I was up at quarter to eight, cleaning a bit, having a hot ovomaltine, preparing the fire place etc when Walter Lösch and Claudio arrived. Walter is another guardiano over sixty. These men have all worked for this hut for many, many years and are continuing to do so as long as they can, it seems. And almost all of them are still fit enough to walk at least the path from the first bridge, which is a steep, one hour-long ascent.

I am nothing compared to them, a complete new-comer, but ignorant compared to them, I have ended up here for very specific reasons, know nothing really about the region, their lives, the written and unwritten laws and ways. I suppose they consider me an exotic kind of tourist with good intentions and high morals concerning interest, work and service. They accept me in a way, but in another they do not. Which is their right. And I apologise for anything I have done wrong or continue to do wrong without knowing.

After coffee and ovomaltine, Claudio started to replace the broken wheel barrel wheel and mow the grass and Walter and I went through all the provisions. He had lists of all the food he needed and the dishes he planned to prepare for a total of about 35 persons in one week and checked everything on his list, adding the amounts he needed to be delivered. He seems to me to be a very amiable man with a good sense of humour.

They had originally planned to leave very early again, but I managed to persuade them to stay for an early lunch, so I could give them my caponata and the planned quiche. I abandoned plans to bake a cake, because they would definitely not stay long enough and nobody else was scheduled to come. They were hesitant about staying a little longer, but Walter, who, as I discovered later, is a sweet tooth, was hooked when I told him I had already prepared tiramisu the night before.

We had lunch together at about twelve, I must say the caponata with toasted slices of white bread with garlic was delicious. I wasn’t too happy with the quiche, the dough was a bit too thick and I had no adequate alternative to “schmand”, “crème fraiche” or the likes. And the tiramisu didn’t turn out as nearly perfect as usual. The crème wasn’t as it usually was, maybe it was the weather, I had trouble beating the cream and the mascarpone was a little too thin. Maybe it was the “thunder storm weather”-effect (remember the same situation in Berlin, Bernd?), but still it is quite edible and Walter and Claudio seemed very happy and content with the food.

Claudio did not succeed in repairing the wheel barrow, so the piles will remain where they are for the time being. Instead, he showed me how to use this special “lawn-mowing”-machine before he left because he had not managed to finish everything and I was glad to have some work to do. Then, at one in the afternoon they were gone again. I put on the wellies and got ready for some orange-clad, extraterrestrial-looking law-moving action when it started to rain. And I found the mouse. It was dead. My mouse was dead. Dead, right on my door step. I don’t know why. I took it to the river for a proper “sea funeral” and am now mourning.

It RAINED. So I put everything away and went to bed. I normally never lie down during the day or sleep, but these past days I have. It rained and rained and rained and I was in bed. Until four. It was still raining when I got up again. Definitely no lawn moving today. So I started to prepare things for Saturday, what maps, clothes and other things to take with me, make a to-do list and a list of food for my week as guardiana at Piano delle Creste. I will leave the list here for Arturo to give to Fiorenzo as well as my parcel that will be brought up to the hut and will be there when I arrive.

I will have two guests tomorrow, at least they haven’t called yet to cancel their stay. I have loads of food ready and ideas how to feed them. Tomorrow morning I hope to get some lawn-mowing done, weather permitting, and then bake a cake. Collect new flowers for the vases on the tables, do some washing and call at least the first three huts I plan to stay to make reservations.

Those who have actually read all the stuff I have been writing at length and maybe even found it interesting, must prepare themselves for a probably long silence from me now. When you read this many days will already have passed by and I will no longer have anybody to take care of my blogging. When you read this I, hopefully, will already have walked for at least a week and will be somewhere on my way towards Engadine. There will be no more entries in the blog, unless I happen to stay in a pension or similar place with Wi-Fi or other Internet access.

I am telling you this because the next two days will go by quickly and then I will be writing on my HTC and taking photos, but I will not be able to send them off. And then it will be back to short texts, because updating the blog by HTC, even though it is a really good device, is a lot more complicated than with a normal computer. I can hardly believe I will actually be walking again in two days. My foot feels quite good, not normal and there is a spot that is still quite tender. I am optimistic but careful. Tomorrow it will be exactly two weeks ago that I hurt myself. Maybe I am too optimistic. We will see. After the first day of walking to Barone hut I will already have an idea of the state I am in.