Junefinnigan's Weblog

Well, September is here and it is a little cooler.  However the light is really fantastic and I recommend all you artists to grab your easels and head for these hills.  The sun is now lower in the sky revealing valleys and cliffs that you don’t see at the height of summer.  We were reminded just how beautiful this area is when we had two English friends to a five-hour lunch on Saturday.  This was their first visit to the Chianti countryside and they were awe-struck.  What with the view, the light, the Chianti, the Vin Santo, my cooking (it was OK for once) the background rock music and the laughter, it was a perfect day!

Our first Pomegranate or Melagrana
Photo P Finnigan

The garden remains a huge source of pleasure and I’m delighted to tell you that we have pomegranates!  I know, I hear you say, what’s so exciting about that?  Well, my man rescued this little tree that was stuck inside a big laurel bush last year and we had no idea what it was.  Then a week ago, the first fruits started to appear!  Well, we think it’s exciting.  We also have other flowering plants to brighten the late summer garden,

Flowering Hibiscus
photo P Finnigan

including Hibiscus and Plumbago.    The darker mornings mean that my man is not up so early to water the garden, now in some ways he’s disappointed, however, we must move with the seasons, don’t you think.  ” There’s no point in getting up at seven-thirty (first light) because there’s no time to garden before we go out for coffee, ”  he moaned.  So he’s been forced to stay in bed and play with his smartphone instead.   He’s really looking forward to pruning the fruit trees which will happen after the olive harvest in October.  In the meantime, every other conversation includes “can you think of anything that needs doing in the garden?”  The fact is he’s done such a good job of readying things for Autumn, that it’s hard to find things to do!

Cascading Blue Plumbago
Photo J Finnigan

Meanwhile, back in Fiano our local village, everything is hunky dory again.  Smiling readers hog the newspapers and chat about the start of the shooting season.  I won’t deny that I am very anti-hunting, especially when the shooters park on the edge of our olive grove and set off a volley of shots at seven-thirty on Sunday morning!  The hunters still have the right to roam here and fencing one’s property is very restricted.  So fencing is done surreptitiously and not concreted in (temporary so to speak), in case the vigilante police tell you to take them down.  But I have a secret cunning plan…..!

In the coffee bar/alimentari Signore Rotund is blissfully happy, he has his sporting pages and the local ladies are queuing up to give his broad back a scratch and massage.  This morning at coffee, he is sitting in his regular chair getting his shoulders massaged by one lady whilst chatting up another one, eating his pastry and drinking coffee at the same time!  It’s a funny thing, it all seems quite normal in Fiano.

The man shivering in hat and fleece
photo J Finnigan

I am loving the slightly cooler evenings, however, my man has donned his Australian bush hat and fleece jacket and sits holding his aperitivo, like it’s a block of ice!  ‘It’s cold, it’s winter!” he moans. “But look at the beautiful sky” I say “and the lights are starting to twinkle across the valley!”

Sunday was our traditional visit to Montespertoli and I may not have told you that  Mr Bean’s twin sister, Miss Bean, is alive and well and runs a certain shop in the main piazza.  The man calls her Miss Hasbean, but then it’s more likely to be Miss Neverhasbean.  This may sound a little mean (ha, rhymes with bean), however, it cannot be denied that she must be related to Rowan Atkinson.  Despite this, she is a very nice lady and so is her mother Mrs Bean.  The father has a close resemblance to Wilfred Bramble!  I’ll stop there….

Silvio gets emotional in Rome.
Photo Reuters, Alessandro Bianchi.

So what has the gorgeous Silvio Berlusconi been up to?  Well, it’s a relief to know that a certain amount of verbal blackmail has come back into the proceedings.  Senior aides to Silvio say he may pull his ministers out of government if he is ousted.  Now, in case you are not aware, SB’s supporters prop up Prime Minister Enrico Letta’s Democratic party in a coalition.   On the 9th September, the Italian Senate Committee began discussions on whether SB should go or be allowed to stay.  Silvio’s aides say that the law to suspend anyone from parliament when convicted for tax fraud, came in last January, which was after SB ‘committed’ the crime!  Don’t you just love it?  An Australian friend, he knows who he is, says they would love to have a character like Silvio in Australian Government as it would make things much less boring.

Well, enough of that and as it is now Monday morning I must get this blog off to you and do some work!  On the other hand, the sun is now shining……..

Amore June x

PS Don’t forget to share this with your friends and visit http://www.firstchapters.net for your Autumn reading.  I am still recommending ‘My Father, The Assassin’ by J W Finnigan.

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