Oh how time flies...
Although it can seem to seriously drag too and appear to move at a snail's pace... 🐌
September 2024: I arrived in Italy as a close ( Internet ) friend although I was a man with a plan. I guess the plan worked out. Four days later, Clare ( @clareartista ) and I were a couple.
More on that in Hive Love Story...
Weird to see this photo of us two, taken over 2 years ago...
October 2024: Clare and I left for Portugal, where I had lived since 2019, to see if we could find a home there, together...
January 2025: Portugal did not work out. We returned to Italy...
February 2025: We started looking for property/land in Molise, Italy.
June/July 2025: We briefly returned to Portugal to pick up our car and our belongings.
July 2025: We found our land!🏕️🌄
We went through many ups and downs and season after season, including experiencing our first snowfall here...
and a landslide, after days of heavy rain, changing our olive grove majorly, over night...
And then, four and a half months ago, we got the green light to start working on our neigbor's land and live in the property on it.🎉🥂
It took up till last month (October 2026) though, until we finally moved out of our tent and into the former hay loft aka 'our bedroom'.
More on our first, rainy and thundery night in there...
So, after two years and two months together, Clare and I have now 2 cats. We are living together on 2 neighboring plots of land with two buildings on them.
There is still a lot of work to do for us to really make our homestead comfortable - including getting our plumbing in working order - but we are getting there, mistake by mistake step by step.
Hopefully it won't take us another 2 years and 2 months to reach the comfort level that we need, as our daily life is as hard as it is beautiful.
Even though I must admit that 4 years and 4 months has a nice ring to it too ;^)
Onwards and upwards, always! 💪❤️
Wish us luck 🤞
