Hippity hop

One year on, embracing seasonal Spring delights... the purple and gold explosion of the Sardinian Spring and Easter bunnies

Easter again… here on the farm, life goes on with the delightful gold and purple blossoms of Sardinian Spring everywhere. The Poet Farmer is not a fan of holidays so we don’t really celebrate. When I was growing up, we didn’t really celebrate Easter much either. There’d usually be a lovely dinner, a baked ham with pineapple rings and a honey mustard glaze or some roast lamb with garlic and rosemary but just a nod really to the holiday.

A few times, we went to my school friend’s house for a long Easter lunch. Greek immigrants! They knew how to do Easter. There was a whole lamb on the spit in the backyard which kept our fathers busy all afternoon and a parade of amazing Greek pastries and biscuits drenched with nuts and honey coming out of the kitchen, after the creamy and crunchy lemon garlic roast potatoes, spanikopita, and Greek salad. Her mother was an amazing cook and a wonderfully warm-hearted person but not someone you’d ever want to mess with. She had an ongoing war with their neighbour and when she talked about it, she’d shout loudly so he could hear over the fence, ‘I kill that man’. Even their doberman was afraid of her! haha

My favourite Easter memory was probably from when I was around 10. I woke to a bright sunny Spring morning and climbed out of my top bunk to find giant yellow paper bunny footprints at the bedroom door. I followed the trail to the living room where I discovered two little baskets full of chocolates, of course, and I can’t remember what was in my sister’s basket but for me there was also a pink bead necklace and a large coffee table book on the Impressionists from my dad. There’d always been art around. My father painted, mostly land or seascapes, and had some art books, a large book on Renoir lived on the hall table, and we always went to galleries and museums on our travels in Mexico and Europe. But this was my first intro really to Impressionism and I fell in love.

It’s been raining here quite a bit lately so I’ve got the paints out again. Not a lot of space to do acrylics in our little caravan so I’ve been experimenting with watercolours. I’ve tried many times over the years but never had much success with watercolour. I love them but they require a delicacy that I find a bit challenging; I’m far too impatient and heavy handed when painting with them. It’s fun trying anyway! So, at the weekend, I was doodling with my watercolours, starting with abstract markings and then finding things in them to elaborate. Et voila! a little bunny themed series emerged. Maybe it was the Easter vibes…

My dad had rabbits growing up. I think he once told me they had almost 50 rabbits and I guess they kept them in those days for food. He obviously loved them and spent a lot of time as a child with them. So, we too always had rabbits when I was growing up but as pets. Tweetie and George and, later, Cleo. There were also, at one point, Susie and Droopy Drawers two little white ones that my dad for some unknown reason released into the wild. All female. Tweetie loved chocolate as did my dad. He always had some and she would always try to get into his pocket to nibble on it. Don’t think he let her have much cause she lived a fairly long life. They had a shed in the garden with a fenced in run but they burrowed their way into our neighbours’ gardens. Mr George next door wasn’t too happy that George the bunny often nibbled around his vegetable patch and ate all of his carrots!

My lil bunny series includes the 4 pieces shared here. The first one above is a bit of an hommage to Tweetie and George. The two in the middle seem to have more of a Mexican vibe to them. My sister tells me the blue bunnies in the one below look like Stitch haha. A joy to make in any case!

We have rabbits here on our farm but I’ve only ever seen one once. Mice, on the other hand, are much more visible here. The little country mice have decided they quite like the cat food and have been sneaking in to nibble. They are adorable but we can’t really have them in the ‘house’. First it’ll be cat food and then who knows what! Also, they are super poopers! Who knew?! So, not very hygienic. We’ve been at war for weeks, sealing things off. You’d think with 5 cats we wouldn’t have this kind of problem but hey, they’re well fed and can’t be bothered to get off the sofa.

Living here in the countryside, it’s an endless parade of one pest or another on top of the various seasonal weather challenges. Mice now but ticks are already appearing and soon it’ll be grasshoppers and ants that we’ll have to battle. Every day is wild boar day here so there’s also that! I tour the garden every morning to see what tricks they’ve been up to in the night. There’s always a corner or a little wall to rebuild or a terrace full of potholes to fill.

This week actually marks our 1 year anniversary of moving to our beautiful south facing hillside. A year fraught with many challenges but also filled with delights! Last October, as the autumn rainy season hit, I shared a little video about life here.

I guess, the thing really is to remember that everything is temporary, and to seek beauty and spark joy in the moments.

A lot has changed for us over the past year. We started off in our caravan and have, over the year, added an external covered kitchen and a proper bathroom. I’ve spent a lot of time over the winter landscaping, making terraces and planting things I love. I’m getting quite good with my pickaxe and feeling more physically fit than I have in decades. It’s all, of course, a bit trial and error but I’m learning what grows well where. Our little hillside is even becoming a bit like Liguria in Sardinia which appeals to the Poet Farmer as he’s originally from Genova. Determined to have a colourful fragrant June birthday, I’ve been sprinkling copious amounts of flower seeds with wild abandon everywhere.

Sharing some photos below to show you some of the changes.

When we arrived last spring, we had stuff everywhere! The little storage barn we built wasn’t quite big enough to hold everything from our 4 story townhouse - my stuff, his stuff, his mother and grandmother’s stuff, the kids’ stuff - so we had to rent another storage space as well. And, a lot of things which we needed on a day to day were dumped on the terrace next to the caravan. It took a while but the terrace is now cleared and has become a beautiful outdoor living room! And, once the rainy season ends the plastic will come off the sofas too.

When we arrived, the bathroom next to the caravan was built but not finished. Over the past year the Poet Farmer has finished the bathroom and added a kitchen next to it! It’s a bit rustic but we can now bathe and cook! Huzzah! The back wall is made of a clay and straw mix and the floor is made with cocciopesto, finely ground tiles mixed with lime. The colours are gorgeous and the natural clay creates such a warm ambiance.

We started with the caravan and a frame for a roof! now the roof, floor and walls are finished and we have a bright cosy indoor living space! We’ll eventually replace the plastic windows with glass but for now it’s fine. The cast iron wood stove has made such a huge difference this winter. It weighs about 200 kgs and took 4 guys to move it so it’s probably now in that spot for eternity!

This space will eventually be a space for guests, family and friends, WWOOFers as we’re building the main house up the hill. The project plan process has been a bit of a circus, a nightmare to be honest, and a real test of our patience but we’re nearly there. We’ve been working with an architect, an engineer, a geometra, and a geologo and a few others to pull the plan together, including an agronomo because we’re a farm, an arboretto (an arboretum) actually. Fingers crossed, a year on, it’ll be ready to submit to the local authorities for approval early next week. We’ll then have to wait for 30-90 days before we can start the build of our Cobb house. Am I being overly optimistic to think we might be home for Christmas? haha probably.

Well, that’s me. Thanks for joining me on this lovely Spring day. Your turn! How was your Easter? Are you painting and/or gardening too? Share some pics in the comments! Would love to see what you’re creating…

Thanks so much for joining me here, for reading!

Take care of you!

F ox

If you enjoyed my little musings here, please click on the heart at the bottom or the top of this post. It helps others discover Notes from Sardinia, and also, of course, sparks my joy!

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Unless external credit given, all images copyright Fiona Pape.