Cottage in the Woods

It’s not yet daylight when the cockerel starts his clamouring, quickly joined by the local dogs. The donkeys join in shortly after and at six, the church bells start their incessant ringing, seemingly in anticipation of an as yet unseen town invasion. We appear to have settled at Old MacDonalds farm rather than the tranquil agritourism haven promised on the website!

A hearty breakfast of free range organic eggs collected this morning, apple juice from the local orchard and strawberries picked by the woman who serves our coffee make up for the rude awakening.  The tractors are out in force long before we’ve even brushed our teeth so we figure it would be rude not to take a dander round the farm to check out the rest of the produce.

We walk along rows and rows of strawberries, acres of them, and eventually stumble across the Romanian workers whose job it is to handpick those ready for packaging and selling. They cheerfully smile and wave but don’t break their picking rhythm. Presumably every punnet filled is money in the bank.

The path takes us into a forest, where we happen upon Hansel and Gretels house, adorned with flags, hanging vines and it’s very own totem pole. Intrigued but unsure if we’ve overstepped the lines of decency we are about to turn on our heel when an imp of a man appears with a basket in hand. The very stuff of fairy tales, he welcomes us with widespread arms and a dazzling smile and proudly spreads out his fare of wild mushrooms to show us the fruits of his endeavours. His name is Paulo, and though we speak no Italian and he speaks no English we spend a very happy fifteen minutes communicating about the land and the crops. We shake his hand to leave and are back on the rough path when he shouts and beckons us back. He is laughing and smiling, eagerly beckoning us around the back of the house where he has opened a heavy wooden door for us to step inside. And there, amongst a treasure trove of oddments and oddities, is an Irish scarf and a St Patrick’s day hat with bells on it!!! He’s delighted to have remembered this gift from his sisters’ visit to Dublin several years ago and we pass another few minutes taking turns to don the hat and scarf and snapping more photos.

As we eventually amble back, we wonder about the house and it’s purpose. Paulo has indicated that he lives the other side of the village yet the room we were shown was clearly lived in and much loved. A summer den perhaps? The man cave he escapes to when the family get too much? I’m going with the love nest theory because Paulo may be small in stature but he without doubt made up for that with the glint in his eye. A treasure for sure!