The Italian lockdown that span (give or take) 8 weeks from the end of February to the beginning of May gave us plenty of time to try new things, work in the garden, play lots of music, slow down hectic rhythms, just relax and think about the things we want to do. It has also provided us with time to think about what we worry about most and what we care for. Time will tell if we are beginning a recovery or that we are heading into a much worse wave with graver consequences. I wish the post title is correct and that we are truly entering a post covid summer.. though I doubt it.
When we were ‘closed’ in our open-air and spaced lockdown bubble we developed much hope in the aftermath of the pandemic: maybe it’ll give birth to a future of a drive to sustainability, less frantic consumption, quieter rhythms, more bicycles, less pollution, more incentives for local and environmentally friendly businesses, a more aware education system and so on. I’m not here to make any political suggestions or share huge revelations on my part so I just hope that the following short bullet point update with picture speaks for itself .
In a nut shell, for us, this spring and early summer was all about learning to be more self producing, to develop resilience to change: more nature, more attention (and quality time) for the thing that we already do.
Here is a snap list of what is new:
- Bees: We jumped into the deep water and started the beekeeping season totally on our own! This included learning how to split a colony, collect a swarm of bees (we did this, three times this year) and that’s on top of the basics that we still had to grasp. A steep learning curve, indeed, but very rewarding and we can’t wait to harvest some honey.
- Vegetable plot: Our vegetable plot has tripled in size this year. We planted potatoes, tomatoes (lots of them!), sun flowers, cucumbers, courgettes, peppers, melons, peas, flax seeds, cabbages, cauliflower, corn and obviously lots of hops: 5 varieties that will all give us harvest this year.
- Cats: We have two new young cats: a female kitten we nickname Ginger and a male: Nero
Ginger has just caught her first mouse this week
- Chickens: We had our first chicks hatch from our own hens and it’s a wonderful story as mother hen turns out to be ‘Storm’ (‘Tempesta’) – the chick from last year that lost her siblings to a falcon and her mother to the terrible storm of June last year.
- Music: We played lots of music together and embarked on a tough challenge recording a tune a day and uploading it to YouTube for over 49 days in a row.
Now, you can listen to last one, number 49 (or look for the entire play list). In the last post I linked only to the first one.
- English teaching: Although we managed to hold a few on-line courses during the lockdown, we had to postpone most activities and restarted around mid May. We were very happy to see everyone again, though from a distance and in the outdoors. I’ve bid before to create on-line resources and now with the pandemic it has become a real necessity. Keep tuned. I hope putting some resources pretty soon,
I guess there is still much more to write about but I’ll try to extend on specific topics soon. So that’s it for now. Hope you all keep safe, positive and resilient!
The Old Stable 