Last night was truly bizzarre here in Umbria. As I wrote earlier it decided to snow yesterday. Well snow it did, and combined with strong easterly winds there was some dramatic drifting.
Bellaugello Gay Guest House is situated about 15km from the medieval city of Gubbio. The house sits on a south-facing slope in a beautiful valley with views to Monte Subasio (the hill behind Assisi) and to the south east we look towards the Apennines as far south as Abruzzo. We are sheltered from the north by the hill behind the house, but there is just one wee place where the east wind can sometimes find us and last night it did. The snow was large and damp, but driven by the wind it blew off the east roof and landed in the garden to the west, which needless to say the dogs thought was perfect fun as they raced and played in the moving snow.
With the fire blazing I decided to get down to re-covering one of the armchairs that I intend to put in the bedroom of the Mirror Suite. I hate to admit it but I am a collector of scraps and ends of materials. If I see a material I like I am almost compelled to buy it, with the thought “that might just come in handy one day” Well invariably the materials do not find a home, and I rifle the boxes, come across the odds and ends, think “I really must use that piece sometime” and then put it all back in the box. Yesterday I found a piece of Burgundy and Gold Designers’ Guild fabric that is left over from curtians on our long-gone boat that we used to sail on the west coast of Scotland. OTT or what, however…
Well last night was the turn of the Mirror Suite Bedroom chair and it will look splendid in the Designers’ Guild fabric. I had the TV on watching a documentary about the last of the Romanoff’s, I could keep 1/4 eye on the TV and 3/4 on my work as I prised the old staples off the chair to remove the hideous old brocade covering. Outside the snow was blowing and inside the fire glowing, but it was not to be that simple. The power went off, have you ever tried extracting staples by candle light, not easy. Then the power came back on. It was to be the story of the night, power off and on all night long.
Of course the internet goes, I unplugged modems and wifi thinking they would be damaged by the constant fluctuations. Every time the power went down the tv required a reset, cordless phones bleeped and blinked, the oven flashed and heating pumps ran and stopped. It was truly surreal working by guttering candle light and light from the fire.
Finally I got all the staples removed and prepared the underlining material. Then torch in hand off to get the staple gun. Why is it whenever you tidy something away you can never find it again? I distinctly remember seeing the staple gun a few weeks ago. It is yellow and black and I am certain was sitting in amongst a pile of tools in the old brass dinner gong that will go in the dining room here at Bellaugello Gay B&B. Of course I found the gong, the tools but no staple gun. At the time I remember thinking I must put that staple gun somewhere obvious because I will be requiring it soon. Well wherever was obvious two weeks ago is certainly not obvious now. I searched and searched through intermittent lighting failures and never found the staple gun. I know I put it somewhere safely, I looked through all my tool boxes, drawers in the cupboards and boxes that just that morning I had been going through but no staple gun. Never again am I going to tidy things up, I am going to live in organised chaos. But I am determined to find that staple gun and get the job finished..