Looking trim

...and tidy

It is the middle of summer, we have just been blasted by a heatwave and blessed by a summer storm. After the rain I took these photos and I must say, thanks to Paolo and some hard pruning, some of us are looking pretty trim.

Pipistrellus pipistrellus

 The Nocturnal Paratroopers

There are bats at Le Ripe and there certainly always have been. When we first arrived to survey the semi-ruins of our future home we discovered bats in the cellar, bats in the bedroom and bats in the barn. Yet they are elusive creatures and for five years now, since the renovations, we have not seen many.

However over the last couple of days I have been lucky enough to sight bats again at Le Ripe. The other evening, at dusk but well before dark, I happened to notice a small, dark round shape zipping out of our bat box (more on this below); I focused my gaze on the bat box and was treated to the sight of a second small round shape zipping out after the first. The image this called to mind when I tried to describe it was of two action film paratrooper commandos bombing out of a helicopter, diving down towards their mission, their parachutes (in this case the bats' wings) still furled behind them.* 

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.

San Leolino, Panzano

A Charming Church

the view from the church, looking west

It is a truth universally acknowledged that churches are to be found in the most panoramic sites. San Leolino, near Panzano in Chianti, is no exception. 

The oft-cited explanation for churches' prime locations is: they got there first. More accurately: they frequently took over from other cults and civilizations which got there first. The Etruscans preferred hilltop sites for their towns and their necropoli, often situated on two adjoining elevations. (One wonders if it was simply for defensive reasons.) Panzano is a case in point: of Etruscan origin, it was also inhabited by the Romans who were keen on elevation, when available. 

the elegant 16th century facade with its asymmetrical portico or loggia

Unsung Local Heroes I

Paolo the Woodsman

woodwork

log splitting demonstration

stacked logs: this pile is three logs deep

"A force of nature" is how he has described himself. And, modesty apart, we tend to agree. Paolo has been an important part of Le Ripe since 2006 when we first met him, perched on the roof of our barn which was to become the Fienile cottage. He and the master builder Pasquale were responsible for restoring the buildings at Le Ripe over two years. Over that time we came to appreciate Paolo's great energy, enthusiasm for hard work and knowledge of his world. 

Hanging Herbs

Five years of herb and flower gathering

...nepeta, lavender, origano, curry plant, chilli peppers, santolina, phlomis, everlasting daisies, zinnias, ranunculas, gypsophila, statice, hydrangeas, most grown by us but some given in bouquets

hang from a beam in our mudroom: there they dried and there they stayed. 

Finally after five years of collecting the beam is almost full.

The terracotta potteries of Impruneta II

Mario Mariani Artigiano Terrecotte

Mario Mariani's kiln and workshop stand out from the others for two principal reasons. First, his is the only kiln left at Impruneta which adheres to certain old techniques and styles: the workshop displays the traditional design with the furnace on the ground floor, the raised loggia leading to the oven or kiln on the first floor, the courtyard outside and the pile of raw earth out back; plus, and this is the most significant: the kiln is wood-fired instead of gas-fired.

entrance to Mariani's workshop

The terracotta potteries of Impruneta I

Fornace Masini

Masini's address, 57-59 via Fornaci: Kiln Street

When we began restoring Le Ripe our master builder told me in serious tones that we could choose whatever tiling we wanted for inside, but for outside it would have to be either from the local firm in Radda or from 'Ferrone', as he put it.

Any other material would simply not withstand our winter frosts.

That was when I first realized the importance of both the local raw material and the local producers. Just the other day friends took us to two historic but very different and distinctive potteries or kilns in the Ferrone area, at Impruneta to be precise.

Masini potter at work, photo from Masini archive

The town of Impruneta is a 45 minute drive from Le Ripe, towards Florence. Impruneta and surrounds have been famous for centuries for their terracotta works which, large and small, are dotted all around the area. Some produce bricks and tiles, others produce pots, many produce both as well as garden statues, ornaments, signs, even furniture: anything that can be made in terracotta.

Perigee Moon

Moon over Radda

It is the very error of the moon,
She comes more nearer earth than she was wont
And makes men mad.

Othello, Act V Scene II

Mad with excitement in this case. 

The perigee moon: the closest the moon has been to the earth this year. It looks 14% bigger than usual and its proximity affects tides and who knows what else. As it rose above Radda we were astounded by the size. Unfortunately the photo does not render its deep golden hue...

Panzano Market

The bounty from Panzano this morning

Panzano's weekly market is a small affair, but specially in summer it can yield a cornucopia of fruits, vegetables, even mozzarella and good cheeses, roast chickens and fresh bread.  This week we bought four types of tomato, radishes, sweet Tropea onions, fresh cannellini beans, friggitelle or small sweet peppers to braise in olive oil and garlic, melons to eat with prosciutto, white peaches, black cherries, red plums and small, tasty apricots. And fresh mozzarella, as good as in Naples.

The market is held every Sunday from early morning until about 1300. There are a few other stalls but the food is the thing. Every first Sunday of the month it is brightened and augmented by the Mercato Aprilante with its crafts, local produce and flea market.

A fledgling

  A small incident in the garden
or
The magpie chick that wasn't

adult  Eurasian jay

We thought it was a magpie nest. Large and conical, built in the centre of a cluster of field maples not far from the main house; it seemed to fit the description. As it turned out, we were wrong. One evening as we ate outside, we spied a bird wobbling up and down on a branch of one of the field maples as if it were standing on a diving board. Suddenly it launched itself to fly. Rather than fly, it fluttered earthwards where it made something of a crash landing. 

just landed

The Nightingale

A Nightingale Sang 

Luscinia megarhynchos

A small, modest, brown and beige bird, the nightingale, thanks to his song (for only the male sings), has inspired authors and composers from Homer to T.S Eliot and counting. So you're curious? Here's a partial list: Homer, Sophocles, Aristophanes, Ovid, Virgil, Chrétien de Troyes, Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower, George Gascoigne, Shakespeare, Milton, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley, Beethoven, Hans Christian Andersen, Joseph Lamb and T.S. Eliot have all either mentioned the nightingale or the myth of Philomena and Procne associated with the bird. Keats's Ode to a Nightingale is the poem which first springs to mind, but to quote another particularly apt example, here is Shelley in his A Defence of Poetry:  

A poet is a nightingale who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds; his auditors are as men entranced by the melody of an unseen musician, who feel that they are moved and softened, yet know not whence or why.
 

sheet music for Lamb's Nightingale Rag - which is attractive but bears little resemblance to a nightingale's warbling