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December 19, 2010

Christmas in Vellano

Filed under: Uncategorized — Darren & Malcolm @ 7:39 pm

We both hope that everyone has a lovely Christmas.

It seems everywhere in Europe is having cold wintry weather this December and Vellano is no exception.  We had around 2 to 3 inches during Friday.  On Saturday we awoke to a very beautiful scene indeed.  Fortunately we did not need to drive anywhere.  Many cars have put on their snow chains – a wise move when roads are hilly and twisty and one wrong move could send you 100 metres down a mountain side.  For us keeping warm is a little more challenging when we use a wood burning system.  Getting the burner ready, the wood cut and finding enough paper, cardboard and kindling to light it everyday.  However, there is a lot of  joy in providing ones own heating and seeing the flames burning merrily away in our big orange machine.

Many villages here are now lit up with lights, and very few people are about.  In the last few weeks many people have harvested their olive trees. They have been spreading their nets under the trees, then with a long handled branch shaker that vibrates and drops the olives onto the nets below, gathering them and taking them to the ‘frantaio’ to be pressed into extra virgin oil.  Ours are still left to be done, but black olives can be harvested into the new year.

We all hope the weather is not to disruptive to the festivities.  For those of you reading, please feel free to comment and write to us.  We wish you a wonderful Christmas and hope to see you in the year.

5 Comments »

  1. Hi there! I have been thinking about Casa Verde a lot this winter and how you were making out with your wood burning machine! Sounds devine! I am writing you from Kona, Hawaii so perhaps I don’t fully understand the cold right now! LOL. However, I do understand the satisfaction you speak of when lighting your own fire as that’s what we did all winter long when we were in Italy. Although, admittedly, I don’t think the winter was as tough as this one although it was freezing and we’re from Canada! Looking forward to experiencing it first hand. Cheers and Merry Christmas!
    Sarolta

    Comment by Sarolta — December 22, 2010 @ 4:38 am

  2. Hi there
    Yong and I have just spent a a pleasant time looking at all your blogs (is that the right term ?) How fabulous
    I wish I had a Euro for every time we said “Wow”
    the latest picture of the village in the snow !
    the fabulous photographs of Tuscany
    the plums !
    the recipes !

    Comment by Kay and Yong — December 23, 2010 @ 1:31 pm

  3. Yes Lovely to hear from you – we are an eating, seeing and all-dancing Christmas blog alright! Love Malcolm and Darren xxx

    Comment by Darren Hackett — December 23, 2010 @ 2:27 pm

  4. Hi you two.
    What a wonderful picture ! I almost envy you then I remember how much I hate snow ! I often look at the earlier pictures in your blog to cheer me up when it’s cold and miserable here . Are the olives nice to eat? They look delicious. Images of drizzling olive oil over Greek salad are making my mouth water.
    I’ll e.mail you some dates in Feb/March Malcolm and hopefully we can meet up this time when you’re over.

    Comment by Dan — January 11, 2011 @ 11:44 am

  5. The olives are inedible, edible ones are more likely to Greek! But the oilive oil is superb – like melted butter but without the harmful fat.

    Comment by Malcolm Coward — January 11, 2011 @ 1:00 pm

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