Stone Carving

Early Christian symbol

L'aquila or Eagle

Scottish 'Green Man'

Abruzzo 'Green Man'

Total disrespect for a lovely piece of historical carving!

carved (upside down) tablet

A very silmilar christian symbol to that on our own house

Gardening

All the rain has gotten everything growing but luckily my kind neighbour has helped by strimmimng the grass in the olives.

The Italian glads come from our local garden center in Harrowbarrow but they really look better in Abruzzo!

Nothing beats my olive grove for an afternoon snooze.

Brick Floors

The bricks on our bedroom floor has really taken a bashing with various builders and plasterers doing their worse over the last 5 years.Having done the plastering and before limewashing I decided to clean the whole floor by hand!

To do this I used coarse damp (not wet) sand and a stiff wire and plastic brush.After removing as much of the lime and dirt on the surface of the bricks I swept it all up then gently washed the brick with hot water and soap and some vinegar.The I mopped this off.

I still need to use my dremmel to grind off some deep pockets of lime plaster but the floor looks much cleaner than before and I'll give it a very light oiling once the limewash is done.

Some 'sample' patches of limewash coloured with yellow ochre and burnt sienna earth pigments

New Terrace

Our new terrace has been created!

Somethings not quite as we'd requested but this was not a surprise.We had the reinforced cement walls as everyone in Italy seems to think they are needed but the block walls would have been OK.Especailly now our builder says we cannot even plaster the cement!

Unfortunately this step isn't going to be very easy to use with the drainpipe cutting across it!