Tales of the Volcano Lair - Tractor Fun

Quick rub over with T cut should be fine....

Busy busy up big field 'cos the fencers finally turned up. Due to needing to reinstate the old fence line the wildlife margins have had to go. They will grow back so don't fret Chris Packham if you are reading this.

Bob the Dog makes a field inspection



Scraped clean



SWMBO instructs the boys



Bank cut back severely. Field still very wet.



New sheepdog in training



Very versatile because she can also feed the sheep.



Had to get some staples from the local 'Four Candles'



Where they had this for sale



Nice brakes



SWMBO not enthused about the price, £750 or my idea that she could sell ice cream down the quay from it during the summer season.

SWMBO is a third generation dowser. She can find water with unerring accuracy and strangely chocolate I’ve hidden in the fridge. We might need to put in some land drains and there is a hint of a spring. If so, look out for Farkham Hall Spring Water in your local supermarket 😀

I saw the rods before I got further in the posts.

My dad was also a downer and a very good one at it.

He would use a forked stick, Y-shaped for those who don’t know or understand.

I van also have the stick pull and point (without understanding it all), but when he was able to lay his fingers over my wrists (walking behind me) the force became really strong.

I wish I knew more or had taken the time, way back.

My Dad could dowse and so can I. Not just water, either. Set your intent on what you want to find and it's surprising how accurate you can be - electric cables, oil pipes, gas pipes, sewers, voids, rocks and even metals. Big companies still use dowsers to scout out mineral deposits first (although they rarely admit it publically...).I'll be passing Far Corfe in mid-May heading to Swannidge...

So glad we're not the only ones who get the "fur babies" presents lol,
Enjoy your trip,
Nigel

Looks great there.
Can't understand why you wouldn't want solidified tuna semen! Just remember that some poor sod has a job description of "tuna w&nker".

What a beautiful looking city,
The architecture is magnificent,
Nigel

Day 2 - Briefing - Pick up cars - Targa Florio Piccolo course



The whole thing was a GRRC driving tour organised by Nostalgic Driving Experiences - www.nostalgic.de/en/. These German guys are headquartered in Tuscany with three sets of client cars -

Alfa Romeo comprising Giulietta Spiders, Guilia Spiders, 1750 Spider Veloce Duettos and 2000 Spider Veloces.
Mercedes Benz SL's W113 Pagodas and R107 models
Volkswagen Beetle Carbriolets

In the coach stuck in Palermo traffic. If you don't hear a constant cacophony of car horns you've either gone deaf or just died.



Cars waiting at an out-of-season hotel on the coast road







The driver briefing with Walter from Nostalgic. Main points were - It's not a race (BOO!) - It's not a rally (BOO again!) - We've not had an accident in 20 years (encouraging but it's my first time) and - Don't break my cars (can't promise) and we were off.



Cars were allocated at random and we got a 2000 Spider Veloce in what I would call BMC Allegro Brown Metallic for the first day. SWMBO was impressed with the seat belts and that the hood could be raised without a topology degree. Luckily the sun shone all the time we were there.



The office for today



Route for this day, starting at the Hotel Costa Verde we preceded west and did the course anti-clockwise. In the real Targa if you were doing the Piccolo you did 11 circuits



Off the main roads Sicilian roads are 'interesting' and we were mostly off the main roads. Broken surfaces, potholes and entire carriageways slipping down hillsides. Mostly these were unsigned so you had to be on your A game especially with Sicilians in Fiat 500s either trying to overtake you on blind bends or coming round blind bends towards you on the wrong side of the road.

The Bridge Story

Here is a Sicilian minor road bridge. Note the expansion joints. On some of the bridges the joints ha d lost their tarmac and were basically trenches and take them at the wrong speed and the little Alfas hit their bump stops with a real bang.



The poor occupants of one such car lost both front hubcaps and remembering Walter's injunction about breaking his cars spent the next 10 minutes searching for said hubcaps down a ravine.

I didn't get many photos this day as I was busy driving. Strangely they're all Alfa Spiders





Not only did we have country roads but the small towns as well. The populace loved seeing the cars.



It was a driving tour so sometimes we had 12 cars like little Alfa ducks in a row and then traffic, coffee stops, navigation errors, pee breaks for some, broke up the group. It wasn't a race, it wasn't a rally but somehow we may have found ourselves first back at the evening's hotel