Carina has made new friends and so have I, last night I drank grappa with an outrageously happy German man at a dinner arranged by the commune for a visiting group from a sister city. I was talking in a mixture of school girl German, French, Italian and English and somehow making sense. It was a great night!

Earlier in the day we decided to walk to the Rifugio ‘Willy Jervis’ at the top of the mountain, a huge climb for me especially as I found out I have very low blood pressure. Along the way I found myself in tears, dizzy and thought I’d never make it yet I did, and it was stunning. Photos to follow.

I found it was possible to live without facebook, email and my beloved blog and all of you  for a short while. I found myself focused instead on daily life here and now. Sam planted his orto, and has also been working on the stalls below the house making them ready for animals. A million things have happened since we last spoke here and my mind is in a whirl and I know I am making no sense as it’s late and I’m tired.

Oh yes Luca and I walked to Bobbio today and joined the Bibliotechia (library) without any help from Sam. I can see how I rely on him to do all the talking and today I had conversations in halting Italian and it felt fantastic to be independent for a short while.

Much to tell and share with you all but for now I am heading to bed, hot water bottle under my arm (it seems we’ve had the wettest coldest Spring since forever). Oh did I tell you the wildflowers are everywhere and it’s a glorious riot of beauty.

The valley is full of tourists and a huge group have arrived in campervans at the town, homes that have been closed up for the winter are opening and the road is busy with people on bikes, hikers, huge herds of cows, sheep, and goats moving from pasture to pasture! Because of the weather the farmers have no pasture to put the animals on to and the move up the mountains to open grazing isn’t happening as  the pasture just isn’t ready. It’s a hard life for many here our neighbors included.

So I am really heading to bed now, we are both exhausted and I will try to update again when I get my next window of opportunity! Until then know I am thinking of you all and missing everyone, I am taking lots of photos to show you once the internet is up and running in the next few weeks. Now lets see if this will actually post ….fingers crossed!

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