Archive for August, 2009

A new shrub bed

Monday, August 31st, 2009

garden rubble

Having failed again to maintain a lawn in part of the garden we have decided to create another large shrub bed and minimise the amount of lawn. Once I started to dig I discovered why grass may not have been growing – builder’s rubble. When creating the initial shrub bed I had been told that the builder had buried a lot of rubble in the garden. I had assumed I had found it and excavated it when creating the first bed. However, it seems that the lake of rubble goes further than I first supposed and I can now look forward to a few days heavy digging.

McGarveys come and go

Sunday, August 30th, 2009

mcgarvey family

The McGarvey family (from left: James, Vanessa, Pete, Sinead and Billy) arrived on Friday and managed to pack in an afternoon at the beach, a visit to the Frasassi caves and an evening in Mondavio and Senigallia. They left on Sunday at 9.30 as planned and they are now on their way to Rome.

Preserving a way of life

Thursday, August 27th, 2009
preserved peaches Preserving and conserving is still a way of life here in San Giorgio. Norma, a neighbour, has bottled 70 kilos of tomatoes – no time for the beach. Monique, on holiday from New York, has spent two happy days helping her aunt cut, clean and bottle tomatoes. No shortage of tomato sauce for the pasta this winter.We have been slightly less ambitious. 8 bottles of tomato sauce using tomatoes from our garden, 10 jars of apricot and plum jam from fruit bought in the supermarket and last, but not least, a jar of “preserved pickled nectarines” ready to eat in the winter with our roast pork.

Luke the 35 stroke wonder.

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009
luke on beach Luke, who comes to San Giorgio every year from New York, is learning to swim. Here he is looking calm and relaxed before the “35 Stroke Challenge”.
luke swimming Despite a rough sea and reports of jelly fish lurking nearby Luke showed no fear as he swam his 35 strokes with ease.
luke eating ice cream As a reward Luke chose an appropriate ice cream – an “affogato” i.e. ice cream “drowned” in a sweet sauce. Luke went for white chocolate ice cream drowning in chocolate sauce.

Somewhere we’ve never been.

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009
piobbico On Sunday we decided to take a trip to Piobbico. The town is up near the Umbrian border. Not having been there before we were surprised how charming it was. Its by a river, an old historic centre and a very interesting castle.
piobbico piobbico

It is also home to the “Club dei Brutti” (Club for Ugly People). The club was closed when we arrived and so no-one asked us to join. When joining, the person enrolling you
grades you for ugliness. There are now 20000 members worldwide.

Verdicchio wine good for the health

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009

verdicchio wine

Verdicchio is one of our local white wines. According to a television programme is it also the white wine with the highest level of antioxidants.

Checking on the internet I also came across an article which said that Verdicchio wine is a remarkable source (about seven-fold the bioactive concentration) of CfE (concentration of ethyl caffeote), an interesting drug to be tested as an antifibrotic agent.So, its obviously good for one.

Lull between the storms or How Much does 3 Caseys Equal

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009

the casey family

Having survived a week of family i.e. the Casey family (Mike, Ali and Connor) we are currently preparing for the arrival of more family i.e. the McGarveys (James, Billy, Sinead, Van and Pete). The McGarveys will be here  for only two days but it all balances out as:

3 caseys X 7 day = 5 mcgarveys X 2 days.

We did enjoy having Mike, Ali and Connor. Ideal guests as they were happy to go to the beach every day and on returning home to eat whatever was put in front of them.

This was their second year with us so we must have done something wrong the first year as they wanted to return.

Grapes

Saturday, August 15th, 2009

grapes

While the hot dry Summer has killed of some plants and part of the lawn it has also meant our first harvest of grapes. We planted the vine (white muscat) last year and this year we have 4 or 5 bunches of small but very sweet grapes.

San Giorgio Informa

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

The recently elected administration have just issued the first issue of a bi-monthly newsletter called “San Giorgio Informa”. The aim is to keep citizens updated about what the administration has done or is in the process of doing.

The first issue highlights the following:

Joining with Piagge, Barchi and Orciano (the Roveresca Union) to introduce door to door rubbish collection. In September a campaign to educate people on how to divide their rubbish into paper, glass, aluminium etc will begin.

A fruitful meeting with the Piagge Administration in order to integrate their schools.

From the new school year in September the students from the two Intermediate Schools (Scuola media – age 11-13) of Piagge and San Giorgio will have joint classes at San Giorgio.

Final plans and financing in place for resurfacing of roads around the town, including the road to Montecucco (location of a popular local restaurant with dancing).
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The losing ticket

Friday, August 7th, 2009

lottery

The Superenalotto in Italy now has a first prize of “123,000.000” euros. We, like most other Italians, are trying for it. The odds are very high. To play you chose 6 numbers from 1-90. To win you have to pick the correct six numbers. In fact, the last time anyone won was back in January and they won over 80 million euros.

The numbers are drawn three times per week – Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.  It only costs 50 cents for 1 go. We normally pay for 2 tries and if we win, we will be doing lots of good works.