Wine tasting at Roccafiore

Well, when in Rome - or more accurately, Umbria…

Exactly, we just had to visit a vineyard on our trip to Italy this autumn, and MOH lost no time trying to find just the one. And that’s how we ended up at Roccafiore, a vineyard in Todi close to where we were staying. What interested me was what they call the “natural and sustainable viticulture” which we learnt means a more natural way of producing wine.

It’s just a small vineyard set in the hills of Todi, the terraced gardens where we had our tasting were very pretty - usually the tastings take place inside, but as it was unexpectedly warm we were more than happy to sit in this pretty setting. When we arrived the workers were having their lunch, and they were a great advert for their company - I’ve said it before, but you can tell a lot by a company by their workers, and later when we saw them at work, they looked equally as happy.

Having our tasting outside meant more work for our host as she fetched and carried everything we needed, including a pretty jam jar of flowers and a wine passport for us to make notes about the wines in, and some weird dog-like biscuits (in the basket) which I wasn’t much of a fan of.

We’d chosen to have lunch alongside the wine, which is always a good move, and the lunch included some of the charcuterie from pigs kept on the land, which tasted as good as it looks. There’s also olive groves on the land and they also produce olive oil, which we tasted slathered over bread, and also very tasty. Tasty isn’t a word I thought I’d use about olive oil, and it’s here we realised that we don’t use olive oil in the same way at home, and it’s wasted how we do use it!

When it got to the part of the tasting that the price list came out we surprised ourselves by considering the olive oil. We didn’t buy any though as there were only 3l cans available, and this summer aside, we couldn’t think of when we could make use of so much olive oil to do it justice, which was a shame.

We also did the calculation on the optimum bottles of wine to ship home, which turned out to be three cases. Red, of course, although even I was tempted by a couple of the whites. And so a couple of weeks after we returned from Italy, some of their Il Roccafiore, a Sangiovese and Prova d’Autore (a blend of Sagrantino, Montepulciano and Sangiovese) followed us home.

As I said at the top of this post, when in Rome (or Umbria)…

Country house decor and a good book

On the train to Birmingham last weekend, despite having my travel-crochet with me (as in crochet that’s easy to carry about) something else was calling me, and that was reading a book I’d downloaded onto my iPad that very morning. After flicking through the paper, the book one, and it was one I kept wanting to get back to. Even to the point that I had it on my phone too, and made sure it was where I’d left off so any valuable time I could muster for reading wasn’t wasted.

The book? The Day We Met by Roxie Cooper.

It wasn’t one I’d heard much about, or an author I’d read before, but when I read the description I thought it was a book that could be read relatively quickly, and despite the subject matter had the potential to be entertaining. And I wasn’t wrong, but let me tell you a bit more.

It’s one for the romantics and chicklit fans:

Stephanie and Jamie are meant to be. The problem is they're both with other people...

Stephanie doesn’t believe in fate, true love or living happily ever after. She’s content enough being engaged to Matt. But then she meets Jamie, who understands her more than anyone else ever has.

Jamie is happily married to his childhood sweetheart Helen and believes in everything Stephanie doesn’t. So why does he have such a strong connection with Stephanie?

When Stephanie and Jamie meet one fateful weekend in 2006 it will change everything...

Ten years. Two people. One epic love story.

The main characters were likeable and believable and while the plot is, I think, well signposted it makes it no less of an enjoyable read. I believe in the kind of attraction, or strong connection that forms the basis of this story, but that doesn’t mean it’s a fairytale, or a smooth road. Life, even for these characters, is tricky and the emotions and bravery, or not, feel real - that’s what I think makes this book work.

So a good read, and good for a weekend away, though I was pleased I finished the book at home. And the photos from this post, well in my imagination, they fit with the book - you’ll just have to read it when it comes out in March 2019, to see if you agree.

Now, where’s my crochet?

Liking the Lichen

I know, I know. I’ve said that here before, but it’s a phrase that still makes me smile. Every. Single. Time.

I’m still fascinated by the lichen, and there was plenty of it at RHS Rosemoor. So that’s another reason we’ll be heading back there again. I also learnt more from the lichen covered bench, or more precisely the sign placed next to it.

The lichens on this bench were deliberately allowed to remain, and it seems I wasn’t wrong when I said there was plenty of lichen there. During a lichen survey undertaken at Rosemoor in 2005, they found a number of rare species around the garden. I’d like to claim I knew this intuitively, but I didn’t, I just liked looking at the lichen, and then I learnt more from the sign when I edited the photos. Maybe I should make more of an effort to read more of the signs at the time, or knowing me I probably won’t, I’ll just smile like a goon at the lichen…

Now onto what I learnt, from the sign.

“Lichens consist of microscopic algal cells, which photosynthesise. The fungal threads absorb moisture and provide the framework for the fungi to grow.”

So not only can I do the liking the lichen line again, I could also roll out the funghi being a fun guy quip too, but of course I won’t. Gah!

But the bench wasn’t the only place I spotted lichen. The kitchen garden also proved to be fruitful, and I was beginning to suspect it might be when I spotted these on the gate.

And then more on the fruit trees.

These really do look more wavy and individual than those on the bench. Perhaps it’s the stems, but there’s a real 3D feel to these.

So, as is becoming customary, the only question I can ask on this post is do you liken the lichen too?!