Italy

 Sorry it's been months since my last post, but now the weather has turned autumnal I will probably update it more as I spend more time indoors.This post is about our fabulous holiday in Tuscany. We actually drove which was an experience, it took us four days there and four days back and we saw some fantastic scenery , especially the Alps and Mont Blanc.

The drive was worth it because this was the villa that greeted us when we arrived. 

It stood in it's own grounds and with it's own swimming pool which Little T jumped into as soon as we arrived. He didn't appreciate the view from the pool obviously but we did it was acres of olive groves and vineyards. 

He did like the wildlife though, this is Phillip the Praying Mantis,

and this is Frederick the frog.

We didn't manage to get any photos of Oscar or Leonardo the lizards. My favourite were the lizards which just scuttled around the house with so much energy when we could barely move because of the heat, it touched 100 degrees some days. 

  The owner brought us this magnificent crate of tomatoes to try, don't they look great? We had fun making lots of pasta sauce and tomato and mozzarella salads with all the fresh local ingredients. I was itching to see what my tomatoes would be like at home thinking they would be ripe like these, but I was very disappointed on returning home to find that they were still green as the weather had been rubbish. 

I managed to find plenty of time to start a new crochet project. I decided to make a blanket inspired by the colours of Italy.

But I have downgraded it now to a cushion as I don't want to buy more wool as I have too many other ideas I want to get on with (including the knitted blanket, remember that?). 

  

I didn't actually crochet with my feet in the pool ( that's an accident waiting to happen) it's just artistic licence.The cushion is nearly finished now so will show it soon, plus other crochet projects I have finished. I will have to change the title of this blog as there isn't much knitting going on.

We all loved Italy and will go back next year if only for the gelato.