Mountain Adventure Holidays
What a difference a year makes! A year ago we were still to emerge from a long, cold, dark and snow-bound winter. The mountains were oppressive, the forest gloomy and forbidding, our minds constrained by the memory of what had gone before. Of course, the memories are still there, never to be expunged, but the sheer zingy brightness of this Spring is a balm to the tortured soul.
Early April sees us tramping through the woods checking trails and trying to exhaust an irrepressibly bouncy Irish Terrier. Is it just me or are there more nodding Hellebores than ever before? Cyclamen have emerged from frozen ground and compete with blankets of Violas and Ajuga for the flashiest dazzle of colour. I always considered Primroses a rather mundane flower - a bit "Meh" - but to come across a small glade in a new walking path completely covered in the creamy yellow is a wonder to behold. The lack of canopy has allowed three months of almost uninterrupted sunshine to summon this riot of colour to lift our spirits.
And then you look up and... no it's not snow, it's the plum blossom billowing around you. The apricot bloom is over and the fruits are forming nicely having avoided that sharp late deadly frost. The cherry blossom glows in the moonlight when I take out the terrier last thing, an ethereal, ghostly presence on our late night ramble. Those mountains, still snow capped, take on an alluring magnificent grandeur; we'll be up there soon.
On the farm the olives are pruned, the vines finally bent and tied, the soil turned. Potatoes are in their drills and onions slowly swelling. Trays of seedlings seem to multiply every day, each tomato plant straining towards the light. We look forward to sharing all of this around the table later in the year, perhaps with a glass or two of Syrah to help the conversation flow and the laughter resound.
Jamie - Col di Lavacchio, Tuscany
Join us in this wonderful part of Italy on our Hiking in Hidden Tuscany trip.
