Our torrent

The heating woks. L, E the apprentice and Nicola the boiler tuner were with us til twenty to eight making sure all was well yesterday evening.

Just as well as the forecast rain lashed it down through the night - over two inches. And more to come. Our torrent was powering down cateracts and joining in the vast effort to grind the Appenines into the sea. Our waters will soon join the upper Arno and hurtle towards Florence and Pisa and the Tyrrhenian Sea. I had a little drive around looking at other nearby waters, bought fish and wine.

I donned wet weather gear to scrape back yesterday’s mortar before grilling the fish outside on coals robbed from the wood stove - every house needs a decent galvanised bucket for this eventuality.

The day is fast fading under the deluge and a banging south westerly. I’ll report back on pellet consumption when we’re bedded in with the new system.