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Wednesday, April 13 2011
These are, in a little way, exciting days. The Agriturismo has opened and the first of the guests have arrived. We are rushing around finishing those last minute touches prior to Easter. Sometimes the idea of La Faula full of guests seems a little scary and one's breath catches with nervousness. I start cooking dinners on Friday night and tomorrow will be my first shop. Luca and I have prepared the vegetable garden and this year we mounted a polythene growing tunnel. The tomatoes and peppers are growing amazingly fast in the tunnel, spurred on by the particularly hot weather of the last weeks. The potatoes planted outside the tunnel are sprouting and the garden requires constant watering as we are in a period of dryness.
On Saturday we open the swimming pool and on Friday the kids play area will be finished. Already the lawns have required two cuts. But now I have to use the mower that the Golf Club uses to cut their greens. It's comfortable and does the work in a fraction of the time. Sometime next winter I'll write all about the golf club but, in summary, it has been an amazingly lucky stroke for La Faula that this group of amateur golfers and their golf pro happened upon us and decided that La Faula would be perfect for a rustic golf course.
Taking photos, loading them in the photo of the day, let alone writing the blog, becomes a challenge with so many other claims on my time. As the bookings come in and the house fills-up in some periods one prays not to have omitted to write a booking in the register. Now begins, for us, the big rush (in every sense) that will eventually bring us through summer and to early autumn and the harvest of the grapes and making of the wine. As before every adventure, one looks forward with apprehension, hoping that everything will go alright, and with enjoyable anticipation of the benefits that will flow from changes and improvements made since the last Agriturismo season. New volunteers will come and it is always fun to meet and work with these people who become, albeit temporarily, a part of our life at La Faula. The movement of guests, the spending of time with old and familiar friends and the meeting of new and interesting people leaven us up and make our work really special.
And one knows that, all going well, at the end of it, the Agriturismo closed, the wine made, the days drawing in, there will be another winter of peaceful nights, a warm wood stove, shared dinners listening to PM on Radio 4 and good books to enjoy with border collies curled around one’s feet!