No writing, no blogging of late, it seems I have been on strike, not true. It is not that I have not hd anything to say, it is just that I have been demoralised, and felt rebellious and thought not to blog for a bit.
For the past six years blogging has been a significant part of my life here at Bellaugello Gay Guest House, recounting the stories of my daily life, the things an people I come into contact with, trials, tribulations, highs, lows and above all the odd rant or two. So it is with a bit of arrogance I signed off for a few weeks.
I am now concerned that I have let my regular readers down. At no time in my blogging history have there been such breaks, I usually post two or three times a week, people follow my jottings, and I am on guilt trip that my readers have had nothing to laugh at, and Google might have overlooked me.
What you cannot over-look with out being amazed is the view over the infinity swimming pool at Bellaugello…
Early this May morning the mist lingers in the Chiasco valley, small wisps break off and float lazily skywards, the water brilliant azure, the sky cloudless
Tempting, very tempting….
Come join us, keep watching this space, I will be writing more soon
Clearing through photos this morning at Bellaugello Gay Country House I came across this set which brought back memories of just how the house was and all the effort we put into restoring it to make what you see today.
The south elevation of Bellaugello 2009 – 2015 enjoy!
A glorious day here at Bellaugello Gay Country House, the sun shone brightly and temperatures reached 23˚c the infinity swimming pool is glistening and beginning to heat up. As I finished work we noticed Bobby casting a measured eye over the gardens and a photo was swiftly taken…
I think the message was, “dad have you not finished yet, it really is time for a walk”. So that is what we did!
Two momentous events are about to happen in my life, and you will be witness to both, well that is one you will be fully witness to, the other I will do in private and then tell you about. I now know that I have two not one huge announcements to make, they are exciting times here at Bellaugello in the green heart of Umbria, Italy.
So as to keep the suspense going I am going to keep you waiting just a little bit longer and post about something completely different. I have been looking through photgraphs and have compiled this set of the East side of the house, here from what was the abandoned farm of Bellaugello, and is now Bellaugello Gay Guest House, arguably the best gay guest house in Italy. I will let the photos tell the tale of our 15 x 5 metre salt-treated infinity swimming pool… Have a nice day!
As you are all by now probably aware I love my job. I live in the most utterly beautiful place, am surrounded by great friends, plenty of good wines and local food, and my business attracts great guys from all over the world to my door.
Bellaugello Gay Guest House has already established a loyal following, guys who return for holidays, guys who recommend friends who in turn visit and then recommend friends of their own. Bellaugello is a place where friendships are made. Several couples keep in touch with other guests, often across continents, one or other or both keeping me abreast of their friendships. I love it so much. Some guys also become personal friends, kind and generous, their homes open to me.
I am often asked if I have a ‘black book’ of guests not allowed to return, asked to ‘spill the beans’ or ‘dish the dirt’. I must confess to having few such stories to relate, a couple from last year, one from the year before, and this year none, I have had great guests, all a pleasure to have known and hosted. Of course there have been disappointments, a couple of mediocre reviews on Tripadvisor which I felt unwarranted and got me down, the indifferent summer weather that did so little to help the annuals bloom, and saw the chairs and cushions from the terrace yo-yoing indoors and outdoors, and has not helped the olives one bit, it is going to be a poor harvest this year.
However on the up side there were lots of gorgeous men lazing languidly poolside, we hosted our first art show; paintings of the infinity pool by a Dutch artist Paul Van Andel, the subject of many paintings was decidedly male. Many dinners and barbecues hosted, convivial evenings with engaging conversations, A friend realised another form of artwork using photographs of guys in the Bellaugello infinity pool, and is now commissioned to produce personalized chairs. Some great and thoughtful reviews on Google and Tripadvisor – guys there is still time to post your promised review… The fruit trees were heavily laden this summer, delicious plum fruit ripe for the picking, I made kilo after kilo of marmalades, we killed our first pig – I had christened here Daphne, many of you ate and enjoyed bits of Daphne, our lavender ice cream was brought into production and as well as being served at dinner was also available poolside…
I digress. The point of this post is for me to unashamedly promote another of my guests; Bing Taylor, a fascinating cultured and well travelled guy a regular Bellaugello guest and now friend has sent me a link to a book he has written and is now published:
Hot off the press: I have read the publicists material and have already placed my order. Why don’t you? an ideal Christmas present for your loved one, author signed copes are available right now! TO ORDER: Maquis – the Secret War of Joseph Quantock CLICK HERE FOR LINK
Crisp, sunny, clear. Early rise today, guys going to the beautiful Umbrian town of Todi to meet their tour guide meant I was up early to make breakfasts.
Today the tour is of the vineyards of Montefalco, that beautiful town famous for its Sagrantino, robust elegant Umbrian wine. The guys are meeting their guide in the delightful town of Todi before heading for the Strada di Sagrantino, maybe the will stop at the “Carapace” that surreal building on the cantina of Lunelli so beautifully photographed by Steve McCurry, or maybe it will be Di Filippo, the family run cantina making superb biological wines, or maybe Adanti, another great family run cantina with a very welcoming visitor centre. I wait to hear this afternoon which cantinas were on the list and which wines were purchased…
The garden here at Bellaugello Gayguesthouse is looking great. I am midway through pruning the lavender, the Rosemary is in its second bloom, and the Caci tree is laden with fruit, I so love the colour of the fruit, I must admit it is the one fruit tree I grow for beauty not eating! Bobby came and joined me at the infinity pool, red clouds reflected in the still light, mist hanging low in the Chiascio valley.
Dunno if it is Skype or Apple, but frustratingly for some time I have been unable to upload these stunning photos sent from two splendid guys from the Canary Isles.
Having seen my post of yesterday they re-sent me the photos, this time by email, if only to prove that we do have hot hot days here at Bellaugello Gay Guest House! Thanks to D & J
Anyone else with a pool pic do feel free to send it and I will post on the blog 😉
Not only has the internet connection been playing up, sometimes slow, sometimes lightning fast, with intermediate stops and breaks of connection, but I am still suffering problems with the business email accounts.
All this year I have been plagued by a plethora of junk mail. Both business accounts cluttered with junk mail, sometimes 200 a day. My blog has a spam filter, and I have been clearing out thousands of junk mails from my spam box on the blog. Not only that but my e-mails were being rejected by several incoming servers. Some came back to me, some took over 24 hours for the return message to appear, and some, well…who knows if they actually went anywhere??
Nobody could tell me where my mails were. I thought this was something I had done, my fault, but no. According to my web service providers, the problem arose when one of their other clients was sending out spam, and as a result all their clients had their email on high spam alert and were being rejected. The annoying thing was that they did not bother to inform me of this fact, and I suffered poor email service for several months.
It is highly unprofessional, and madly irritating. I now realise just how much one takes a functioning internet for granted. So anyway the web “service” providers informed me they have changed the web host. Of course this did not run smoothly, emails lost, changed flags, bounced, re-bounced, read emails became un-read emails, it was two weeks of nightmares. That thankfully seems to have passed. BUT the junk mails continue.
Three days ago I cleared out 5000 from the blog spam, and as the machine was doing that so more came in. This morning 2,300. I have written to the web “service” providers, no reply. Maybe my mail is being rejected again. Why oh why did I ever choose them? I now have another task, that of finding a new professional provider.
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