Almost there! Holidays are coming...

Another busy month as we're still getting everything at CL ready for our first group who arrive on 2 April!  A lot of the gardening stuff has to be done last minute (after the cold weather has disappeared) so we have been packing it all in this month - we are both just falling into bed after long days in the garden but it all looks great!  The new wrought iron fence, pergola, wine room door and window guard have been fitted and look gorgeous.  We're so lucky to have these artisan businesses right on our doorstep.  

The new pool heater is working perfectly - it reached its goal of 29 degrees after a few days of being installed.  We are so happy with it!  And our new solar pool cover is doing its job too. 

I painted the (very long) wooden railing in the CL garden and we put the tomato plants in and I have also put some freesia bulbs in which I am hoping will add a bit of colour to the garden and the smell is of course, wonderful!  

Inside the house, for some reason I decided to paint the beams in the kiddies play room.  I've wanted to this for ages as I thought it would make it a lot brighter with a white ceiling rather than the brown wooden beams.  I was (obviously!) right, it does look better  but those beams and terracotta tiles take a lot of paint and painting a ceiling is messy work - I had more on me and the floor than on the ceiling at the end of it!  

We had Sunday lunch with some friends at Casa Leana which we like to do a few times every year.  The kitchen lends itself so well to having a large group together chatting etc. although I am not sure cooking a massive roast dinner in front of seven people is ideal from my point of view.  Dishing up is the worst bit, I tend to get a bit antsy with Leigh if things don't go according to plan as he is my helper for those last ten minutes. Poor thing!  

It's not all been work work work, Leigh managed to get a couple of days ski-ing in during March.  One of our friends found a lovely little ski resort a couple of hours away (Abetone) just north of Florence.  He hasn't been ski-ing for a few years and really misses it so it was a nice break for him.   Apparently it's a really lovely resort with a variety of mixed level ability runs and the perfect combination of quiet pistes and a great little network of ski lifts.  Great for a couple of days ski-ing.  Unfortunately I don't ski and I think I'm a bit too old to learn now plus I'm not a great fan of heights so... I'm pretty sure I would enjoy the apres ski though!  

Apart from that nothing more to report.  The fun really starts when the guests arrive.  It sounds a bit mad but it means we can relax a bit as we can't do anything in the house although that CL garden still takes a bit of time!  Can't complain - roll on summer and more lovely guests!  

D I A N A   xxx