which is the historical walled centre of our local town, is starting Cinema D’Estate from 9th July starting at 9.30 in the evenings in Palazzo Pretorio. What a beautiful setting for some great films. You can park down in Certaldo and get the funicular train up the hill, which runs until midnight or drive around the back of Certaldo Alto and park there. You’ll also find some lovely places to eat and drink there too! Picture from Facebook. For more information and to buy tickets visit 
Back in our lovely little bit of Chianti countryside, the phantom digger has returned. We have whittled the evidence down to being a badger. It has very strong claws and is able to move some biggish stones and bricks lining one of the flower beds. The badgers here are pretty big, we only got a close up once! This one also has an attraction for the bottom of one of our acacia trees, having already destroyed all our Iris tubers. There’s not a lot we can do about this really, just tidy up the mess it leaves behind. During the four months of lock-down the wildlife became much more invasive! But we don’t really mind, it’s lovely to see animals and birds that were previously very shy.
Well, I have to say, it’s far too hot for me now. The sun is scorching so if you are coming this week, slap on the protection! We can hear the faint splashing of bodies in a nearby pool, so tourists are out and about in the sun! This morning at our favourite alimentare and bar in Fiano, La Dispensa, we actually stopped for coffee seated at the one inside table. It was quite busy, including tourists buying meats and if you are veggie, like us, you’ll find lots of fresh vegetables and cheeses too. We were glad to see everyone still wearing masks and keeping a safe distance.
Back at my desk, I can hear the Ciccada’s making one hell of a din outside my window! But I like it; it is the true sound of Tuscany in the summer, along with the squeaky tractors and the noise does not interupt my creative writing. In fact, as soon as I finish this blog, I must get down to some more serious progress on ‘Assassin’s List’, book four in the ‘Continuing Adventures of Joanna Wilde’. I try and reserve Monday’s and Fridays for writing, however work related tasks are also becoming pressing. But we don’t mind, life eeez good, life eeez now! Nothing beats a long working holiday in Tuscany! Foto Cicada Orni
Last Tuesday was my official birthday. My unofficial birthday is when I celebrate with The Rock Chick Band and perform in our garden surrounded by fabulous family and friends, but as you know, not this year. I had a great day, spoilt by my family with cake and presents after a morning setting up my new Sound Studio downstairs. More on that in a minute. That’s me in the middle sending an air kiss and ready to go out with my beautiful party girls!
And what about my new sound studio? I hear you ask. Well, my man and I set about working out the complexities of strange yet familiar new equipment and linking it to bluetooth. My man is a lot cleverer than me, so he was somewhat less confused. Importantly, I wanted to play backing tracks and to sing along to them over the mic, so I could hear how good or bad I was sounding! Wow, the big speakers blasted out really good quality sound, I was so excited! But the mic was very sensitive so some adjustments were needed. I think we got the hang of it. You saw the piano room before the equipment arrived, so here it is all set up as a sound Studio. The other speaker is just out of shot on the left and the 6 Channel Mixer/Blue Tooth Player is the larger black box on top of the piano. It’s all very neat and tidy! Now it’s down to me to get to grips with it on a regular basis and write some more song lyrics! Watch out for some active pics later on! Wow, I am so lucky.
Now it’s still my birthday month and today, Saturday, I succumbed to buying yet another handbag on line. Now, I know I normally push everything made in Italy, but the odd Radley Bag from London does seem to occasionally slip into my collection! Oh, dear, my man will be editing this blog for me, he reads all my stuff, and I will hear him groan when he reads this, because I haven’t told him yet! But it will go with the lovely little Radley clutch bag he bought me for my birthday some years ago, which also has a ‘data dog’ running across it! That’ll appease him and oh, the new bag was also in the sale; you must take a look! 
Anyway, what you really want to read about is Tuscany, don’t you? Well, the Ciccadas finally arrived this last week, rather late but they do like the hotter weather. So now we have both the chirping of these noisy but friendly insects and the toad’s chorus to listen to whilst enjoying an aperitivo outside. We have just heard that our neighbour Paola has a full house of tourists next week in her beautiful Agriturismo, La Poggiolaia, so we’ll soon be hearing the distant tinkle of laughter and splashing in the pool too! Visit Paola’s website 
Thanks to our neighbour and friend the potter Terry Davis, we have finally been able to identify the bird with the most beautiful haunting song now in our garden. We have heard it every year since we arrived in Italy, usually in the distance but never knowing what it was until now. It is the Golden Oriele, almost impossible to spot, very secretive and beautiful. We have plenty of birdsong in and around our garden but this song is really special. You should google it and listen for yourself! Picture downloaded from Facebook.
Meanwhile, I have been enjoying my unofficial birthday. Yes, I know, very Queenie like. To be honest, I start celebrating at the beginning of June as, after all, I am named after the month I was born in. Story has it that my mother casually said ‘Oh, lets just call her June rather than faff around looking for other ideas.’ I was a second child and the rebellious streak erupted as soon as I could walk. Yes, I was a wild child and I’m still wildly rocking on. Last Friday evening should have been The Rock Chick’s Band’s 10th concert. My man and I sat outside the front of the house feeling very strange, afraid someone might turn up who hadn’t got the cancellation message! But no, we were alone with the birds, toads and occasional hornet. So, I now look forward to my official birthday on 23rd. My man has just given me this fabulous card, he saw it earlier in the year in London and realised it was perfect. I think he’s perfect too.
The weather here is also perfect and the house should be full of friends and family. Instead, we are enjoying all the newly planted pots thanks to my darling daughter who not only came with me to buy them, she planted them too! Afterwards she went down to Umbria for a couple of days staying near Lake Trasimeno; she deserved a nice relaxing break with the family, bless her.
Anyway, it’s my birthday tomorrow. I have spoilt myself with new shoes from Gabor who have great styles without losing the comfort one needs to survive! I’ve started drinking wine at noon and my man has planted three rose bushes in a nice trangular bed in the front garden. Lovely. Any minute now, DHL will arrive with all the electronic equipment I need to set up my new sound studio in the downstairs guest apartment, now that is really exciting! I’ll send you a foto next week!
Well, this morning’s walk around the boundaries was very soggy indeed! Just when we thought things were warming up it was back to heavy rain and storms. Now of course the vineyards and olive groves need rain, but it has become impossible to predict the weather in recent years. Not much more than five years ago we were having months of drought, one year we went from May through to October without a drop of the wet stuff. Our daughter, who lives near San Gimignano. has just sent videos of the track to her house, which is now a raging river! So enough of the rain, we want aperitivi in the garden please!
Nevertheless, sodden as it was, the countryside was glowing with various greens that against the grey sky seemed to be luminous and the colour of the flowers were extra vivid. The dampened perfumes were also wafting over us, so it was still another beautiful day in Tuscany.
Now, you will probably be aware that myself and the Rock Chick Band have had to cancel our concert for this coming Friday, 19 June. This is very sad indeed as we would have been celebrating our 10th annual concert. I got together with Stefano our brilliant lead in 2010, he organised the band and we performed our first concert in June 2011, to celebrate my birthday. I enjoyed it so much we decided to do it every year, until now! As you can guess, I’m feeling a little bereft, but am really looking forward to the arrival of a complete sound system for my piano room, which will be renamed the Sound Studio. This means I will be able to sing to my heart’s content at the microphone, with downloaded backing tracks, whenever I choose. Now my man has threatened to leave me if I don’t consult him first about my timing, as it will be very very loud. I think thats only fair…..
To be honest, when the month of June arrived I felt a little deflated. As many of you know it is my birthday month and I normally celebrate with a live Rock Chick Band concert in my garden. But, for obvious reasons, we had to cancel. Then I had an inspiration! Downstairs we have a guest apartment which is only used occasionally and always when we have concert guests. One room houses our old upright piano and nothing else but a tapa cloth hung on the wall, which we bought back from Fiji in 1984. I know, the tapa cloth is just incidental, but it’s rather beautiful. Anyway, what I was about to say was, I decided to make better use of the room and turn it into a sound studio! Yes! But I need all the right 
equipment microphone and speakers etc. So I decided to spoil myself and thank you to our good friend John for his advice, I have ordered a PA System, a PreSonus PX-1 Large Diaphragm Microphone and a TC HeliconVoice Tone C1 Hardtune and Correction Vocal Processor. Unless you are a musician, you will now be as confused as I am. I am just a singer who is struggling to learn the guitar. I have always left the technical side to the guys in the band and turn up when Stefano shouts ‘June, soundcheck!” So now I am really excited, this wretched virus may have opened a whole new world to me, the real confusion will start when all the equipment arrives in about ten days time! But I will have the help of my ‘long-haired lover from Bristol’ which is the name I have given my man who is looking like a long-haired rodie from the seventies!
OK, so what next? Oh yes, so what has been happening in Tuscany this last week? I hear you ask. Well, the borders are now all open and it is a huge relief for those in the tourist industry. Second homes owned by northern Europeans, who will be driving across the border at this moment, will soon be occupied. It also brings with it a certain amount of risk as the virus here is by no means over. But, at the end of the day, we must continue to be vigilant and the rules are still mask wearing and distancing, which the Italians have mostly supported without argument. But how I long to see everyone hugging and kissing again, it’s been especially hard in Italy as Italians are a naturally demonstrative and warm. We currently greet old friends by tapping elbows together or blowing kisses through our masks! Hey ho.
But you would never believe that there has been a lock-down in our little bit of countryside on the edge of Chianti. Everything looks the same, from the land changing with the seasons to the wild life finding mates and reproducing. The male toads in our pond have been incredibly noisy over the last few days and fascinating to hear, even if we can’t manage to spot one! The number of birds in our garden, which has lots of mixed trees like our ancient Oak, has been incredible this year. Just about every european species imaginable. Bee Eaters have been gathering on top of the bare branches of an Acacia tree, woodpeckers, a pair of Jays, masses of tits, finches and redstarts. Wood pigeons and Doves, I could go on but I am not an expert and could get some names wrong! So we sit under our sun brolly every evening, with a nice aperitivo, to watch and listen. Needless to say, it’s an absolute joy living here.
Meanwhile, my man who miraculously ‘mostly’ enjoys my cooking at home, has agreed to go to the restaurant twice a week. Now for some reason, during the last couple of weeks I have gone brain dead over cooking and have found it an absolute chore. But I seem to have taken the pressure off myself by reading and writing again! Yes, ‘Assassin’s List’ my fourth novel is flowing like a bubbling brook as my heroine Joanna Wilde goes off on another exiting covert mission!
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