Sun 16 July - Woodland Fairies & The Red Hot Chilli Peppers

Still Abruzzo remains in perpetual summer.  The sun has shone for so long now that it's hard to imagine it could ever be any different.

Our weekend began, Saturday morning, with more foraging.  This time for non-edibles.  We need screens.  Just a little one to start with, to divide the balcony between the bedrooms. 

So, with our drop in the ocean attempt at saving the planet through buying nothing new, we went out and cut canes.  Theres a huge abundance of them absolutely everywhere, just ripe for the picking.  Much more fun than joining the rest of the Saturday shopping brigade out on the road to Pescara to go and buy a new one.  And, regardless of the finished result (which I'm sure, at very best, it will look "interesting"), sitting in the garden, creating our own design and weaving them all together, will certainly beat standing in the queue in Leroy Merlin.  There's much to be said for this foraging to save the planet lark.  

So there we were, down the lane on a Saturday morning in glorious sunshine, me with my gardening gloves and secateurs, KP with his machete.  I still haven't quite got used to being a professional forager, ie taking things for free, and felt very naughty.  Quite who would take offence to us taking a few canes I had no idea, but I was glad to get our booty back into the safety of our garden. 

The job nicely done, the canes stripped and put out to dry, and with the sun bring it's usual relentless self, there was nothing for it but to pull out the sun loungers and have a nice little siesta under the Persimmon tree.  It was the weekend after all.  You're allowed to do things like that at the weekend.

After a couple of hours snoozing in that hot hot afternoon, it was time to go and find the fairies.

The Festa degli Gnomi.   A spectacular festa for the children going on all weekend at San Liberatore.  A weekend of woodland fairies, elves, gnomes and goblins.  Singing, dancing, storytelling, games and picnicking.  Absolutely fabulous.  


Of course, we didn't go the easy way, but combined it with a walk through and across the valley, going up and around the tor and across the river, which was now but a trickle.  A fast flowing, cascading trickle, but a trickle just the same.


We were, however, absolutely delighted to find the waterfalls and plunge pools still with an abundance of water.  And we found fairies!  An absolutely magical delight.  Obviously escaped from the festa, we found them playing in the woods, right by the waterfall.  


The waterfall that we thought it would be a good idea to swim in.  God, it was cold.  KP thought he might have a heart attack.  But he didn't, he got in, and what larks we had.   Very, very surreal though. Us playing in the woodland waterfall and the fairies playing on a fallen tree.  


A very strange sight we must have made.



Contrast that with our night out that evening at the Parco in Roccamontepiano.  As at was really rather late before we got back from the festa, and we were very very hungry by now, AND it was Saturday night, a night out eating arrosticini and listening to live bands suddenly seemed very appealing.  And what a great night!  What a great band.  The Reddot Chilli Peppers, a Red Hot Chilli Pepper tribute band, and absolutely brilliant (Facebook page).  


The raw talent coming out if this place never fails to amaze me.  This group could have held their own anywhere.  


But, as always, they didn't really start to get going till about midnight so it was a rather late to bed night.  




Ah well, tomorrow is Sunday after all...