Villa San Rocco

Memory and Desire

April 2010 — Updates

“Come, fill the Cup, and in the Fire of Spring The Winter Garment of Repentance fling: The Bird of Time has but a little way To fly - and Lo! The Bird is on the Wing”
Omar Khayyam

We've been keeping our heads low here at San Rocco, though hands are rarely idle. Now, in spite of the apparently self-replicating dust and being a few doors short of a wardrobe, resurrected house is feeling like home. Only one room remains to be tiled and then floors are finished (for this year, at least..). Simone and myself have been reminded of wilder days thanks to the punchy cotto treatment solution, whilst the Brother and belle-souer have, amongst other things, undercoated a few km of corridor.

There's really only decoration and furnishing to do before we're ready to sail. Fortunate, as we have several bookings committed for late summer and interest from July onwards. There will be no permanent pool this year, though a full-on 6m+ splash pool in the back garden will keep youngsters from frying and give those responsible a cool setting for sundowners once the summer digs in. Our 'Scottish Connection' is due to return soon to seed the lawns - not to mention fascinate the locals with his specially prepared pickled onions and chili sauce...

As elsewhere in Europe, it's been a heavy and at times bitter winter. This week, though, a true sign of the turn: as the first cherry blossoms in the village began to emerge, on the phone wire outside the office at San Rocco we heard an unmistakable sound - the chirrup and click of a tired and hungry traveller, known variously at his summer residences as kaldyrgach, ласточка, rondine, or 'swallow'.