Birthday Boy!

This very serious young man is now 12 years old! Where the last 12 years have gone I don't know! We have moved several times, which has involved him changing school and now we are here in Italy.

The fantastic bike you see was not only his birthday present but compensation for not going back to the UK to school! Yes, he wanted to go as that is where all his mates are and he really wants to board - who didn't when they were 12? Anyway, he goes back for definite in September, so hopefully we will have visits by his mates during that time.

The tortoise finally made good its escape. The owner of the garden we live in told us they are wild, so when it finally disappeared we didn't look too hard for it! However our first fireflies have appeared along with the bats, woodpeckers, red squirrels, hawks etc. Apparently there are hedgehogs too, but no porcupines. I wonder why there are no urban foxes?

Fort Chicken gallery on Yeti in Italy blog!!

For those who appreciated the installation art that is "Fort Chicken" the full gallery with descriptions is now available to view on the "Yeti in Italy" blog. Please visit if you can - my son is desparate for feedback :)) Thanks!

Look What Walked Into Our Garden!

Yep, we were just about to go out, when Alex noticed this walking across the lawn! Bizarrely it is the second time in my life a tortoise has just walked into it! I was about 11 last time - same as my son. Obviously some kind of weird family thing going on!

We checked with the gardener and the porter here and they told us we could take him back to our place. Now they know we have him, if anyone else in the Garden is looking for him they will be able to come and get him. But for now he is ours! Not surprisingly we didn't go out! This pre-historic monster has completely captured my kids imagination.

We've decided he can live in the shower at night and the kitchen while we are out. I'm not about to start drilling into his shell or anything - he definitely has a name scratched on his back, so he belongs or belonged to someone here. I can't leave him to roam in the garden unattended as the gardener would be pulling bits out of his mower for weeks!!

I know you can't get them easily in the UK anymore, wonder if it is the same here? If so he is also quite valuable, so I don't want him vanishing just yet!

My son had wanted a turtle from the Lent Market - this is much better :))

Eating Pizza.

We had some friends over from the UK. What does everyone want to eat in Italy? Pizza and ice-cream! We did the ice-cream too, but that is even messier than this.....!

It was a friend of my son's and his mum. We had a great time as Alex hasn't mixed with his own age group too much while we have been here. Also we have decided to keep him here in Italy until September. He should have gone back to school tomorrow! He is ambivalent - he wanted to see his mates, board and play cricket - things that are in short supply out here!

We are starting to look at activities he can do now he is staying, plus the schoolwork is increasing as school is keen for him to not miss out on too much work. I think life is going to be pretty busy for the next 5 months!!

Hope you like all the pictures! I realise anyone reading this will get this one first - scroll down, please!