At this time of year in this part of Italy, there’s a tradition of making tagliatelle with the fresh nettles which have just started growing.

This is a great time of year for brassica buds. I’m not sure if buds is the correct term.

I’ve been finding the coming of spring very slow. Winter was so long, and a few weeks ago it seemed that spring had arrived at last.

Here’s another old photo of mine, also from 2013. It was taken in the Swiss Alps.

Here’s a photo I took in August 2013, high in the Apennine mountains of Italy.

Today was a good day for drying. So good, the wind broke the washing line.

This week I added some seeds to my bread. Just what I could find in the cupboard: sunflower, poppy, flax and sesame.

This week there was some locally produced chestnut flour to use up, so I put it in the bread mix.

I thought it would be nice to use this blog to track the coming of spring, my favourite time of year.

At last we’ve had some snow here today. But it’s wet and thin.

Look what I found when I sawed through a branch of a tree I cut down.