Good to be back

So, it’s been a while… Since I last wrote on here, Bee has grown about 50cm taller, Otto has got a tiny bit greyer, my face has got hairier and my head a little less hairy and Villa Ribota has been keeping us all rather busy!

We’re now coming towards the end of our second full year of guests… it’s been quite the ride. We’ve met some amazing people, guests from every country I can think of. We’ve had barbecues with Australians, chatted football with Icelandics, drunk Barolo with Norwegians, talked music with Americans, seen naked Germans showering by the pool and, yes, cleaned sick off a bedroom wall (it’s not all nudity and Barolo you know!).

Villa Ribota from the sky… did I mention that we’ve got a drone?

Suffice to say it’s been going pretty well. It’s been harder work than we imagined, but when the good reviews come in and people start coming back year after year, it all becomes worthwhile.

Of course, the past two years haven’t been without their problems… we’ve had wild boar tearing up the garden, a pool with a mysterious leak, an inspection from the Health and Safety Police and we are being terrorised constantly by a three-year old who knows the word ‘no’ in at least three different languages, but refuses to listen to it in any of them.

We’ve also got a new addition to the family (don’t get too excited…), she’s called Little Green Car. She’s 50 years young and still going (relatively) strong. Bee is completely obsessed.

Little Green Car in all her little green glory

We are also still very much loving being in the Langhe. We’ve had an absurdly hot, dry summer but autumn is now edging in (I say edging, the temperature changed from 35 degrees to 15 degrees in 24 hours), there’s snow on the tops of the mountains and the vines are starting to change colour. Sadly, I don’t think there are going to be too many white truffles around this year – they like moist soil and it has barely rained in five months – but the wine always tastes that bit better once the evenings start to get a bit cooler and the mornings a bit foggier.

How could anyone not love this?

And that, Mummy said, was that (sorry, I’ve been watching too much Topsy and Tim. If you don’t know what that is, consider yourself very lucky). Hopefully now I’ve broken the blogging duck there might be a few more to follow, although I guess so long as they are more frequent than once every two years I can consider it progress. It’s good to be back!