The sea of umbrellas & people sheltering in mandatory fur-trimmed, black puffer jackets has gone. After the wettest march in 50 years its all sun shine & blue skies now. Everywhere things are blooming with the hills covered in cherry blossoms & carpets of baby daisies. The children loving making daisy chains with the new English neighbours. They are kindly letting us use their garden as ours is full of rocks. A 500 year old, 5m high retaining wall came thundering down the first week we were here due to all the rain. About 5 tonne worth of large rocks. So lucky no one was in the garden at the time. The neighbours living closest to the wall thought it was an earthquake. The owners have been working 14 hour days for a month rebuilding it and still only half finished. We feel like we are witnessing the building of the pyramids or something as large rocks get hoisted up with ropes & pulleys on rough scaffolding. Ingenious strategies. Not sure they would pass any OH&S laws though! Having a cement mixer running non stop kind of marring our tuscan paradise but hey... We are in the home of concrete!