La ghiacciaio del tetto

Chopping with my new lighter (2kg) splitting axe called Granit from Germany.

I noticed the snow that has thawed and frozen shaded from the sun on the woodshed roof tiles. It looked like a miniature glacier - ghiacciaio in Italian - literally  'an ice thing'.

(Whereas in good old English we use the much more sophisticated
word for 'ice thing' which is glacier. I'm always getting caught out by literal translation without a lifetime's context around it. Like the word - parabrezza - 'for the wind' which sounds so much more archaic and 'simple'  than our hugely sophisticated 'windscreen'.)

Anyway the axe works very well. It has a short sharp blade and a wide flanged head that cuts and splits splendidly.

The cold clear sunny weather continues. There is starting to be some concern about the lack of winter rains and snow in some parts of Italy.

A worker was killed not far from us today in Bibbiena. He fell into a hopper of concrete. Industrial death and injury is an ongoing tragedy in Italy. It seems like there isn't a day when someone falls from scaffolding to their death or is crushed or mangled by a machine. It is still a country of 'makers' and the enforcement of health and safety legislation is very weak.

The menfolk of Cetica - see yesterday and the day before - used to travel down to the coastal, malarial littoral of Tuscany in the winter months to climb and collect the maritime pine cones from which pine nuts are extracted. A fare few died falling from the high trees. They were called pinotollai.

There is a rather rambling video of old guys recalling those pre-1950s days with some cut ins of modern day climbers. Most pine nuts are now collected by mechanically vibrating the cones out of the trees, which are infested with some new Canadian ailment.

Think of Cetica's pinotollai  walking from Cetica to the Grosetto coast - three hours in car - next time you tuck into some pesto.

https://youtu.be/nu2Sg_AM9Pg