Sunday afternoon it starts to rain and how happy we are about that! We did not move to Italy for the nice weather, but mainly for the beautiful nature this place offers us and that includes making sure that nature is doing well. We are still seeing the effects of the 2018 drought here. As a result, much of the pruning/clean-up work in the garden consists of removing parts of trees that did not survive the drought. This is also the reason why, when we will soon be allowed and able to purchase everything again, we want to plant trees to replace and create more shade. Preferably, we want to do that in special shrubs that can continue to provide the young trees with a good moisture climate for the first period. We also hope to soon be able and allowed to install tanks to collect rainwater for drier times. But we are not at that level of our renovation yet, as you can imagine, which is why we are so happy when it starts raining on Sunday and that rain continues for a few days, so that the soil can absorb the moisture well. The result is a fairy tale with a cacophony of colours and an explosion of herbal and floral scents.

Talk about poop - ofonie... That same rain also causes the sewage system of our Mulino to start sputtering on Monday. We decide to app the plumber again. He reports that this is a problem that recurs every year (which was always solved by draining the septic tank) and which he now suspects is a chronic problem (‘every year’ sounds pretty ‘chronic’ to me, anyway). Anyway, he fortunately finds it reason enough to de-carabinieri (because high need!) and pay a visit to PDN. There he finds that the tank is full (read: overflowing) and that it needs to be emptied first to find the fault. No idea why the tanker does not come this time to solve this problem, but in any case, it comes down to dear Sander scooping away at least 100 litres from the overflowing tank (the hero) in the rain with a cup (!), with the final result being zero, as the defect does not come to light. Sander and I are done with it. We ask the plumber to structurally solve the chronic problem once and for all. And again with the same efficiency with which we have been introduced before, on Wednesday the contractor and the plumber are digging in our garden to renew the sewerage and septic tank. The toilet and its sewerage system are now doing like a charm and indeed, we find that both have never done so well in all these years!.

The sunny trend continues as on Thursday we hear that our contractor has permission from the province to start rebuilding next week! (provided we stick to the social distance nicely, of course). What unexpectedly nice news this is! It looks like we will be able to live in our new house in the not too distant future after all! Suddenly we are in a hurry too, as the contractor hopes to start work as early as Tuesday. There will be a new container, but this time for construction waste from the house, we will go through the final plans with the contractor, choose paint, lamps, curtains, tiles, etc. (all still via the internet, of course, but we will be able to find the right one. (all still via the internet of course, but yesterday we read in the news that Italy hopes to relax the measures within four weeks (in stages) with probably on 18 May the possibility of being allowed to go to shops or a restaurant again). In any case, we think it is positive enough to have a small celebration and we eat a meal from Ristorante Bramante from Roccaverano who, since they have to keep their restaurant closed for the time being, deliver meals (highly recommended). With a glass of Barbera d'Alba (...that's what Dasti's brother/sister will soon be called: (D)alba) by Teo Costa (also highly recommended).