Beautiful rainbows after the last thunderstorm this afternoon.

I'm still at Pian di Crest even though I'm "off duty". The new "capannari" arrived in the helicopter and Fiorenzo left. It was too late after cleaning and all to walk to Bosco Gurin or capanna Grossalp, so I stayed and met Meo, Plinio and his teenage daughter Francesca and her friend Julia. We became friendly after the first round of Skip-bo.

Now I'm stranded here because of the weather. There was an incredible thunderstorm early this morning, piles of hale were still there until late in the day. At a certain point it rained and haled so hard that the ground vibrated.

Only four guests today, who came despite the rain, fog and thunderstorms. Everything was prepared so we played cards almost all day. Skip-bo (made me think of my nieces), uno and a rather silly and stressy game with the nice name "merda" (shit), very much enjoyed by the girls.

It's almost ten, our guests have all disappeared into bed and I'm sitting here with Fiorenzo and two handsome friends of his that came up to visit today (bad photo). Our guests were in for a feast today: melanzane alla parmiggiana, fried polenta with spezzatino and lentils and then panna cotta again this time with apricot sauce. While I'm working here, our family meeting is going on in Germany, I send my love to all my beloved family members. I hope you have a lovely time. It would be nice to be with you now, or have you here with me. A family meeting at Pian di Crest wouldn't be at all bad.

Today is my last official day of work at Pian di Crest. It started with the almost daily ritual of feeding the scraps to the sheep. They know they're in for a treat and some running when they see the small white buckets. Then they put up a big fight to get the best pieces. Today they went mad about the rest of the minestrone, because it's salty and they love salt.

We had eight guests today and fed then filled zucchini, fried polenta with meat and then panna cotta with kiwi sauce. I stayed up late and listened to the interesting, thrilling, sometimes incredible and often sad stories Fiorenzo had to tell about life in Ticino in the old days. He gave me an Edelweiß he brought down from checking the waterpipes up at the river.

 

Today Fiorenzo's brother Roberto showed up in a surprise visit. He came with Patrick who played the fisarmonica before we all had lunch together. He played nicely.

National Swiss holiday. But no fireworks here today. I can hardly believe it's August already. Only three months left! We had some day guests today, who wanted minestrone, cake and coffee. I went up to the "holy stone" to renew my Internet package for Switzerland (even though I'm not able to use it at the moment) by sms. Fiorenzo made Polenta today, see photo. Before that Melanzane alla Parmigiana and for afters there was apple crumble.Very much appreciated by our guests.

We had nice guests again today. Strangely enough it is almost always the people from the German-speaking part of Switzerland who help with the washing-up. Spent the rest of the evening chatting with our Brasilian lodger Reggiane, who is staying for three days, and eating polenta crisps from the pot.