A look back at 2012

Where has the last year gone?

Villa Benara welcomed many during the last year.

I was there in January to deliver and hang some pictures and also for the garden which needs increasing amounts of attention.

Mimi came too in April for a general tidy; preparation for summer and yet more gardening.

A mammoth weeding effort in the 'herb garden' produced this result:

The grass received a cut and the pool a thorough clean.

The month of May saw the builders in to convert the dusty track leading to VB into something capable of taking vehicles.  Here is the end the result:

June saw the visit of my eldest brother, James, and his wife Helen.  The visit was originally timed for 13th June and was meant to be a family celebration of my mother's 80th and middle brother Nick's 50th birthdays.  It wasn't to be! Dad was unwell so he and mum stayed at home and Nick and Melanie cancelled their trip.  Anyway, we four still had an excellent time enjoying some fabulous weather.

Here are the four of us enjoying a fantastic meal at Ristorante San Giuseppe in Ventimiglia.

August saw us returning for a two week holiday with Rachael's friend Maddy coming too.  Mimi's parents joined us too after a week increasing the group seven in all.  The double sofa-bed in the main lounge served it's purpose well.  With seven at the villa it never felt crowded.

Here is the group minus me and Maddy:

I embarked on some major 'rovi' clearance revealing the lower in it's full glory for the first time since it was built as evidenced by this picture:

Just two weeks after we returned home we were back, in September, to meet mum and dad who were staying in Menton. We had re-scheduled the 'birthday celebration' cancelled from June - the only shame being in was just the four of us.  This was the first time mum and dad had seen the villa. We think they liked it.

We went back to San Giuseppe and had another excellent meal:

October saw my final visit of the year.  A weekend spent fitting mosquito screens to the bedroom windows and more gardening.

January 2012

I took a few days out in early January and drove through France and, for a change, Switzerland, to the villa to deliver and hang some pictures I just recently had framed.

One of the pictures is an antique poster and something of a collectors item and most have a local theme!

With picture hanging left to the evening I spent the days gardening.

The weather was unexpectedly warm during the day but cold at night with the villa comfortably warm courtesy of the central heating.

I was keen to see how the garden had matured seven months on from when the turf was laid and the shrubs planted.

The difference was notable. Whilst the grass, without the benefit of the irrigation, was looking a little tired, the surface itself was a lot firmer and the planted area had filled out really well.

My gardening concentrated on cutting back the vegetation that had overgrown some terraces, in particluar the final stretch of track to the villa and the area below the swimming pool pump house, as well as weeding the planted area and some general tidying.

I wish I had stayed longer but I was able to clear quite an area over two days. I've never enjoyed gardening so much!

With the village pretty quiet at this time of year and being on my own I was tasked with the cooking and tried out Mimi's Spaghetti CarBenara recipe which tasted excellent even if I say so myself!

This picture shows the view from the steps to pump house looking up the track.

Roll on April for the next visit.

June 2011

I took two days out at the beginning of June to visit the villa to see how the additional landscaping work that we had scheduled looked.

Paolo had already shared some pictures with us but I needed to see it first hand. I also had some jobs to do including clearing some items from the property but also cleaning the villa and pool.

Disappointed I was not!

This is the first view you get from the bottom of our track.

What has been finished?

Railings and a gate now enclose fully the pool area.

All the irrigation is complete and the turf laid.

Eighty or so plants typical of the region including lavender, rosemary and myrtle cover the slope.

We have two bougainvillea that you can just see in the picture above on the wall to the left.

Stepping stones have been laid to protect the grass.

There are steps to the pool house and the pool house is complete with a hinged roof allowing access to the pump and filter plus space to store the equipment and chemicals.

Here is another picture from the other end of the garden.

And another one showing the pool area.

Pleased...

April 2011

Mimi and I returned to the villa towards the end of April for a 6 day break and an inspection of progress.

With the girls in tow for a supposed period of pre-exam study we drove the 845 miles that it is from door to door instead of flying in order to take with us some further bits we had accumulated for the villa.

Paolo, our architect, had reported to us earlier in the month that the hard landscaping work we had scheduled had started but we had no idea exactly what had been done or whether the soft landscaping in the form of turfing or planting had started.

We arrived to find some good progress had been made on the hard landscaping including a completed 'Aioula' mentioned in my last blog and also some low walls to separate the turfed area from that to be planted.

You can just see the 'Aioula' in this picture taken from the road above the villa.


Aldo, the plumber, had mostly completed the irrigation, but, disappointingly, other than the delivery and spreading of some new soil, there was no sign of any plants or grass.

When we saw Paolo the next day he did explain that the soil would need time to settle before the turf was laid. Accepting this as a more than reasonable excuse the disappointment reduced.

Here is a close-up of the Aioula showing one of the low walls and the start of the path/steps to the pool hut.


We did a number of things during our stay with my time dominated with sorting the broadband/wifi connection which I finally achieved on day 5 after resolving a problem caused by vodafone incorrectly registering the equipment.

I could easily have stayed but a party back home celebrating the Royal Wedding beckoned!

Note to self: Return soon.

February 2011

We are almost five years on now from when I first stepped onto the patch of overgrown hillside that was to become Villa Benara.

The past few months had found me thinking about what elements were outstanding and the more notes I made, the more obvious it became that a visit early in the new year would be needed to move things along.

It was important though, in order to make the most of the two days Mimi and I had planned to spend there, that some preparation was necessary and I pre-ordered a spare swimming pool filter from 'Nuova Agrotecnica' and, with some considerable help from an Italian friend, Rossella, a 'sopravasca' (shower screen) for the guest bathroom.

Flights booked we headed to Nice on the morning of Thursday 24th, collected the hire car from Budget (Avis) and, being in no rush, set off east along the 'moyenne corniche' to Italy.

After a quick food shop at CONAD in Latte, just over the border from Menton, we picked up the 'sopravasca' from 'Borea' and then the filter. I also managed to speak to Federico Allavena to arrange a meeting at villa for Friday afternoon to talk about the landscaping.

We arrived at the villa late afternoon and proceeded to sort some things out, the most important being a small issue that we had with the electrics, post the change to a three-phase supply.

Friday morning saw us in 'Centro Esse' buying loads of random stuff for the villa including some shelving (well spotted by Mimi) for the 'ripostiglio' as we needed to make sense of the stuff we had stacked on the floor.

The weather was fantastic albeit a little cold at night but the radiators are efficient and the villa was soon warm enough.

Whilst Mimi set about tidying and organising I was outside dosing the pool with a shock dose of chlorine and making a bonfire, this being one of the few times each year when it is safe to do so without the threat of causing a 'forest fire'. The fuel for the fire was all the wooden construction materials and pallets left over from the build.

Later, inside the villa Mimi started building the shelving whilst I started drilling holes in the bathroom walls to mount the frame for the shower screen. In between we hung a few pictures and re-arranged the furniture in the 'soggiorno'.

During the day Andrea Guglielmi had been repairing the electricity meter hut that had been knocked over a few days earlier by some, as yet, unidentified rogue! Paolo arrived at 4pm and with Andrea already there it gave me a good opportunity to discuss some small building works I had planned.

I have always liked the idea of having an 'aioula' built around two olive trees at the bottom of the track leading to the villa. We discussed that and the need for two very low walls built to frame the areas to be grassed and planted. In addition I have asked Andrea and Lorenzo to quote on a small 'villetta' for the swimming pool pump and equipment accessed by some simple block steps.

Federico Allavena arrived at 5pm and we talked about the planting. Having previously decided on using grass seed we have now decided to pay extra and get an instant effect using turf. I am reliably informed that Federico's firm are the best in the area!

Here is the picture of the shower screen folded back against the wall.

Trip to villa over, Mimi and left late in the afternoon on Saturday 26th and went to a palazzo in Seborga to attend a 'Peace, love and grooviness' party hosted by an old friend, Mark Dezzani, before arriving at Nice airport just 30 minutes before our flight departed!

Can't wait to get back to Perinaldo in April to see how much has changed!

... but this is the view for now!

August 2010

We arrived for our family summer holiday at the beginning of August, just 2 weeks after our last visit.

With Natalie sunning herself in Tenerife on a 'girls holiday' we were joined by Loz and Mimi, friends of Ben and Rachael respectively.

Despite leaving on a Friday evening we couldn't have timed it worse and picked the busiest Saturday of the year to travel through France!

A tortuous 18 hour drive from Calais covering a massive 980 miles in all including an extra 140 in an effort to avoid the jams.

We finally arrived in the late afternoon after a quick shop at the CONAD supermarket in Vallecrosia. The journey over, I was interested to see how Andrea and Lorenzo had progressed with the West wall. I wasn't disappointed with the progress!

The 2.4m high stone wall now extending 20 metres up the track. What a difference from before, with the whole of the untidy bank behind now hidden.

Before:

After:

During the time we were there I met with Federico Allavena to discuss our soft landscaping options. The main talking point involved the question of whether the lawn element is created using turf or grass seed. It didn't take me long to decide that since we are near the season end and under less pressure to complete, that the cheaper 'seed' option is the most likely way forward.

The next job though is to have a couple of olive trees moved, the stump you can see in the picture above removed and some earth moved to shape the slope to the lower wall and back-fill the new walls. After that our plumber will install the irrigation system before tons of top soil are delivered to the site and an area adjacent to the patio is prepared before seeding.

Once the area to be grassed is down, the slope to the wall will be planted in a fashion typical of the area.

We're getting there...

July 2010 - an end in sight!

If you had asked me back in February 2006 (when I first saw the land) whether I would have embarked on this project if I knew it would take over four years I would probably, honestly, have answered 'no'.

But here we are, in July 2010, four years and five months on and I have no regrets.

Mimi and I have just returned from a four day 'break' having driven yet another load of stuff out to Villa Benara including a dinner table and 6 matching chairs; a 'Zaida' rug (that I finally bought after two years looking at it in Fenwick's; a refurbished ornate cast iron table with polished glass top; assorted ceramic bowls and plates; more books; dvd's etc.....

After an interminable delay to further, necessary, wall building work caused by the quarry source for 'Ventimiglia' stone running dry, work resumed in the middle of June to join the 'east' wall to the wall surrounding the pool; build steps to the pool and start the west wall up the track.
We arrived late morning on the 14th July having driven through the night. We partially unloaded the car and inspected the work done.

• East wall, complete.
  
• Steps to the pool, complete.
  
• West wall, good progress.

In addition, all of the earth behind the east wall had been landscaped; the earth within the walled area levelled and most of the vegetation removed.

This picture shows the east wall complete and the corner of the steps.

I had ordered the railing for the pool edge in mid June and we had been told that it would be fitted whilst we were there.

Despite clear instructions over the style/design a mis-communication ensued and the railing is not quite how we intended it to be!

Nevertheless, the quality of the work is excellent and we are getting used to the result!

Here are the railings installed and the steps to the pool.

We are back at the beginning of August by which time the west wall should be finished, the irrigation in and maybe even the turf will have been laid.