In recent months we have tackled the land around the trullo in Martina Franca. Pruning, removing blackberry bushes and we have installed a mini swimming pool. To avoid the lengthy permit procedure, it became a so-called design bath. A bath that we have placed against the slope and with the addition of three trucks of soil it seems to have been buried. Combined with old tiles from a trullo, it provides a natural-looking environment around the bath without the need for cement. And it can be broken down, an important condition for avoiding that permit application. Because you also need a permit for a cement floor and that is a procedure that will take 18 months here in Martina Franca. That is really too much piano.

Ideal
The placed tiles get their strength when grass grows in between. So sprinkle in, water and within a week or two the first blades will appear in the ideal scenario.

Ants with grass seeds
In any case, the saying goes first to sow and then not to harvest the grass seeds that we had scattered over the land around our trullo. Large columns of ants ran away with it. What a very funny face, such a small ant with a seed on its back. Somehow they must have made a lawn for themselves.

Apricot tree
Furthermore, everything grows and blooms around us, while the olives and grapes are doing great on the red clay-like soil of Puglia. The rigorous pruning of two men last fall is already bearing fruit. The apricot tree sighs under the amount of apricots. And we only saw them hanging when they turned orange, grande sorpresa della natura.

Exceptionally tasty liqueur
Here in the area there is plenty of awakening, bottling and brewing in the own kitchen. In the super mercato you just buy a bottle of almost pure alcohol to make your own liqueurs. We got the fantastic tip from our translator to put young walnuts on alcohol. After the bottles had rested for two months in a dark place (that was the dishwasher because we never use them), we received an exceptionally tasty liqueur as a reward. We have done this again with the apricots, figs and the mulberry. We were really overwhelmed by the amount of fruit from our own garden, we have jam and liqueur until next summer. So we already have the welcome drink for our future guests, check.

Cycling route along the trullis
All those fruit and olive trees in our area can now be seen in a particularly charming way. Recently a cycle path has been realized over the water channel that connects Ceglie Messapica to Locorotondo and this path runs almost past our trullo. This cycling / walking route is a wonderful place to enjoy trullis, masseria, grape fields and fruit and olive trees in a hilly landscape. A wonderful place to have a picnic with a nice snack and drink.

Fare bella figura
Because whoever thinks of Italy certainly also thinks of Italian gastronomy. But we Dutch are generally a slightly different caliber of occasional drink than the average Italian. A drunk Italian is an attraction, the Italians prefer to stroll down the street to eventually eat something. Fare Bella Figura, an Italian apparently does not like to lose control. But that is also wonderful, strolling around, having a chat, young and old on the street during a sultry summer evening in one of those beautiful villages. But we can go home by bike, so we drink one more.

Acquedotto Pugliese
The apulian aqueduct system, of which the cycle path is only a small part, is one of the largest construction projects that were carried out in the 20th century because the lack of rivers always caused a water shortage in this region. The construction was completed after more than thirty years in 1939. The spring water is conducted from the Apennines to Puglia. The complete length of the aqueduct system Acquedotto Pugliese is over 2000 kilometers and consists of no less than 99 tunnels and 91 bridges. It may also be one more or less. The end point of the Acquedotto Pugliese is in the town of Santa Maria di Leuca in the extreme south of Puglia.

Locorotondo garden center
Our garden renovation has more or less fallen into the water (or not because of the lack of water) in the last summer months, it was eventually too hot and too dry to start planting. The garden center in Locorotondo only wanted to sell us agaves and cacti in the summer months, for the rest of the plants we had to come back after the summer. Of course we have rewarded that honesty with love. And we had already learned that we had to get the plants from the neighborhood because the Valle d'Itria is about 500 meters above sea level. The weather type at the coast is much more tropical in winter, which means that the chance of survival of a plant from, for example, Bari is considerably reduced. Just like the owner of the garden center in Locorotondo, we understand that you must first sow before you can harvest. So get your hands off it. For a few city people that we once were, we just enjoy working outside.

We recently laid turf in thin strips between the tiles. Well, then we don't have to worry about that anymore.