La Spinosa...

This time last year I had just returned from a wonderful long weekend away in Tuscany to celebrate my 40th birthday. I stayed in this beautiful farmhouse, being served delicious food, drinking wine produced from their own vineyards and relaxing with four of my close friends.

We spent a day in Florence - one of my favourite cities.

But mostly, we just sat about chatting and enjoying our child-free time! It was my second visit and I would go back again anytime. The family who run it are lovely; very laid back, but attentive at the same time and you are constantly reminded by the smells wafting from the kitchen about your next meal. GianFranco, who served our dinner each evening, always made us smile with the little ritual he performed each time he opened a bottle of wine (let me tell you, this was quite often!)

Since returning, I have hankered after all things La Spinosa. In a previous post I showed a pile of wood.

I have had a delivery from the marvellous Crocus.

I have found and bought some bargains in Homebase. On my first visit they were 50% off...after a couple of days deliberating, I went back to buy them and they had another 50% off PLUS, it was 10% off everything day! Bargain!

And now I have a pergola on my deck just like the ones at La Spinosa, where we would eat breakfast.

I decided to weave a couple of panels of reed fencing through the rafters until the grape vine gets established and does the job of shading the area underneath. The vines are planted together with scarlet geraniums and white lantana to keep the Mediterranean feel. The straggly-looking barrels just on the left of the photo have also been planted with scarlet geraniums so look brighter now the remains of spring's tulips and narcissi have been cut back.

A couple of weekends ago, we had a little reunion, and I cooked a meal inspired by what we had eaten last year. I made a pecorino and fig salad with a warm honey dressing from the Ottolenghi cookbook followed by roasted guinea fowl with rosemary new potatoes and green vegetables (although I made sure all my veg was British!). For dessert we had Gordon Ramsey's quick tiramisu. We drank the last of our wine stash brought home tucked into suitcases - this no liquid thing in hand-luggage makes it impossible to bring back wine now. Having already had a smashed bottle of red in my suitcase once before, I'm very reluctant to do that anymore...

It seems that since I posted about my lovely hammock, the sun has decided to go elsewhere for the summer - sorry! But I do wish it would come back so I can enjoy more alfresco meals in my own little corner of Italy.