Yesterday the sun arrived and today again it shone all day and it was deliciously hot.
I spent a glorious sunday working in the garden here at Bellaugello Gay Guest House near Gubbio. I took the opportunity of sunshine and a quiet day to make the most of the sun and least of clothing, oh it was good to feel the heat of the sun.
There has been a great deal to do as everything seems to have grown madly. The lawn on the terrace outside the Duca and Mirror Suite is finally taking and turning green, although it is a bit ‘follically challenged’ in parts and seems perpetually to be putting up wee stones that have to be raked off. The apricot, cherry and plum trees are all heavy with fruit, and the photinia hedges are in full bloom. The lavender is all shooting forth flower stems still in tight buds, and the roses are fragrant, and just beginning to bloom fully. The wisterias, sadly now all finished flowering are growing almost as I watch.
To my utter delight my special friends Paola and Irish called in yesterday evening and together we had a tour of the progress on the house and garden which they had not seen for some months and we compared notes on building projects, delays, setbacks and headaches. Irish a passionate and accomplished gardner gave me tips on trimming the lavender, he was amazed how it has grown in the 18 months since I first planted it, he advises a spring haircut to prevent it from engulfing the paths, I need to strike a balance between cottage garden informality and practicality. Over a glass of chillled Bianco di Torgiano from the cantina of Goretti, Paola and I swapped kitchen stories and receipies before she got a call to have to return to the Locanda to change a double bed back into two singles whilst the guests were having dinner. The beds having been made up as a double that morning at the guests’ request.
The chores an hotelier has to put up with…….
Today the sun continued to shine and the sky was cloudless, builders on site meant sensible attire and anyway I had to cook. Among other things the builders worked on the stonework of the wall between the Mirror and Diva Suite terraces and so we are now finally ready to put the final touches to the chimney for the ancient brick beehive forno below that runs through this wall hurrah!
Every day little by little, piano piano, progress here at Bellaugello Gay Bed and Breakfast in Umbria, now having written this even this late at night I am off to water the new lawn must get rid of those baldy bits!