Summer wildflowers

Summer fields sprinkled with flowers

Besides scabiosa, wild chicory, poppy (rare at this point of summer) wild dianthus (pink) in the river meadow below Le Ripe, many 'new' wildflowers intrigue the curious observer.

Silene vulgaris, bladder campion, maidenstears

The Long Dry Summer of 2017.2

...and the rains came

 ...finally, almost 60 millimetres

I only wish I could have captured the sound and fury of it all, the thunderbolts and lightning flashes. 
Thor and Zeus really let us have it, at last.

looking south towards Radda (invisible)

The Long Dry Summer of 2017.1

Waiting for the rain

these are early morning shots, before the heat sets in

As we walk crunching on the lawns - what say I? - former lawns and meadows, at Le Ripe, I reflect that the place is looking more and more like Australia. The hills have turned prematurely brown, the earth is parched, some bushes and trees, or at least their foliage, have died.

most hills are browner than this, it is quite marked

The drought has been with us since spring. There have been two mediocre rainfalls in the past 4 months or so, totalling about 30ml. It was almost the same last year but at least then we had enjoyed spring rains.

some plants have fallen by the wayside

A Drought in Chianti

Where is the rain?

the parched earth; grass non-existent; dead leaves from tired trees

even the St John's Wort looks exhausted

It has been many weeks since our part of Chianti has seen rain. It is still summer of course and summer means heat, dry grass and watering each evening.

The Storms of Summer

When the Storms of Summer mean Summer's End

zoom-in on nearby Radda between storms

 Summer's lease may have all too short a date, but this summer has been a whopper, with record temperatures and record lack of rain. We couldn't wait for summer to end.

recent storms have given rise to 'trombe d'aria' or tornadoes such as this, seen off Massa Carrara (courtesy of centrometeoitaliano.it)

 

Yellow Foxglove

An Unexpected Treat

We first noticed the long stalks with  blackened buds at the end of one summer a few years ago. Wild foxgloves at Le Ripe. Next season revealed them to have rather dirty yellow flowers, not the favoured blue or purple. 

After that we considered ourselves lucky to have native foxgloves yet unlucky that they were such an unprepossessing colour.

Pergolas

Getting there

 From Wikipedia:

A pergola or arbour is a garden feature forming a shaded walkway, passageway, or sitting area of vertical posts or pillars that usually support cross-beams and a sturdy open lattice, often upon which woody vines are trained. 

I would argue that woody vines and other climbing plants are almost invariably trained on any pergolas worthy of that name...

The pergola is the ultimate 'garden feature' which tends to be both functional and decorative. I assume pergolas have been around for a long time. The Chiostro Verde of Santa Maria Novella, in Florence, has a wonderful depiction of an early renaissance pergola. 

Hazelnut Harvest

Getting in before the wild boar and squirrels

this year's hazlenuts from the cossetted hedge

 

 I used to be surprised when our elderly neighbour, Signor Bonechi, would come up our drive in mid August to shake the hazelnuts out of the trees. It seemed to early: surely hazelnuts are an autumn crop? Over time I have come to realize that Signor Bonechi was simply canny. 

impossible to photograph, our squirrels resemble this black squirrel but are tinier, more feathery-looking and with a deep burgundy tinge to the black

Red Harvest

Pomodori!

Our pride and joy - and pleasure - this morning's harvest of cuore di bue (beefsteak-type), fiorentini (local, grooved tomatoes) and cherry-type picadilly tomatoes. Some we leave to ripen on the sill, others we store in the fridge, most we eat as soon as possible, see below. 

Tomato Toasts

nice simple recipe for quick summer lunch

make toast with your favourite bread;

fatly slice beefsteak tomatoes;

generously drizzle good olive oil on toast;

  add tomatoes, salt 
and lots of freshly-ground pepper. 

Perfetto.

Summer Sights

A Perfect Summer's Day

a delightful new angle on Panzano from the vineyards above Querceto, accessed on unsealed road from the 222 towards Castellina

Often around mid-August the weather begins to change. There may be big, cathartic storms or simply a gradual change in temperature. This year it is the latter: the great heat appears to be subsiding; we are now enjoying hot but not unbearable days,clear skies and blissfully cool nights.  

this year we have been regaled with a second Birth of Venus

The Italian national holiday of Ferragosto (August 15th), which hails back to Emperor Augustus who proclaimed a holiday in his own name, has been and gone. The ferie, or vacations (explicitly from work), have passed their peak. We took advantage of the peace and quiet of the holiday to explore directly around Le Ripe. Here are some photos from the day.

Rain at last

Relief

Rain! At last, after two months of drought, we were regaled with a substantial rainfall this morning, complete with marvellous rumbles of thunder.

Everyone in the valley, probably in the whole of Tuscany, is relieved. The forecasts promise more and today after it cleared I pulled out my first weeds of the rainy season. 
I have had my eye on them for weeks; but it is pointless weeding a dry garden.

The animals in the woods will be relieved too: maybe the predatory deer and marauding wild boar will be distracted by puddles and newly-succulent greenery...we live in hope!

Indigenous Herbs

Lavender and other fragrances
There was so much lavender this year from our 40 plus bushes that I had to dry it on the floor on top of sheets. Soon I shall thresh it, so to speak. Lavender is happy in these hills although I have not yet found it growing wild.

Many aromatic plants do well here, both because they love the conditions and because they survive the deer who hate anything aromatic.

Some time after arriving at Le Ripe we found nine recognizable, indigenous herbs. Perhaps some were originally planted by the farmers  (the mint and the lemon balm?).

Here's the list:

wormwood (artemisia vulgaris), one of the main components of absinthe and a strange aroma, not to everyone's liking.The locals used to wear it under their clothes against worms;
catmint (nepeta cataria) which when trodden on releases a delicious scent;
thyme, not sure of variety, but it has dark pink flowers and turns red in winter and spreads beautifully;
wild fennel, which grows very tall; uncharacteristically, there was only one specimen which was eventually bulldozed over by the builders, so I collected some seeds elsewhere and planted it in our little herb patch where it is flourishing. I hope it spreads elsewhere;
curry plant (helichrysum italicum) has a lovely spicy smell;
camomile, a very prolific daisy: it was already growing wild in the field but when a farmer brought us a load of manure, so many camomile flowers sprouted in the vegie patch in spring that I used to grumble that instead of manure he had brought me a field of daisies;
lemon balm (melissa officinalis): it took some time to realize what it was, but the lemony fragrance is unmistakeable once you crush the leaves;
origano - seems to grow wild only in the lower meadow but we now have it in the herb patch as well;
peppermint (menta piperita), found growing wild in one place only, so perhaps planted by the farmers originally...

santoreggia/savory

In addition, the herb patch and garden boast sage and rosemary (like the lavender wonderful plants for our conditions, but I have yet to find them growing wild), tarragon (two sorts: the spectacular but tasteless Russian variety and the more modest fragrant one); lemon thyme; santolina which is a hardy, silvery shrub but whose yellow flowers are frankly stinky for a couple of weeks in the year; and savory which resembles thyme but has another fragrance and blooms gloriously in May.  

ps We 'threshed' the lavender in the photo above  and it came to about 7 kilos of dried flower heads! Now we have to decide what to do with it. Perhaps I shall start a cottage industry in lavender bags...

Summer Bloomings

Flower notes
The zinnias are a new entry; I'm very pleased with them: lovely colours, long-lasting and reflowering, plus they love the position on the sunny aia. Next year I hope to plant many more.

The agapanthus came all the way from Australia, brought by my mother in her suitcase, like the family jewels. They were in our garden in Melbourne so it is good to have a little bit of our old garden at Le Ripe. They do quite well here - this is their first year in tubs - but do not flourish as they do through Australia's mild winters. Each year they die back and have to start all over again in the spring, so the incremental growth is slow.

 ...from the summer diary

Harvested lavender from sixteen bushes today. Still plenty to go. Apart from hanging bunches of dried lavender around the house I am hoping to make some lavender bags this year for our guests. It is still pretty hot but there are gusty winds today...Last night we heard a family of boar all around the main house, rustling and feeding in the dark.