For Fran - as promsied - change of scenery

Wow ! what a view :o)

Looks cold but beautiful Terry

that's certainly a change! still as fascinating and time-absorbing. Thanks, Terry

one would need to be well wrapped up to look at this for any time without closed windows beteween it and you! "snow" isn't the first word that springs to mind when someone mentions "Rome"! does it snow often, Terry?

Thanks for all your appreciative comments.

No Fran it doesn't snow very often in Rome and when it does it's a chaotic national holiday!! The last time I think was in 1986 ... We are simply not equipped for mega amounts of this white stuff.

However this photo wasn't taken from Rome but from my balcony where I now live in a medieval village in the Sabine Hills (about 60 kms NE from Rome)

ah, right. judging by the mountains I've seen in your pics, it's also at a higher elevation? that'd make a difference to local weather, too.

Lol Italy has more excuse than the UK about being surprised to get snow in winter!

Goodness, those vehicles aren't going to go anywhere very fast, are they! Hope it doesn't last too long, Terry :)

Just breath taking.... I'm even more upset than ever now that you let them take my house:-( Need more pics when the sun shines to compensate:-)

Stunning view in all seasons ...

Surely you can't STILL have snow, Terry? When did you take this photograph? Pretty much all of ours has gone now, but we went off to a market yesterday about 12km away and 200metres higher, and there were still great piles of the stuff blocking all the pavements, and sheet ice everywhere. We didn't stay long! Please tell me all yours has melted now.

It sure is stunning TT.

Yes Gattina, rest assured it's all gone now!!!! In fact it's a glorious sunny day today and all that white stuff is just a memory of the past.

It lasted long enough Gee and then when we thought it'd finally gone - we had another load that was even worse than the last lot! It was so cold - I've never seen such long icicles, even when I used to lived in Cheshire! I'd send some photos but it seems so out of key now!

And as for you Bornagain - I DID tell you to get on that plane but would you listen?? Mind you there is a granny flat that's part of the house that the new owners may rent for the summer!!

wonderful picture terry

Thank you Alenya, I'm pleased you like it

It's gone into my "Favourites" just to remind me.......

I'm not so sure I want to be reminded Gattina!!! but thanks anyway

Well, Terry, if only to remind me to order plenty of firewood in good time next winter - it doesn't go off!

Too true Gattina- I had another "carico di 10 quintali" delivered over the weekend - just in case, you never know! Is that amount right? Do you know I still get mixed up with quintali, tonnellate and chili and what it all corresponds to in "real" weight - except that I paid €140 (for leccino, it smells nice!)

errr, translation, please???? *s*s*

Sorry and deep apologies Fran! A quintale is a 100 kilos and I buy a tractorful of firewood (tractors being the only form of transport in our little town of steps) which I think is 10 x 100 kilos - now I'm lost with all those figures. Gattina is a fellow Italian woodbuyer and I was hoping for some idiot proof clarification! I'm not sure what leccino is called in UK but I know it belongs to the olive family - it does smell nice tho' as it crackles in the fireplace ....

GATTINA come to my rescue PLEASE!

*s*

Umm, Not sure, Terry - this word doesn't feature locally, but leccio is a holm oak, so they're possibly linked. We don't have any olive wood to burn round here. Yes, we bought 70 quintali last autumn, and we obviously pay the same as you for firewood - €14 per quintale. We were wondering whether to order in some more while the weather is so nice and the roads are clear, but we still have two stands of timber left, plus one of unseasoned, and 35% of our bombolone is still full of gas, so we decided not to bother. I hope we don't regret it - there's a snowflake sign on the weather forecast site for Monday, but it doesn't look anything serious.
I'm sorry, I very nearly made a bad mistake in my translation back there - when I first read what you'd written I thought it was "lecchino". (FYO, Fran, a lecchino is a toady, a yes-man, a creep, an a**e-licker - leccare is to lick) So glad you don't throw those on your fire. I once asked our neighbour what a quintale was in real money, and she said "1,000 chili", but I think she misplaced a decimal point. I'm sure you are right and it's 100. We have 1.5 big lorry-loads delivered in early autumn, and it takes a couple of week-ends to stow it in emplacements made out of old pallets to keep it off the ground so it dries out properly, although our supplier, Vittorino, does sell pretty good, seasoned logs. We try to keep a year ahead of actual consumption to be on the safe side, but this winter is proving to be an expensive one, especially as we installed a second stove in the living room in an attempt to heat the whole house without using the central heating. (not possible when it was -22°c outside, but it hasn't really lasted a VERY long time.)
On a much happier note, this week has been glorious, and I got sunburned sitting up in the orto yesterday afternoon, chatting with a friend about what we planned to plant and where. You don't expect to have to put factor 15 on your face and arms in February, do you? Daytime temperatures have been in the mid-high 20's, and nighttime ones about 5-6°. Despite that, there are still north-facing hillsides covered in snow, so you can see how much there was to melt!
I'm intrigued to know, Terry, seeing photos of your lovely country house, where do you manage to store 10 quintales of firewood?

Thanks Gattina for info.

I'll be buying some more wood for next year as it's drier now and will weigh less - plus the drier it is the more heat it gives off to get our termo-camino going. BTW we have a cantina further down the road to store all our wood and other clutter. Lecchino haha - quite a few of those around hey? Leccino must be local as our area is infamous for its olive oil ... I shall have to look it up on tinternet ...

I'm hoping that snowflake sign is a figment of your imagination - I personally have had enough of the stuff to last me a couple of decades!! We too are having glorious weather altho' I don't quite think I need the factor 15 just yet .. Rome is so chaotic (another transport strike today so Dio solo sa when I'll get home this evening) and Casperia is wonderfully sleepy in comparison...

thanks to both for the explanation and translation - fascinating to learn - lol I'd imagine that toadies would be a bit too oilly to burn well?

*s* get in as much stock as you can - better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it - *s* stack the wood around the house and it'll be an extra layer of insulation till it's needed - of course, by that time you'll need the insulation even more.

Do you have people above and below, and to each side, Terry? that'd help to insulate you a bit more.

I suppose you get extremes, being that high up, Gattina; more snow, more sun - but sunburn in February??? Mind you, it's been very sunny here in London, windows half-open most of the day. Dunno whether that's a good sign or not: is "summer" starting this early? or is a booby-trap being baited?

We try to buy our firewood in autumn, Fran, when it's been sitting around in the warm, dry air and, as Terry says, weighs less, than at the tail end of winter in a panic, 'cos you think you're going to run out, when it's been soaking up the rain and the snow and you are paying for wet weight. We stack it and cover it so air can flow through, but water runs off the polythene sheeting. Yes, we do seem to get extremes of weather, but generally speaking, the air is drier up here year round - we don't get the pervading damp that the UK seems to, even in winter.
Terry, I imagine the seventh ring of L'Inferno would seem a haven of peace and calm compared to Rome, even on a good day! We get loads of transport strikes, too, but generally on a Friday, so my first question when I go to buy a ticket is "Are there any strikes lined up for the next two weeks?". At least then we are prepared. I'm just hoping there isn't anything untoward planned for Saturday morning when OH is being shoved on the train to the airport. I can do without having to drive him all the way there instead.
As for the factor 15 - I imagine you must have darker skin than mine - I burn all too easily, especially when I lived in the UK and had no opportunity to start tanning gently and slowly before I hit the Italian summer sun. I once got 2nd degree burns on my back when I was a dozy teenager because I had no concept of quite how different things are here, and was desperate to be fashionably tanned. Won't do that again. I was only out in the garden for about 30 minutes yesterday and I have a brilliant pink band across the bridge of my nose and forehead. Not pretty!

Oooh Bettina, I bet you look a treat with your nasal pink band!!! BTW, we're not that high up, being about 400 mt above sea level.

Fran, I think our problem in Italy is not so much about keeping out the cold and worrying about wood buying etc., but rather trying not to be a wilting lily in the oppressive heat. We're lucky in our rock walled house, as the walls are VERY thick, as you can see from a photo I posted on 6th October 2008 (it's a shame our photos aren't numbered as it would make referencing so much easier), which keep the house nice and cool, BUT you have to keep the sun out by closing the windows and shutters.

When English friends come to stay in the height of summer, they keep opening the windows thinking they're letting in the fresh air and then wondering why they're sweltering hot. 35/38°C in the shade is an extreme temperature, so why don't they apply the same logic in that you wouldn't keep the windows and doors open in extreme temps of -6°C? That's come out a bit Irish but I think you know what I mean!!

Perfectly logical to me! When English friends came to tea last August, it was so hot outside, even in the shade of our big cherry tree, we had to go indoors and drink our lemonade in a closed, darkened room. We are quite well acclimatised now, I think.

Yeah, but you try keeping that flippin' window shut to maintain a nice cool darkened room, especially when you go out and then get back to find an inexperienced visitor has let all the heat in - grrr!! Or they've tried to help by watering your plants when they shouldn't at the wrong time of the day ....

Oh dear! You need to crack the whip a little!

lol I'd probably be g ulty of that, it's natural here for the air outside to be a bit cooler than inside. But I hope I'd only do it once.

It's still air that magnifies the effect: even a slight breeze can feel a lot cooler, though of ocurse it doesn't diminish the effect that direct sunlight has on exposed skin. I'm on an internal wing of the block, all the windows are on one side of the flat, so getting a through draught is near-impossible. Damp skin is a lot better for cooling: I rub down with a damp flannel now and then.

There are times I have to draw a curtain halfway across, otherwise I'm walking round with one hand shading my eyes because of the glare reflected from the white facing of the block opposite.

Have you heard about vinegar for sunburn? When I was round my bor's place one time, I stayed out too long and got the front of my legs burned; he suggested I dab vinegar on, and it helped a lot, after the first initial jump of cool liquid on hot skin. He said he got it from a Frederick Forsyth book; he hadn't been sure, but he'd tried it one time when he also stayed out too long, and it did soothe.

lol digressing to other unusual cures, toothpaste relieves nettle stings. It has to be striped toothpaste, though, for some reason.

When OH was a boy, he and his friends used to slather themselves with olive oil against sunburn on the beaches of Sitges. Frying Tonight!
Never heard the one about toothpaste, Fran!

lol Gattina, it's like they used to soothe a burn by puttingbuter on it.

I found out about the toothpaste when camping with the Cubs; another leader used it for a kid who'd slipped and fallen in a patch of nettles; he was no use in "sneaking-up" type games after that; we could smell the toothpaste a mile away!

I've used toothpaste myself for nettle stings, seems to work, even if only as a placebo?

Wow....what happened? How often has this happened in the last century? LOL... I'm really sorry to see this. How will it effect the grapes? will it be a good thing or a bad thing? Over here the cold has a positive effect on plants the dormancy induced by the cold makes them stronger and it reduced the population of insects and insect eggs that survive from one warm season to the next. Hope you have your snuggies with you and keep the kitchen oven going to keep you warm!

Just read all the previous comments...and had to laugh about the wood situation. (laugh in sympathy, of course.) We bought two cord...don't know how that translates to quintales...(?)it was birch and birch wood burns faster which means you go thro more of it...) I rather like the smell of it ..it is sweet smelling, even when it's dry. In spring it is possible to tap birch trees the same way we do maples, to make a syrup.
Does the burning olive wood smell like the fruit, or does it have a different aroma?
We ran clean out of heating oil last week and when the tank was replenished there was sediment in the line...I couldn't get furnace to reset. After consulting on the phone with a local "burner" specialist I had to go down to the basement with a margarine container and locate the bleed valve in the fuel line...and let any sediment and air dissipate so the burner would ignite! Such fun...I'm too old for the s...t!...er...you know what I mean?

lol Lori, at least you didn't look for the blockage in a fuel tank with a lighted candle!

Oh, but Lori, when you manage to unblock the fuel line by yourself, albeit with instructions (reboot computer/re-establish internet link/explain to the town hall about your council tax problem in a different language/measure the square meterage of your living accommodation in the approved manner for the taxman) don't you feel a great sense of achievement wash over you? It's just a little shout of "I maybe knocking on a bit, but I can still do the c**p stuff if I have to.
When my Mum was getting on in years, she became not so much incapable as lazy, and used to say when an inconvenient or tiresome task loomed, "Oh, I don't know how to do that, YOU do it for me." We used to call it her "Baby bird act." i.e. open your beak, flap your wings helplessly and squawk a lot, and someone else will shove a big fat worm down your throat instead of your having to go out and find your own. We used to say to her "Use it or lose it!", but she was seemingly perfectly happy to lose it and let everyone run round her in small circles, and of course, the day came when she COULDN'T cope. I've promised myself that I shall fight every inch of the way to stay independent, so I shall continue to unblock my own fuel lines as long as I am able. Good for you! :o))))))))

very good points, Gattina.

Doing something for oneself for the first time, especially tech stuff, is cause foa a pat on the back or a choccy treat, or indeed both!

That'll give you confidence, Lori, and the next challenge will be met with a bit more "I can" - even if "I can only with instructions" at least you're willing to have a go.

I have a parent who expects to get waited on hand and foot, too, Gattina; I tend to call it something other than "baby bird"!!! I'm quite happy to talk her through a small tech prob, a dozen times if necessary, but I will NOT do it for her - the more she gets waited on, the more she'll expect to get waited on in future.

She "couldn't" work any of the six mobjle phones she's had: she'd frequently send me ten empty texts in a couple of minutes, until I phoned her to find out wtf she was doing and she said she was trying to phone me.

One of the phones was the same model as mine, so I went through my phone and typed out a "how-to", step by step, which button to push, "and then you get this screen" on every aspect of reading, replying to, sending and saving text messages. Gave it to her. Some months later she again complained of not being able to use the phone: I said, Did you read the notes I did? and she said No.

I gave up then. She has to make *some* effort to help herself, even if it's only bothering to read the help notes that she's been given.

I've been going through a phase of "I can't" - now I'm trying to knock the "t" off the end of that! there is a lot I really can't do, but that's no excuse for me not to at least try to do the things that I can do. And I find that I can do more, the more I try.

Digresed there, sorry! But you should award yourself a hug and a treat, Lori - and here's a bug to be getting on with \_o_/

Or even a Hug!

awk!!!! sorry, Lori, didn't mean to bug you!! thanks, Gattina!

}o00o00oo - thre's a bug, no doube someone'll work out a better one, if they're as sad as me!

No. I think that's pretty good, Fran. I certainly can't better it.

*s* give it time ....