Bella Baita Summer Vacation 2013

Just in case you have been wondering what we have been up to, well, I thought I just might give you a little sampling about how our 2013 summer season went. For any of you loyal readers out there that may have been hanging in here in spite of my occasional posting, first, I would like to say thank you and secondly it's been ever so challenging for me to keep up on all of the various aspects our little home business generates. I do love this blog and sharing things that we have been up to, but I must admit that the past couple of summers I have felt ever so slightly  run off my feet and it's been obvious where the "give", in the triage of "what to get done" here has happened. I enjoy writing about the goings on around here, but since we have taken over the big family garden and now have the whole run of this giant building along with refurbishing and maintenance, you can probably imagine  that it feels mighty good to just sit down and listen to the sounds of the caprioli barking or the insects crank up their musical offerings. 

So I thought I would give you a compressed seasons version of what we did on our spring summer vacation on todays blog post. Hope you enjoy it. 

Bella Baita in the distance and then with its view

First up. we moved our operation from one part of the building to another that had been previously occupied by other people. There was a lot of maintenance and winterizing to more modern standards to Fabrizio's family home that took a heroic effort on his part, working throughout the winter in more than frosty conditions so that we would be able to move in this spring. Bravo my hard working man!

Bella Baita Refurbishment

Our summer vacation at Bella Baita is all about you, our friends and guests' holidays with us. 

We find that in the summer we don't get out and about as much, but we enjoy all the activity around our home. We have plenty of guests to send out on adventures and to discover our wonderful neighborhood walks as well as occasionally helping out in our garden when they aren't too exhausted from all the activities of holidaying. 

Food is a big feature around our house and we enjoy preparing and serving local Piemontese specialties, as well as some of our personal favorites. Our pizza night that we offer from time to time depending on the interest and time of year so it's not too hot, we fire up our oven and have a good time making pizza to order and then we finish off a late night bake of my sourdough breads. Always love coming back to a table full of fresh baked bread the next morning. It's my idea of heaven.

Food Glorious Food!

We stay busy with jam and preserving all the wonderful fruits and vegetables our summer has to offer. We put up what we have extra that we grow but are might happy to have the local markets to stock up on all the lusciousness there is during the height of the summer season.  Who can resist the call of colorful veggies crying out to be taken home with you?

"Cooking Together" and our "Market to Table" Cookery classes are always fun and a tasty reward to all for everyones efforts. Nothing like a few laughs and some wine to make the elbow grease loosen up. 

Cooking and laughing together proceeds the best part, which is eating together. 

And just to keep it all interesting and moving along, we have several youthful volunteers through out the season that add all sorts of interest to our days and are a great source of help with all that weeding, wood cutting, cleaning, rearranging, moving, digging, mowing, watering, etc etc. that is plain ole hard work.  We thank you all sincerely. 

That is how we keep ourselves busy and out of trouble. We meet such wonderful people and have so many interesting conversations that we hardly remember that we're still here at home. I'll take another blog post in the not too distant future to maybe share some of the things that our guests get up to when they are out and about and I will be adding new recipes as we go along, I just have to remember where that scrap of paper that I scribbled everything that I did to the recipe on and then maybe I can get you  a recipe to make your own in your own home. Until then, happy trails and I'm off to the kitchen or the garden, oh well, that would be before I hang up some laundry, Oh yes, I need to make something scrumptious for dessert too. Woo hoo, better getting hopping!