We once again travelled to Rome from London on the overnight Palentino service.Leaving Paris late at 7pm the train then arrived in Rome around an hour after it was due! We took the small train to Pescara and later that evening picked up a car for the final part of the journey.

The house was barely visible behind the triffid - like growth that had sprung up over the last 3 months, encouraged by a unusually wet spring ; fortunately a neighbour's son desperate to earn some 'going out money' made short work of this with his strimmer.

Grasses take over

swallowtail

One nice side effect of all the rain was the number and variety of butterflies about. One of my favourite is the Swallowtail;so rare in the UK yet they seemed to be everywhere in Abruzzo !

The olive tree that I'd hacked back in January has undergone a growth spurt and now is replendant in bright green, healthy foliage.It makes me wish that I'd done more.The crop of olives this year is looking particularly heavy ;again due to moist conditions earlier. Hopefully we'll get a small quantity for eating later in the year.

The room that we took the bathroom out of still needed work. Using lime mortar means that only a thin layer can be applied at any time rather than with cement where large holes can be filled at one time.This can be extremely frustrating as each layer has to be given time to properly 'set' before another is added on top.

too right!

Evening sun

The wet spring had highlighted a problem that most owners of Italian properties face:damp.Over the years soil had built up against the back wall of the house and now the floor was actually lower than ground level.

We met with a new builder who is in fact the son in law of our neighbour, Giovanni.His wife has just opened a Bed and Breakfast in the lovely Lettomannoppello.There's a web site .

The couple treated us to a real vegetarian feast at a restaurant in the village .We we so impressed with the various different dishes that the proprietor had prepared after Stefania warned him that we were vegetarians ! Quite wonderful.

lettomanoppello

As usual we spent a long time in Abruzzo driving around looking for things we needed for the house.

This time it was beams that we needed to put in over our bedroom and kitchen windows.We drove up to Montesilvano which to me appears to be one of the grottiest places in Abruzzo and I wasn't surprised to read in Il centro that a huge toxic waste dump (illegal) is threatening to pollute the river that runs out into the sea and effects the quality of water on the beaches.

The hunt was fruitless as the selection of beams at the reclaimation center was pretty poor and the owner was nowhere about so prices were not known ! Next we tried a local carpenter/restorer in Pretoro, Franco who actually sold us a very nice old handle for our door but had no beams suitable for us!

hermitage chapel

We went on some outings to local places of interest including the hermitage in Serramonacesca where we photographed this extraordinary statue of Christ ! The rebuilt chapel lacks much of the atmosphere that the original hermitage must have posessed.Nevertheless it's a very evocative and romantic site.

Strangely enough right by the hermitage was an old oak beam exactly right for our kitchen ( left after some reapairs to picnic tables nearby ). However so heavy was it that the others refused to help carry it back to the car !

french drain

another window repair

We've got used to uncovering problems that we hadn't expected during this restoration project! Normally these arise whenever any cement or plaster is removed and large hollows or worse appear needing raking out and filling in.

Most of the time whenever problems occurred builders had thrown in a mix of broken bricks and mud.Dont let anyone tell you the old ways are the best.but I suppose you just had to utilise whatever you could find for free?