In the pink

Autumn colours
View from the sitting room
750 cc Pink Panda is 30 years old and still going strong though she needs a bit of stick going uphill. I had fun redoing the electrics to get her started up. Reminded me of my old Morris.
House and car are colour coordinated.
Hard to believe that this patch of ground, 100 m below the house beside the stream carrying the run-off from the valley, was a field of wheat only 30 years ago. I met here the local farmer who has lived on the side of this valley all his 80 years and gave me a potted history of the area. It has gone from traditional Italian country living, every square metre terraced and cultivated, pigs and cows in every home etc etc to being an hour commute by train to Rome. Lack of children was one reason: industrial farming another. The milk coop was forced out of existence by the price the big boys wanted to pay for milk; 35c per litre which is less than the cost of feeding the cow. Familiar story. Now there are only olive trees left.Read more