Mid-life home crisis...
It’s a question.
It is not what you think…
11 years at il Poggiolo. And, in the last 5 months, You & I have built-in 2 fireboxes in la Casa Grande and painted the Salotto and the Sala da Pranzo in Our Signature Blue-blue-blue paint colour. Also, we’ve tag-team-ed to re-waxe every blooming terracotta paver from down at la Casetta to the farthest reaches of la Casa Grande. Farthest reaches? I am referring to the Laundry cum Bathroom. The mould build-up, which does need to be addressed but, not until after Covid-19 takes a hike and departs… forever… does lend a mild air of Black Hole of Calcutta. Often, party guests ask if there’s a more normal bathroom to use… somewhere else. Bet it’s the slatted double-doors. They scare everyone… including the Dog. Their procedure is not clearly evident to My Adored Canine. Nor do we have anything similar around. People these days hate any infringement upon their privacy. I’m really just joking. The black mould is only around the base of the shower platform. I occasionally take an old toothbrush to scour it out. And no, I will not post a photo to prove it. Just trust me.
What else?
I have single-handedly spiffed up the pergola… a major enterprise with il Poggiolo’s decorative infrastructure and done with the same amount of toil & trouble committed to our garden & loggia furniture. Killed some wood-worms too. The beasties were housed in a few of the wood slats of our favoured Loggia chairs.. Died a stinging Death with the anti-rust treatments and paint. The big wood-worm job will be to do the 220 year old tini… wine vats… suffering from the on-going onslaught of our bros, more of the local wood-worms. They are not particularly clever creatures. They leave identifiable piles of their masticated bio-waste on the concrete floor below the tini in the passageway between the great outdoors on the aia and the Laundry cum Bathroom inside. Might be the piles which discourages guests to risk the trip to use the toilet, do you suppose?
What’ really going on?
I think the above chores are actually a decennial re-evaluation of il Poggiolo. Ongoing. And year late too. Well, maybe not. Last year I spent a whopping amount of Euros having new windows and doors made for l’Appartamento Azzurro and la cucina in la Casa Grande. So whopping because, the firm, which was entrusted to do the work, told me after the done-deed about some extra and very necessary items not included in the original estimate. Really? How much? That much? BOING!!! I had to scurry to a Higher Authority… Our Esteemed Geomatra… to mediate. You was livid. Nearly choked on a pasta spitting out his indignation of the newly requested Additional Funds.. Per fortuna… Our Esteemed Geometra negotiated a more acceptable arrangement.
I do think Covid-19 might be to blame for this year’s re-evaluation and subsequent changes to il Poggiolo’s decorative infrastructure. I have spent so much time at il Poggiolo, it has become Our True Home. This, mentioned in a previous blog post. Work as a concierge/travel planner or house hunter has dried up. The new Lockdown Lite keeps me nailed to Codiponte…. obviously. So, My Only Job is to keep after il Poggiolo… garden & house together. Apparently, this crisis, so to speak, is catching. You’s caught the fever. Showed up at our Loggia with gifts from his 10 day R&R in Sardinia canvasing flea-markets, fairs and antiques shops, when not sunbathing on a beach… in late-October!!! Those Sardinians can sure can liquidate the stuff. Silk & wool area rug for Euro 130. Others smaller for Euro 5 or 10. Richard Ginori porcelain services for Euro 50… or, for less!!! He spent last weekend… our last weekend together before the Italian Government’s new Lockdown Hard sent one of us back to his respective corner in Genoa and his work in hospital in Savona, a den of Covid-19, on Sunday… finding spots, locations, places for all of it. I sat wearing my wooly slippers in a poltrona sipping a chilly white wine and admiring the fire in Our Home. Cin-cin to crises.
