Just recently even though I would call myself a “Mounty” I have fallen foul to the dangers of living and working in the mountains. Now if you think I am going to write about dangerous animals then think again.
My latest incident was because of inappropriate footwear. I was actually going to go horse riding and had decided to use my best dressage boots, you know the kid that are more fashionable than practicable. Now apart from them not bring broken in properly yet and thus causing painful blisters to the backs of my heel, they have absolutely no grip on the bottom, smooth as a babies bottom.
One of my chickens had flown the coop through a small hole in the wire and I was putting her away and noticed that part of their pen needed the nail knocking in. This meant that I had to walk along a fallen down big tree trunk, at first I was ok but when I took the next step… Crash it was all over so quickly, the log was slightly moist, the fashionable boots with no grip didn’t help and wham!.
I am still suffering now; I have bruised my ribs, bumped my head, cut my hand and broken a nail – sin of all sins. Fortunately I was ok, a little winded and now I can feel every bump in our road on the at least once a day daily drive up and down the lane. I also had to write to my Mum and apologize because last time she was here and fell over (again because of inappropriate footwear), I kept telling her off for making such a drama out of a little incident. Let me tell you bruised ribs are very painful.
There was even a time a few years back when I had some guests staying and they hadn’t brought any walking boots but wanted to do The Renaio San Lorenzo Night Walk, I was a good Samaritan and gave up my comfy shoes to one of them, which wasn’t a good move I had blisters the size of a coffee mug which lasted for ages, another great reminder to wear the right footwear.
Going back even further to when we first brought the house, we had invited some friends over from London, we kept telling them it wasn’t a “Villa” but a mountain farmhouse, we even told them to wear sensible walking shoes. On the first day the woman came wearing fancy little stiletto heeled shoes, very pretty I might add, but then spent the whole ten days resting her foot after badly twisting her ankle.
We haven’t had many incidents this year but there have been occasions when people out walking the mountains or fungi hunting have slipped, fell and needed the assistance of the helicopter rescue team and with winter looming ever closer I think the moral of this story is even more important so
Danger No 1 ALWAYS WEAR APPROPRIATE, WELL FITTING FOOTWEAR
Common sense I hear you say and danger no 2 is no different. At the moment it is a great time for picking up the chestnuts, quite a popular passtime for us mountain folk. Again wear appropriate footwear as I have stood on one of the chestnut burrs, not only was it painful at the time, but the little burrs are terrible to remove, often you have to wait for them to become infected and then burst to fall out of their own accord. You always know when you have one too; it is really tender to the touch and catches on everything.
In our early days here, I will never forget our little English Builder (Robbie aka Bob the builder) as those of you know whom have visited the house there is always a short Jeep ride, normally with willing folk standing in the back. It becomes a game to duck the trees as you are going along – all the children visitors love it and so do some of us grown ups too.
Anyway he was standing on the back and talking, not looking forward, a low hanging branch with two beautiful mature fruit still attached, hit him right on the forehead. It took him months to remove all of the burrs but we all have had a really good laugh about it since.
Recently even knowing the dangers I thought I would be clever and try and get the fruit out without using gloves – wrong move. Now this isn’t life threatening but they really are annoying. But the underlying message is still very important.
But wearing of the appropriate clothing is warning no 2, especially as winter is ever looming. Up here it can be a beautiful warm day, even t-shirt weather but as soon as the sun goes over the crest of the mountain temperatures can drop so quickly. The weather can change in an instance and the drop in temperature is significant.
I find that when I am working outside it gets so hot, you work up a sweat, start taking off the layers, you don’t even notice the sun has set, now it is cold and you really do feel the difference and normally when you are caught out like this it normally means that a bout of influenza is on the horizon.
This month the weather has been unpredictable, I check each day on the computer and I have to say they cover all of the options, but nearly every day this month I have been caught out. Either with too much clothes on or not enough!
I was absolutely drenched yesterday when after a beautiful hot day I was walking back to the house from Renaio, as the skies clouded over I knew I was going to get wet but thought I might just be able to get home before the heavens opened. But open they did and with a vengeance. I entered the house like a drowned rat, shivering, cold and miserable. So
Danger no 2 ALWAYS WEAR THE APPROPRIATE CLOTHING
The mountains can easily deceive you and as I say with Winter coming, the conditions will only get worse, right now with all the leaves falling and the rain, the mountains roads and slopes are pericoloso (very slippy). We love the mountains, we even love the mountains with the extreme weather conditions but these are two very important messages when planning your trip to the mountains.
STAY SAFE AND ENJOY OUR BEAUTIFUL NATURE PARK
Article by Sensone