I've moved!

The blog has now moved over to my new look blog on https://metheboysandourtravels.wordpress.com
Come over and pay me a visit to see what's new!!

A very Jamie dessert...

With Uva Fragola (Strawberry Grapes) growing in the garden and homemade grappa from our friends neighbour it felt rude not to add chocolate and try Jamie's dessert recipe. Our impatience, however, meant we skipped the freezing the grapes stage  😑 #cheekytuesday

Hillwalking Heaven!

I thought it was time to make the most of the Autumn sunshine and the perfect conditions for tackling a mountain, so on Tuesday I headed up to the peak of Monte Mattone via Rifugio il Lago.

Sitting at 1515m alt it is not, by far, the highest mountain on our doorstep but the views are 360 degree spectacular and well worth the 900m+ climb. To top it off, I took with me my own personal mountain guide and author of the Cicerone guide Walking in Abruzzo (above), the formidable Mr Stuart Haines. Thank you Stuart for the company! Enjoy the photos...

In the footsteps of wolves...wolf pooh anyway!

Where we've come from.

Where we're headed.

Good view of the peak.

Nice spot for a bbq.

...or to fill up on water.

Rifugio Il Lago

The view!

The formidable Mr Haines!

At the summit cairn just to prove I did it!

Spot of sunbathing at 1400m+ anyone?!

Flo!

Max!

Giant Funghi.

Highlights of 2015 #5 - Community spirit at its best

Ecological day in our comune means literally getting your hands dirty. What a great time we had meeting neighbours and cleaning up our community at the same time - I am still shocked by how much rubbish people dump, surely by 2015 most people have heard of a bin?

Like anything here in Abruzzo, time spent together is not truly time spent wisely unless it involves good food and wine at the end of it. Thank you Mr Mayor for personally inviting us along!

All picked up from the side of the road!

Team Casa Faiella/Vallecorvo

Still at it

Here comes the pasta!

The youngsters causing trouble again.

Seconds...don't mind if I do! 

The Kitchen Squad

Enough Sausages?

La Griglia

Mr Mayor among his people

W.I. - You'd be proud! 

The Coffee Boy

European Tour

All the essential ingredients ready for planning our European Tour this winter as a trial for the big RTW one - now we just need a plan!

Getting the kids to eat veg!

What to do with all the courgette...mmm...inspired by the lovely Hilary Lewis this is possibly my favourite way to eat this abundantly available veg from our garden - it has chocolate in it (well I added extra chocolate chips), what more can I say, anything with chocolate in it is good, right?

What do you do with yours?

Recipe from BBC Good Food here: Chocolate Courgette Cake

Highlights of 2015 #4 - The boys first bouldering competition

A sunny Sunday in April and we headed out to The Change Climbing Revolution indoor bouldering centre in Montesilvano for the boys first ever bouldering competition. A walk on the beach and home with a silver medal to boot - what more could you ask for?

Team Geketti!

A spot of limbering up!

Team  tactics.

Alfresco Warm up

Josh doing his stuff

Jake's turn

Hanging around!

The medal!

Time for teacher to compete

Showing them how it's done 

Hang tough!