Annec's activity

Good article in the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/01/benito-mussolini-rehabilitat...

I always take plants over in my hand luggage.  It's amazing how much you can fit in a small backpack if you remove them from their plastic pots.  I scour ebay/amazon for v young versions so they are ztill quite small, plus take seedlings from my UK garden.  They will look a bit puny at first, but as I've said, they grow at twice the speed of the Uk. I was surprised to discover that there is no restriction on plant movements within the EU - probably the root of the ash problem...

They say that birds have different dialects in different parts of the country.  It's definitely true of tastes.  IN the (UK) countryside birds would fall upon the peanuts and we were forever refilling.... having moved into town the same types of birds absolutely won't touch the peanuts, but go mad for sunflower seeds.  I reckon it's because the townies are more pampered and not as hard core as their country cousins.

So sorry. I certainly remember Fairy and her rather wonderful avatar

So sorry. I certainly remember Fairy and her rather wonderful avatar

Isn't that a skinny-latte-mocha-pizza-cino? I swear I heard someone ordering one only last week

Penny does love her Zappa!  And so do I, if truth be told.  But they are feckin' useless for jobs which a good strong fork can undertake quite easily.  I have weeded out couch grass with a Zappa and it took for ever and wasn't that brilliant anyway.  The same job (further down the bed after a trip to Brico) with an Italian fork was much easier.  I would definitely invest in a spade and fork from Burgon and Ball.  Pricey, but worth it in my view. If you plant lavender in say March it should get plenty of water before the hot summer arrives and plenty of time to get its feet into the soil.  And lavenders are pretty tough anyway. They are about E3 in the market round us for a good sized plant, but if you are intending on planting a lot that may be too expensive.   I haven't looked THAT hard, but small and therefore cheap plants for mass planting seem hard to come by - unless someone can tell me otherwise?  So you might want to consider taking a whole lot of mini-lavenders out with you if you are driving.  Everything seems to grow at twice the speed in Italy anyway.

I recommend the book "Italy's Sorrow" by James Holland as a very good descrption of the whole tragedy, given mostly by personal testimony drawn from  all sides of the conflict.  Not an easy read.

Yes. He sells the local wines which are cheap!  Rumour has it that he was also a local bank manager imprisoned for misappropiation of client funds! Equally i have heard of a son of a fascist who opened a restaurant locally.  Noone would use it and he was in effect run out of town. It's hard for a Brit to grasp the 'unfinished business' still left over from those times.  I guess itmay take another couple of genertions before the bitterness fades.

yup, our local wine merchant proudly announces "Sono Fascista"