The new strap line for the Blog is ‘Life and work in the Lords’ but like most others I’m having my annual break and loving every minute here in glorious Italian sunshine. I have been practising my pasta making skills…the photo shows my home made tagliatelli hanging up to dry on string round the kitchen with the classic hand pasta machine that every Italian housewife has but like me rarely uses since there is such an array of great fresh and dried pasta in the shops. I’ve also been trying gnocchi made from spinach and ricotta, much better than the potato sort, which bounce satisfyingly up to the surface of a boiling pan when ready. Delicious. No this isn’t a slimming trip. The olives are beginning to swell but they won’t be ready to pick for the new season until October/November, meanwhile so far the dreaded olive fly has stayed away. It’s increasingly difficult to get the energy up to follow what’s going on in the news at home, a sure sign that a holiday is working.
When I find myself making my own bread/scones it’s a sure sign I’ve too much free time or it’s a displacement activity and I’m putting off work I really should be doing.
The treatments for olive fly seem effective only on a commercial basis. I’ve tried similar pheromone traps and (organic) sprays here in Blighty to keep the pests off my apples, pears, plums, quinces, medlars, cherries, mulberries, grapes and so on. However the trees I can’t reach seem to do mostly as those I can so I tend to trust to luck unless forced to act.
I just returned from a holiday in Parma myself. Such a wonderful country. I hope you have a good rest!
Baroness: A family member and fiancée have just returned from a weeks cruise on one of the American cruise lines operating out of a port near Rome. A budget apartment room with no sea view except to say they provide a large mirror for you to sea-yourself. Apparently, the weather was blummin hot.
Of course, you are bound to have sympathy (Yeah!) for those enduring some awful weather in the UK. Its dreadful at the moment, dull damp and dreary with no relief in sight for August.
The forecasters are at somewhat of a loss as to what is happening. Myself, I put it down to very large dust storms blowing out to sea from Africa.
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/category.php?cat_id=7
This was their third cruise taken as vacation in as many years, normally out of season to keep the cost down. The passengers are generally a cosmopolitan bunch but on this in season trip they should not have been surprised at the large number of Italians onboard. The ships entertainment reflected this:
A snail wins the lotto and goes to a car showroom to buy a flashy sports car. The snail insists the letter ‘S’ be painted on both front doors. The salesman puzzled, asks why? The snail replies: when I stop at the traffic lights and then set off, I want people to say. Wow! ‘See that ‘S’ car go.
Enjoy the break; think occasionally of blighty and chill out.
Apparently we’re in for very wet August here in Blighty, Baroness M, so you’re best off where you are. This is, however, good news for us cricket fans, as given that we’re one up in the series, having the remaining three games rained off is probably our best hope of winning the Ashes. Shouldn’t really think like that, should we?
I did read somewhere of your passion for olives. Why olives?
StephenPaterson is right on the weather, don’t rush back. Moats are definitely a must have for this season’s accessories.
Fear not – the Ashes are ours again, come shine or rain. Tick tock, tick tock.
Thanks for all those generous good wishes from those of you who are suffering the UK rain. Croft, I only ever get round to baking and making traditional italian food when I’m in Italy; it’s good to be displaced from work occasionally. I’m interested to hear you are a scone maker. Often in the Chamber I think to myself that rather than offer a speech or two I would make a better contribution to the happiness of the world if I dedicated myself to the creation of the perfect cheese scone.(I shall be the main taster of course).
The olive fly is a pest which only seems to get really bad in a wet summer in Lucca but we do spray with Bordeaux mixture approved organically which leaves that nice copper sulphate green colour but we do not do pheromone traps because we have about 300 trees and can’t really manage that. But many of our neigbours do although how effective they are I’m not sure. Only one year did the fly really reduce our crop a lot. I’m impressed with your range of fruit. Our peaches and plums are just ready on our trees so I’ve been having them for breakfast but the table grapes are only just ripe and as usual it will be our neighbours who enjoy them.
Stephenpaterson, I’m not passionate about olives, but I am totally appassionata about olive oil, the ‘single estate bottled extra vergine’ Lucchese type which we produce. We don’t do it commercially this past year or two, as we used to try, since without a great deal of effort in marketing it isn’t a profitable venture since wage rates are high in northern Tuscany. But the land has to be kept looking right, the way Tuscany has looked for the past two millennia or so.
Adrian Kidney, yes Parma is a wonderful city isn’t it? (Well lets not talk about Parmalat too loudly). Senex, it is hot but we are a little way up in the hills about 12km from Lucca and every afternoon a breeze blows up the valley from the Pisan coast and cools down the ‘caldo intenso’