Where to start? Three months have flown by.

A dry April passed in a flash, during which Chrissy managed to clear a lot of brush. A valuable, yet frightful, lesson occurred at the start of May. Helping us clear our property entrance, my mum Val, lit a small fire. In seconds, the wind changed direction, the fire jumped the road and raced upwards towards the house. Flapping, stomping, and even swearing didn’t put it out! Speeding up hill, it reached a cleared section and fizzled out. A stunned Val stood in a smouldering, charcoal-coloured gully that is our entrance. It all happened so quickly.

May, unusually wet, saw the arrival of friends and family. Australian honeymooning friends, Sharenya and Warren, visited for one night during their romantic tour of Sicily and constructed IKEA furniture for us in the lamp-lit-night of our house, whilst we ate and drank together. A post-visit message from them read, ‘Staying off-grid with you was one of our top three highlights of our honeymoon.’

My Irish family, Auntie Anne, cousin Val and her husband Del, stayed for two nights. Habituated to heavy rain and looking forward to sunshine we, unfortunately, had to confine ourselves to the house for one of the two days, due to heavy-post-cyclone rain. It was a perfect opportunity to catch-up, laugh and even learn, as I quizzed my auntie about my family’s history in Kenya from the early 1900’s. A lovely time.

We had lunch with a young family who we met in 2019 (they were guests at agriturismo Feudo Muxarello). Their daughter Miriam and son Levi made instant best-friends with Rocky. It was a pleasure to see Silvia and Dmitro again.

Friends and family were the highlight of May.  The lowlight, was that the outside our house is still very unfinished and was difficult finding people to get the work done. The work, being simple manual jobs, is something I would have relished tackling pre-injury, so for me personally, I have had to contain my patience. 

There were many positives during this month. Mainly being the arrival of Down-Under-Marty. Chrissy’s younger brother. His help has given us a great boost forward. He has dug trenches, laid pipe, repaired many things, broke a few things, repaired them and then set about on ‘making sheds great again’! 

With a bounty of rocks available, construction on the greatest, smallest, shed on this half of the hemisphere started in June. Eight tons of rock were gathered up by Chrissy and Marty (Rocky supervising) and I transported them in Paolo to where Rockingham Palace is to be built. Then Marty put love, dedication and inspiration from ‘bloody-good-red-wine-mate’ into the walls. 

Thanks to his enthusiasm, I know where the ‘New South Wales’, ‘Ukraine’ and ‘Sicily’ shaped rocks are located in the wall. Rainwater catchment, solar lighting and even load calculations have gone into this mighty, little, stone shed. Rocky has been Marty’s building supervisor, putting his nose into all that is being done, whilst Tina stand guards (in case a lizard is scared from its hiding place by Marty) and Simba sits in the shade looking less than interested.

We are so grateful to Marty. He has worked so hard to help us and we will miss Un Solo Martino when he leaves. What a guy and legend he is.

The greens turning to golds in the countryside and the myriad of Sicilian wildlife also amazed us. We saw bee-eaters digging nests; mink hunting; dung beetles relocating spheres of fertility; intertwined mating black-whip snakes; porcupine on patrol and even a ‘little owl’ feeding its young. Sitting outside on these warm summer nights (with cool breezes) and staring into a dark star-filled-sky has been wonderful. 

Our to-do list is long. We are still living without electricity and all the luxuries that come with it. Apart from no working fridge, we have actually enjoyed the disconnect. We have not been able to start anything on the land yet. However, we will get there.

Thank you to all our friends and family for your continued support. We hope that you are all doing well and until the next time. Loads of love Cols, Chrissy and the porcupine pack.