Well, I climbed at least one Apennine mountain yesterday. It was a procession to the ‘Croce’, the cross on a mountain over 1000 m. high. The annual walk starts at ‘Vezzo’ church in the next village up from us. It’s only about 3 km but it’s extremely steep and occasionally rocky. I have done this climb before – some five times – but this year I found it very difficult. At one point I was so out of breath I was wheezing, but it’s exhilarating to experience a few arduous physical pursuits, however old you get. I’m always uplifted at the end, even spiritually. I’m not a religious person but I still enjoy some rituals and it’s a good opportunity for mushroom hunting. (C found some chanterelles which he made into an omelette today.)

From the Croce, where our local priest conducted an open air mass, we headed to a clearing in the woods for a massive lunch. Again, it’s not that far a walk but we went over some fairly rough terrain and a couple of extremely flimsy wooden bridges, which certainly helped to increase our appetites even more. The lunch included antipasto with cured meats, tomato focaccia, pickled peppers and pickled carrots, then a huge grigliata – grilled meats and vegetables – and lots of bread, followed by a jam pie, ice-cream and coffee and as much wine and water as you could drink. We decided not to stay for coffee and headed back along a different route. Needless to say we got completely lost and couldn’t find a path. So we scrambled down through the woodlands, eventually coming to the river which heralded a welcoming sign. Our mistake was to cross over it  on some conveniently placed stepping stones because we suddenly encountered a steep ravine. I had to concentrate so hard that I didn’t really appreciate the stunning scenery we passed through. We managed to negotiate it somehow, very precariously on my part, sliding down the muddy and very narrow cliff edge on my bottom. Then we trundled past a little waterfall to reach the other side of the river. After another gruelling climb up, we finally reached the path and within half an hour we arrived in Vezzo. After our exhausting adventure, we were home in time to watch some tennis and have a relaxing bath…

Apart from my Sunday endurance test, I have been working hard on my new novel, Dorek. Some days I feel pleased with my progress, other days my writing doesn’t please me at all…

I am delighted to have now introduced author Robert Ronsson on the website. The cover for his new novel, Out of Such Darkness, is slightly different to the others as the illustration depicts the two-tier narrative in some detail. It took a while to get it right but I think everyone is happy now… Thanks to Ciarli… as our Italian friends write his name.

As an aside,Tuesday is our 36th wedding anniversary.

AND FINALLY, the big news is that the short video of the Patrician Press London launch in May is now on YouTube http://youtu.be/b0fdQ53FEoM