Dawns of 2008, Buon anno, happy new year!

6 JANUARY
Ok, time to catch everyone up on things. New Year's Eve went without a hitch, only 2 broken glasses, but I must say, I was a bit scared when I saw 5 carloads of 20 somethings arriving at Nascondiglio! We handed over the breakfast room and the kitchen and they cooked for themselves and then cleaned up everything! I went to Ascoli for a solo dinner and wanted to watch the fireworks display, but Ascoli had lost their water main a few days earlier and there were no toilets. That gave me a grand excuse to head back home and sleep through new year's. The following day out of our great gratitude for their wonderful behavior, we handed over the kitchen to our guests again and said goodbye to them on the 2nd.
All in all a quiet change of years to 2008.
We have guests from England right now who are busy remodeling a house in the Marche and need us for now as a home base.
Our plans to plant the vineyard in January may have suffered a setback as we now have a sinkhole in our future vineyard where our previous owner's contractors ended a drainage tube which carries all the water from the roof. Not good. We will have to divert the water or build a cistern and wait for the soil to dry so we can refill this area before planting.
The pool is in our plans and our heads but nothing has proceeded as yet. We need engineers, architects and hydrologists to inspect and plan everything and then present the plan to the city of Offida for approval.
Bacco is growing and behaving and without fur removing mites, although his conjunctivitis is still a bit of a bother to look at.
We have had a fair amount of moisture in the last part of the year which will make our rootstock happy when it does get planted, but for now we could use a bit of a dry spell. Feast or famine.
I wake up at dawn every day and as you know, I like to take pictures from outside my room to document the coming of the new day. Here are 4 from this morning and an impressionistic shot from 4 days ago. I really miss the laptop as it is easier to write the blog from all over the house, including my bed! and also I have iphoto 06 in the laptop which is much superior to iphoto 04 in my desktop. So, these photos are cropped but otherwise untouched from today.
Enjoy! Start making plans to visit us in 08!
dwight