Taking the winter cover off the swimming pool...

... and the water doesn't look too bad. Sometimes it looks like pea soup :-() It'll take a couple of weeks before the water is sparkling clean. But it probably won't be warm enough to swim in until late May.

There are big clouds rolling around and the weather forecast said it might rain, but I don't think it's going to - pity! We welcome the rain here as we don't get enough. You never know if it's going to be the last rain until October/November. Our house relies for water on a spring in the hillside, and in dry summers it can dwindle to a trickle and then we have to be so careful using water.

The spring fills a well that probably has Etruscan origins. The name of our house means "the place where the foreman keeps the tools at night" in Etruscan - how cool is that?! The well is certainly incredibly ancient and decrepit. We bring the water through a mini-purification and softening plant, but I still don't drink it unless it has been boiled :-)