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

Waterfalls

After a Good Rainfall

During most of the year the two streams that run through and beside Le Ripe are completely dry. Even the Pesa river in the valley below dries up in summer, although it is said to continue flowing underground.

Recently Le Ripe received a gift of 82mm or more (over 3.2 inches) of rain in 24 hours, and it shows.

 There are waterfalls everywhere.

Nymphaeaceae - Water Lily

The Missing Myth

Since our little pond was established in the restored washing trough we have enjoyed the annual gift of a single waterlily. With wonder and joy we observe its opening and closing each day for three days and its gentle sinking back underwater once its flowering cycle is complete.

Water

Water VI

three sets of guttering on one roof

During our renovations we planned to direct all the rainwater from our (extensive) rooftops and possibly from the threshing floor as well, into a large water tank. This water would then be used for the garden and vegie patch. The system is ready but the tank has not been installed yet.

copper guttering and downpipe

tallest downpipe

Water

Water V

The water from our well is pumped into two cold water tanks, one of 750 litres, the other 1000 litres. In the first case (in the cottage we call the Fienile), it is either used cold or heated via a conventional gas-fired boiler which connects to taps and standard radiators. In the other, it is either pumped straight up to the house for drinking, washing and cooking, or transferred to another, insulated 1500 litre tank and heated thanks to a modern wood-fired furnace. The furnace heats the upper layer of water and the solar thermal panels' fluid heats the lower layer through a heat exchanger. 

This second hot water tank is also called a 'puffer' and hot water is accumulated from the bottom up, according to rising temperatures, ('stratification'). In the upper layer there is a separate sub-tank storing the hot water for washing. The warm water for the underfloor heating is stored in the surrounding volume. Hot and cold water is then pumped into the apartments. The water for heating runs through hundreds of metres of flexible tubing which spirals beneath the floors. 

Water

Water IV

The Supply at Le Ripe

Our drinking, washing, and for now, irrigating water (more on this in a later post on Water) all comes from an 80 metre-deep well drilled in 2006 which is situated on the hill about 50 metres above the house. When the engineer who oversaw our works asked us to choose between a water diviner and a geologist we opted for the latter. He got it right. Apparently there is a lot of water in our hill (there's water in them thar hills) so either option would probably have come up with the goods, as long as they dug deep enough.

well drilling project

The well is not the attractive, ding dong dell pussy's in the well, built-in-stone sort, but an entirely utilitarian concrete one with a heavy manhole-type lid; the water is drawn up by an electric pump. The first pump died after about only two years. When we tried to replace it we realized that the cyinder you can see in the project above encasing the water pipe was in fact a series of metal cylinders screwed one into the other. To pull out the pump this contraption had to be removed using a crane, so that the heavy cylinders could be unscrewed one by one. The man who installed the pump was not available at the time, but luckily our builders and their crane were still with us, and we took the opportunity to replace the metal cylinders with a more modern, flexible rubber one which can be removed easily while the pump is pulled out.

Le Ripe's unpicturesque concrete well, one cistus plant to right

Each year we have the well water analysed chemically and bacteriologically. The results tell us that our water is sound from both points of view even though it is very hard water (alkaline, with a lot of lime). This is good for bones of course but not so good for kidneys. More on our drinking water later.

We have attempted to conceal the well with cistus bushes but for some reason they are painfully slow to grow: however over this last season they showed more oomph...In any case the well and the compost bin are hidden to some extent by the vegie patch fence and creepers. 

white cistus which should one day conceal the well - we live in hope...

 ...content by De Rerum Natura

Local Archaeology II

The long story of the other Roman bridge

What do gnocchi and chocolate cake have to do with Roman bridges?
Read on and you will find out.


We had heard that at Ponte agli Stolli, on the way to Figline Valdarno, there was a Roman bridge worth seeing. So on a dull day, after a delicious meal of home-made gnocchi and chocolate tart (my friends' idea of a light, easy lunch: recipes following) to explore for ourselves.

Ponte agli Stolli, reached from Greve in Chianti after a pleasant drive through wooded and farm land with many delightful views of restored farmhouses, drystone walls and sloping fields of olives and grapevines, turns out to be a fascinating jumble of a village perched around and over a ravine of rushing water, which eventually flows into the Arno at Figline. But the Roman bridge is not in the village.
 
The passageway which takes you over the village bridge upon which buildings have been constructed.

Inside the passageway we found this lovely old door, protected by a glass pane. A small enamelled sign on the door reads: Mugnaio Numero 1, Miller Number 1.

Once upon a time this building housed the village flour mill.

And on the other side we found the mill race.

A view of the bridge of Ponte agli Stolli from further on.






But still we had not found the Roman bridge.

Water

Water III

the river Pesa as it flows below Le Ripe

       In the valley the Pesa flows past Le Ripe, creating a natural boundary and the actual boundary of our property. Some of the river-border is inaccessible thanks to tall banks and thickets, but some runs alongside two meadows. Of these two meadows, one was used for fodder and an orchard, the other for summer corn. We call them, rather unimaginatively, the first meadow and the second meadow. The old names were il campo di sotto (the field below) and il campo della raia (the field of the raia - meaning uncertain). The first meadow has easy access to the river although we have yet to 'lounge with friends in the soft grass' (see below) down there...

    

 Lucretius also describes the beauty of nature 

on the banks or "ripe" of rivers

           "...ergo corpoream ad naturam pauca videmus               

esse opus omnino: quae demant cumque dolorem,
delicias quoque uti multas substernere possint
gratius inter dum, neque natura ipsa requirit,
si non aurea sunt iuvenum simulacra per aedes
lampadas igniferas manibus retinentia dextris,             
lumina nocturnis epulis ut suppeditentur,
nec domus argento fulget auroque renidet
nec citharae reboant laqueata aurataque templa,
cum tamen inter se prostrati in gramine molli
propter aquae rivum sub ramis arboris altae             
non magnis opibus iucunde corpora curant,
praesertim cum tempestas adridet et anni
tempora conspergunt viridantis floribus herbas."

Therefore we see that our corporeal life

Needs little, altogether, and only such

As takes the pain away, and can besides

Strew underneath some number of delights.

More grateful 'tis at times (for Nature craves

No artifice nor luxury), if forsooth

There be no golden images of boys

Along the halls, with right hands holding out

The lamps ablaze, the lights for evening feasts,

And if the house doth glitter not with gold

Nor gleam with silver, and to the lyre resound

No fretted and gilded ceilings overhead,

Yet still to lounge with friends in the soft grass

Beside a river of water, underneath

A big tree's boughs, and merrily to refresh

Our frames, with no vast outlay- most of all

If the weather is laughing and the times of the year

Besprinkle the green of the grass around with flowers.

Lucretius De Rerum Natura   Book II  verses 20-33

trans. William Ellery Leonard 

river bank by our first meadow with violets

flowers besprinkling the green of the grass

...content by De Rerum Natura

Water

Water II

Borro delle Ripe

Borro delle Ripacce

At le Ripe there are two streams which carry water down the hill towards the Pesa. The Pesa is a 'torrente' or ephemeral river, which means that it dries up or goes underground in the summer months. 

 The two streams can be seen on this map from the Catasto Leopoldino, the land register in Siena which dates back to the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Le Ripe was called Le Ripacce then.
In the Catasto today's borro delle Ripe was fosso del Nicione and the borro delle Ripacce was fosso delle Stinche. 

original land registry map with two streams in bottom right hand corner: 
the Pesa is at the top of map

 

The day before we returned home last November, a tremendous rainstorm had inundated the hill.The two streams overflowed and swept stones and earth every which way. 

For one account of this event, see our post for Saturday December 1st 2012. 
For another, more classical and poetic account of such phenomena, 
read below.

"...sunt igitur venti ni mirum corpora caeca,
quae mare, quae terras, quae denique nubila caeli
verrunt ac subito vexantia turbine raptant,
nec ratione fluunt alia stragemque propagant             
et cum mollis aquae fertur natura repente
flumine abundanti, quam largis imbribus auget
montibus ex altis magnus decursus aquai
fragmina coniciens silvarum arbustaque tota,
nec validi possunt pontes venientis aquai              
vim subitam tolerare: ita magno turbidus imbri
molibus incurrit validis cum viribus amnis,
dat sonitu magno stragem volvitque sub undis
grandia saxa, ruit qua quidquid fluctibus obstat."

"....the winds,

'Tis clear, are sightless bodies sweeping through

The sea, the lands, the clouds along the sky,

Vexing and whirling and seizing all amain;

And forth they flow and pile destruction round,

Even as the water's soft and supple bulk

Becoming a river of abounding floods,

Which a wide downpour from the lofty hills

Swells with big showers, dashes headlong down
Fragments of woodland and whole branching trees;

Nor can the solid bridges bide the shock

As on the waters whelm: the turbulent stream,

Strong with a hundred rains, beats round the piers,

Crashes with havoc, and rolls beneath its waves

Down-toppled masonry and ponderous stone,

Hurling away whatever would oppose."

Lucretius, De Rerum Natura Book I Verses 277-289

trans. William Ellery Leonard (1876 - 1944)

...content by De Rerum Natura