Waiting for the day to start.

Up to the bar bright and early this morning to pick up the Tribune. It was a national holiday here in Italy yesterday and all the hotel and restaurant owners were clustered around the espresso machine when I arrived complaining that turnover was really,really bad. Even the government here thinks that GDP this year will fall by a whopping 5% - when you consider that Italy hasn't seen any real growth in the last three years another 5% fall is bad news.Everyone here (rightly) loves to criticise the Brits and Americans for having borrowed so much and for having lived beyond their means. The flip side of the story is that without the Brits and Americans and their maxed out credit cards there would have been much lower demand for all the cars and designer clothes that the Europeans make - that's why the downturn is hitting the hard working Germans even more severely than their profligate anglo-saxon cousins.That's also why the hotels and restaurants around here are suffering so badly - my guess is that bookings will probably be down 30% for the year.

The two boyz are as happy as can be. They greeted the cleaning lady at 7.30 this morning by barking away at full volume and rushing down to the gate to see her. If they had their way she would still be standing in the driveway throwing a ball for them. As it is the two of them have been spurned after half a dozen throws and have now settled down for their morning constitutional under the shade of the trees waiting for their next adventure.

Time to explore

Who in their right mind would have white long coated dogs? Leave the little darlings alone for two minutes and they reappear streaked,coated,matted and unkempt. It may have something to do with that deep rooted canine ability to find the muddiest part of the garden and choose that as their play spot of choice. For Wilf and Digby the arrival of the builders has opened up myriad new ways of having muddy dog fun. The tractors and fork lifts parked out in front of the house ( where they seem to have taken up permanent residence in the notable absence of the builders ) provide an excellent opportunity to find damp earth to roll in and dig. Today will be a major bath day in an attempt to redistribute some of the accreted mud that has formed on them over the last three weeks.

Here in Italy the top news story is the ongoing battle between the Prime Minister and his wife. Mrs.Berlsuconni has again written to the newspapers drawing attention to the upset caused to her peace of mind by her husbands wandering eye and penchant for promoting young ladies to his cabinet based on looks rather than experience.Anywhere else in Euope dirty washing of this kind would be a huge scandal - here it helps cement his popularity in the polls as a regular guy. All those killjoys who believe that the bureaucrats in Brussels will one day harmonize us all into pasteurised , standardized Europeans forget the cultural differences that exist in this little continent.

Peculiar light

A rain storm has just blown up out of nowhere. The clear blue sky that greeted us at dawn this morning has given way to a grey drizzly day that wouldn't be out of place in Scotland ,although I have to add the rider that its much , much warmer here. One of the things that tells me I'm no longer in the north of the continent is the quality of the light . Somehow after a downpour the whole landscape seems to glow with a purple tint in a way that is quite alien to those of us from less sun blessed regions.

The local farmers have taught me two things this morning that I didn't know. The Barn Owls that live in the drainage pipes in the courtyard have evolved feathers with a velvety coating so that when they fly at night they make no noise whatsoever. This stealthiness enables them to catch their prey unawares.They must be succesful if the growing piles of shrew and vole bones beneath their nests is any indication. The second thing I've learnt is that the dandelions that have suddenly sprung up in the fields are known here in Umbria as hawkweed. I wonder if hawkweed is the formal name for dandelion?

Walnut trees and parched soil.

The first of a February and the soil is already drying out - this sudden onset of sustained sunshine after a long cold and wet patch and the countryside is shaking off winter and moving into spring. The new trees we planted in October are already coming into bud. I think it's a false dawn. After a glorious early taste of spring we usually get a few days of atrocious weather before the year turns on its axis and the new season finally segues into place. I'll put money on the fact that when I'm in London this week we'll have a sudden and unexpected reversion to arctic conditions. Always happens when I'm away which makes me popular !

There are a couple of walnut trees down the drive. I'm thinking of planting more outside the kitchen to provide shade for the summer. In the winter they have a marvellous rambling architectural look to them. Believe it or not we had one in the garden in Scotland but it was never warm enough for them to bear fruit.

Am told that London is in the grip of polar conditions with snow and sub sub zero temperatures. Why would I ever complain about the weather in Italy?

The beauty of Italy.

Maybe it has something to do with the light but a fruit stall or small town garden that I wouldn't give a second thought to in Edinburgh or London take on a simple artistic beauty in Italy.

The view of Todi tonight, a scene in the supermarket and Wilf with a new toy.

There's a definite sense that winter is coming to an end and spring is on the way. In the car earlier today it actually got uncomfortably hot with the sun beating down. Although it's clouded over a bit tonight the day was beautiful with blue skies and the softest of breezes and I was able to work in the fields trimming the trees without dressing like the Michelin man.

We had a sense of humour failure in out local Conad supermarket this morning. Anyone who lives in Italy will attest to the fact that it is a technophobic country. This aversion to technology is part of the charm of living here but once a month or so the antiquated systems and lack of a service ethic combine to give you a 'black dog day' . At the supermarket check-out the cashier swiped card after card through the reader as we came to pay. Not one of the cards would work as the telephone link to the bank was 'down' - the cause ? One of the other staff was using the land line dedicated to credit card purchases to make a personal call . As a result we were told to return later. My remonstration that my purchase should take priority over someones social life was met with a shrug of the shoulders and a muttered deprecation about foreigners. When I asked to speak to the manager I was told he wasn't there. We had to get back in the car and do all the shopping over again. This time I'm glad to say there were no problems and the charge went winging through.

The boyz have been happily sitting in the fields watching me at work with a saw and barking at the neighbouring farmers dogs.They were brought back an indestructible toy in the form of a small soft fluffy animal from Harrods as a special treat ( see earlier post ) and at the moment are sitting at the front door chewing away at it.

30,000 troops on the streets ?

Fog rolling in tonight - Todi standing out on its own hill across the valley and still (just) visible. We'll be in the cloud here in about half an hour. Thankfully, it's getting to be much lighter with dark not falling until about six so the worst of the winter should be behind us. The boyz have decide to come in after a day outside and are now dozing in front of the door and trying to figure out where the family is.

Italian television news leading with the insight that the recession isn't just impacting the EU and the US. The economies of the African and Mediterranean countries to the south of Italy are all facing a period of real contraction. This economic malaise has led to a sharp upswing in the number of illegal immigrants trying to get into the EU with Spain and Italy by dint of their geography being the first target. The government is now talking about putting 30,000 troops onto the streets to combat a wave of violent crime and help out the sorely stretched carabinieri.

Learning about blogging

I've been trying to use the camera on the mobile phone to take all the pictures posted on the blog. Using the mobile to take pictures is really easy and keeps the news flow current but at the risk of becoming too familiar or pedestrian. - but there again isn't that part and parcel of blogging ? This is a view from the house towards Todi taken this morning and I have to say the quality doesn't seem that different from using the Leica digital even for long shots like this. The Sony Ericsson phone I use in Italy has a pretty good lens but after each snap I have to go back to the menu and reset the photo option which takes time and can be really annoying. When I was back in the UK last week I took lots of pictures on the UK Nokia phone but these can only be downloaded by wireless and the UK and Italian operating systems are compatible at some level beyond my technical understanding.Hence the absence of pictures from London and Brighton.Looking back at the last six weeks worth of blogs it's also apparent that by downloading from the phone I'm probably swamping the blog with pictures of the boyz. It might be better to restrict them to just one a day. I'm finding the map showing geographic spread of visitors to be really interesting - the pattern seems to be entirely random. When I take the time to become more proficient I'll see whether people want a blog about the boyz, about Italy, or about a broader range of topics.