The first cut is the deepest.

Omg I wouldnt like to be Pimp lol

:o) Am I THAT scary, Pixi?

WEll you sounded it there lolol ;)

LOL! Well, one has to keep us appearances!

hahaha ;)

WHAT a view Gattina :) (and no worries, V. tinus is indestructible!)

I do hope you're right Sheila. Maybe you aren't very well acquainted with my destructive skills?

Lol Gattina :))

You do live in a beautiful place Gattina.

What a fantastic view Gattina. Jx

We are extraordinarily lucky.

:o)))

What a beautiful place!! :-))

What a delight - the scenery that is :))
I'm sure the Viburnum is breathing a sign of relief with it's new haircut!

You're living in the land of my dreams Gattina! Your English garden project sounds challenging and fun.

There are definitely times when it stops being fun, MBD, and becomes much, MUCH more of a challenge! We are lucky not to have your problems with too much rain, and being half way up a mountain means we don't often get flooded, though, unfortunately we do get fiercely cold winters and unbearably hot, dry summers (last August we had an average temperature in the low 40°s) The bits in between are pretty much perfect :o) We're still learning what is possible and what is not. It's never boring, that's for sure.
Do you know Italy well?

You do have extreme weather!
No I don't know it well; a few holidays is all, but we've always known that our ancestry is Italian and I've done some research into it. I've haven't been able to go further back than our great great grandfather coming to England from Como in the early 1800s.

Enjoy the spring - sounds like that is one of the perfect bits. I must say 40degrees would be too hot for me and my partner would boil alive.

I misrepresented that a bit - sorry! It should have read "average DAYTIME temperature" It's still very uncomfortable, but you can survive and do become acclimatised. We are extremely lucky to have an old stone-built house with walls 18" thick, which means indoors is much cooler. We don't do an awful lot outside, and CERTAINLY don't do things like sunbathe in August, but the locals think that air conditioning is a sign of wussiness, and it costs far too much to consider.