HOT, HOT, HOT... not that we are complaining! We are staying in the hills of Palermo in the area called Suvarelli with Laura and Rosario. Their projects are working towards being self sufficient and growing plants in 'synergy' so everything is eco friendly. We are creating a network of canes around a spiral of vegetable plants. However the last couple days temperatures have risen to 40+ with ' hurrican force winds. This hot mediterranean wind, we are told, originates from the Sahara and is called a Sirocco. An added complication has been the wildfires brought on by the Sirocco in and around Palermo. There has been lots of excitement as family members report on the situation.

Yesterday a group of us travelled to an area were Albanians have created a community on a flat plateau with a lake in the hills (we were going there to collect reed plants to create a reed bed filtration set up). As we arrived we saw a Canadair water plane swoop down and collect water to fight the fires. We then spent the afternoon cooling off with our feet dangling in the lake until a beautiful water snake decided to swim around my feet. Needless to say nobody seemed so keen to put their feet back in after that. One of our group had created a reed boat and was paddling around the lake with a makeshift sail and Jolly Roger flag! Finally, late evening we all gathered together at a fellow eco house, in typical Italian style with food each family had made being brought out and placed on a large table. After enjoying a hearty meal with a fantastic view of the lake we drove back to our village. Driving isn't quite the right word as we are sure Italians don't know about there being two sides to a road as they just travel down the middle until one of them moves at the last minute! As these are hairpin mountain roads it can get quite exciting and we get the usual loud banter and hand gestures that seem to help explain words much easier to other drivers. We are both quite relieved when we eventually arrive at our destination.

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