Hard To Capture Colors...

Yep. Not quite how they really are but, here are the colors for the Upstairs Apartment...

blue for the walls...

and...

brown for the doors.

However, we won't see them up... so to speak... until June. Gads.

The Bathroom Wall Is Up...

It would be a lot nicer if the Work-guys stuff weren't strewn around to clutter the view, nevertheless, the Bathroom's wall is up... doorway included.

Rounding the corner from the Bedroom... or, Option B, from the Bathroom... this is the view into the open space. Ooooo!!! 

Darn junk!!! Pretty grey too. Imagine what the apartment will be like with blue walls & brown doors. Ooooo, gads.

Quiet Time At The Ol' Upstairs Apt...

No Work-guys. I can hear the birds tweeting now. What Peace... what serenity... what calm. I hardly know what to do. Gads. 

Rapid Progress...

Stucco. Needs a month to dry solidly, baring rain, snow or other manifestations of humidity. Here a view of the Kitchen, on the right wall, and the Dining Area in front of that window.

Turning, we are looking at the space which will be the Living Area and the Bathroom. Its walls have yet to be considered in the fury to get the stucco up & on the walls.

Moving, here's the Bedroom.

And, out onto the Terrace, a look at the new door. Mr. You was right. Lot of money only to gain a measly 5 cm from the old 65 cm wide door. I had been promised one of 80 cm. Typically, too much trouble. These little but costly tasks earn the Builder $$$!!! Gads.

Trashed...

Snow!!!

Went out early to see what the Work-guys were up to on this Friday morning and found this lilac bush in full bloom. Then...

stepping back to admire the Spring Chill, discovered that it had snowed last night!!!

Sorry about that telephone wire. I don't even have a land-line requiring a cable to foul every photo I happen to take... in any direction too!!! Gads.

Upstairs Apartment's New Doors...

Happily, my small Italian sports-car took the hard-stop in time for me to catch this photo of what Mr. You thought would be the perfect eenspearayeshion for the new doors of the Upstairs Apartment.

I dare say he was taken more by the worn old look than the actual structure of the paneled doors. OK. Mr. You's Wish is only My Command. I have an appointment next Wednesday with our wonderful door/window maker, Giorgio. I hope this doesn't give him acid-indigestion, like our other adventure with the doors for La Casetta. We showed him one particular door we had found charmante from some doorway of Il Poggiolo before all was obliterated by our re-construction. I thought Giorgio might risk loosing his pranzo!!! Builders, stone mason, electricians, plumbers even around these Lunigiana-parts want new, new, new made even newer, like they live in a city, for cryin' out loud. Not so for us city-boys living in the country. We want old & worn transformed into new, new, new. Gads. 

2nd Installment of the Garden Plan... The Visuals

I had originally mused upon making a new diagram of My Garden Plan but, thought better of it. Might appear to be a huge, ungainly doodle. Already, we have too much plant life growing from the loins of Mother Earth. Poor loins. I am a rank amateur.

OK...

the gist of My Garden Plan... to date and I do hold it that I might just chuck the lot and start all over again. More fun that way, no?... is above every wall is a border of box-wood. This is a perfect activity for box-wood. Mr. You thinks I have gone a bit overboard with this idea. So what? I like them and in abundance. My paternal-grandmother had beaucoup du box-wood in her garden... a veritable Paradise on Earth. For her, box-wood de-marked change. Above walls communicates this. At least, a change of level. Don't fall!!! in visual terms.

Intermittently, I try to place some flowering bush to break the things up. Here, above the Fish Swimming Pool, I have planted two Chinese Magnolias... or Tulip Trees. One which has purple flowers is for me. Mr. You asked for white. However, his flowers aren't in a tulip shape. Nope. They are stars. I hope he likes them when they bloom again next Spring. Mr. You missed its brief flowering. Roses & Flowering Quince do the same work as the Magnolias elsewhere.

There is one wall that does not have box-woods and this is above the massively high stone wall of the Cortile. Someone... The Who remains a mystery... planted Lille and it shall remain where it is. Too hard to yank and, the wall might crumble. I have planted a row of lavender, much like those security lights in airplanes, in case of a crash. The crash, in this instance, might be someone flying off AND down to the Cortile below... a distance of twenty feet... after a fatal misstep. Not to fear... I am covered by insurance AND the Croce Bianca with their modern fleet of ambulances is right on the other side of the bridge. They could arrive within seconds, if the men aren't too taken with scratching their balls from boredom.

The terrace above the Upstairs Apartment has lovely grass. Every week it needs cutting. Grows like wild-fire. Along the slope to the right in the photo, is a string of fruit trees... a cherry tree, an apricot one, two prune trees... poor things. They are still suffering the effects of strangulation from the roving vines, now cut over two years ago!!!... a peach tree, a space for a future fruit tree, then, an apple tree and another scrawny prune tree, which is rallying well after the cold & rainy Winter. The slope above this string of fruit trees is sowed with varied grass that does not need cutting regularly. EXCELLENT!!! Something will be done in this area beyond just grass. Mr. You & I are currently debating The Issue. The score is You 2 Me 0. No surprise there.

As you have seen, lavender is big element here at Il Poggiolo. Grows in crappy M.E., fights erosion though it might want to be given another task than an eco-fight and, it doesn't bark too loudly from the absence of watering every other day. In my mind, it is The Most Perfect Plant.

La Spianata... or, grassy piazza... has grass, like the terraces. I have planted three Olive Trees, which have miraculously survived the Winter. I look upon them with fondness. What else can you do with a tree that otherwise requires shaking the Life out of it to get its fruit to pour its oil over  your bruschetta?

What we do not want is this disaster which, I have the balls to admit I created, in the below photo. Fine. Mr. You-know-who wants oleanders here. No. He insists upon them!!! I am also the Guilty Party for having burned alive three oleandri we had brought back from Sardinia. I felt it not to be a too great of a loss. Someone else is still grieving. So, I am supposed to yank the rest of the plants up by their roots to make room for three to five oleanders better planted along the Statale between Alghero & Feritlia, Sardinia? I think not.

Anyway, Mr. You ought to be glad our Garden is not still like this shot of a kind of nuclear Winter of two years ago. Yes. Absolute Gads!!!

An Unadorned Garden Plan of il Poggiolo...

Pretty darn rudimentary. You'd think I could have come up with a better color-scheme. However, I was lucky to find any colored pencil in La Casetta. The bordeaux, grey & blue pencils were left by an unwitting child. She probably left them behind because they are so dull.

OK...

an explanation of the above scheme...

bordeaux is for anything with a roof: the houses, sheds and an oven. I am comforted that the area of the houses out-weight those of the sheds. After all, the place WAS a farm. Grey is for the stone walls. Lots of those. And the blue is for that speck of water of the Fish Swimming Pool, which, thanks to the leaves of the persimmon tree way up by the Upstairs Apartment... not yet marked on the plan... is now the color of what would look to be an acid dump in Bayonne, New Jersey!!! One of the many, many tasks this weekend will be to empty the pool, clean it of its water-staining leaves and fill it up again, so I can dump some Flora of water lilies & Fauna of some cute gold-fish in it.

In my next installment, I will draw-in the various plant-life I have ruined my back & hip plonking them down into Fertile Mother Earth. Bet you cannot wait to see that, can you? Gads.

Fast At Work...

The Work-guys came in Monday morning, as contractually promised, and went to furiously demolishing the crumbling old stucco of the Upstairs Apartment. I am a bit saddened by this event of our re-construction. I thought the red & blue stencil pattern applied to the walls of the humble abode after the Earthquake of '22 was quite charming.  Pulverized!!! I came waltzing in Wednesday afternoon to see the walls clean. The W-guys wielded a high-pressure water hose to knock-off any lingering traces of stucco & accumulated grime after taking pick to it all. I had half-the-idea of leaving the walls so pristine. However, not two seconds after that reverie, Mr. You called. He was anxious for the latest on the current work. Naturally, Mr. You did not take to My New Direction in Interior Design. Che sara' sara'.

The next big task for the W-guys was to re-inforce... post-haste... the stone window cornice of what will be the Bathroom. It was there only by the Grace of God. Now, it is anchored to an I-beam. I suppose iron makes a better god. And, no bonked heads below!!!

While the cement, stone & iron were left to set around the saved window, two beams were removed from the area of what will be the Kitchen & Dining Area... ecco! A view...

and inserted in between the existing beams for the loft space above the Bathroom. I am very pleased. Of course, you won't see that saved window when all is complete. A wall for the future Bathroom will block the view.

The ratty looking beams in the future Bedroom were removed too and are not to be replaced. I will have a fantastic wall for some of my personal artwork above the bed, if Mr. You can only resist hammering nails into the fresh stucco to hang his collection of prints. He can go overload his Kingdom with those black & white things. Not in my space, thank you very much!!! 

As I type, I can hear the banter of the two Work-guys as they widen the door from the future Bedroom to the future Terrace. The old door was only 65 cm wide.... not wide enough for my American breadth!!! The new door will be a standard 80 cm wide door. With that, I can pass with a tray of drinks to enjoy the sunset in Codiponte. Gads.

The Mess They Make...

Our Thursday Morning...

Come on, Dog!!! It's 8:30. Let's go see what the Work-guys have been up to.

Oh, gosh! I hope they haven't squashed my newly planted lavender.

No, but, can't they pick up after themselves? 

And, if I find just one more cigarette butt, I will dock the builder's pay!!! 

And what? Can't we come up with nice colors for plastic? It's 2011!!! 

I fear for my rose plant.

But, what a lovely Spring day!!! 

At least, the mess is contained to only the terrace outside the Upstairs Apartment & the triangle between the back exit and the ramp down to the Cortile.

Gads.

The Latest News...

Heartening news yesterday...

I called Our Builder and... lo' & behold... his Crew of Work-guys were on-site at the Upstairs Apartment. They were demolishing stuff. Then, Our Geometra called me to say the same. Such communicative service... so odd for these Lunigiani... almost, but not quite, erased the six months of waiting for this moment to arrive. Tomorrow, I head south to see how the demolition looks. I hope there aren't any radical surprises. Mr. You is worried that the Crew of Work-guys have already trashed The Garden, which passed His Inspection with banners flying, and wants me to set up barriers & such. I'll be happy to find only their icky cigarette butts in the boxwood borders outside the apartment's front door. Gads. 

Post-Inspection Wrap-up...

No blood was taken. Gads.

Inspection...

Mr. You is due to arrive today for what turns out to be his Quarterly Inspection of la nostra dimora nella Lungiana... or, our residence in the Lunigiana. He hasn't stepped foot in Codiponte since January.

I've have been busting Butt & Back for it. 

As is Mr. You's Custom, I am not allowed to accompany him on his tour. Nope. He must do it alone. Then, he comes marching back with A List of not less than twenty items needing "immediate attention". "Attention" actually means adjustment. Fine. I can deal with changes... che sara' sara'... but, what I HATE is when Mr. You asks me why I did what I did which he doesn't like. With that, I get hysterical!!! He cannot say anything about the re-inforced wall built this past February...  

or the lastest rock wall constructed without cement...

since he was kindly informed of both through the miracle my PICASA's photo pages. Ooo!!!... he said.

In the meantime, and for all the Aches & Sores I so acutely feel now while typing out this blog, I have re-built the slopes damaged by all the winter's rain and seeded & fertilized with a non-cut-able ground cover to hold on to "things" until the lavender can grow big enough to take over the job of the War on Erosion. By the way, the lavender has received it's Spring crew-cut. They come back fuller that way.

I have also re-seeded & fertilized the grassy voids... again, thanks to all those winter's rains... on both La Spianta... shown below... and around the Fish Swimming Pool.

And, I have also planted a lavender border... with no help from The Dog... on the path from the Cortile to the Upstairs Apartment.

Bets are being taken on whether Mr. You will mention the scuzzy state of the water in the Fish Swimming Pool. Yes, sir. Looks a bit rancid to me. I just hope he doesn't notice the oil slick left by the weed-wacker. On that, I may not have long to live!!!

Until that time comes, Mr. You should be pleased with the camellias in full bloom on the Cortile. At least that, right? Gads.