Rustic Puglia

Puglia Places – a new website

Claire — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:07:29 +0000

Trullo Oliva can be rented through Puglia Places

We’ve just launched a new website – www.pugliaplaces.com – which lists other holiday villas in the area. Whether you’re looking for a five star luxury stay, a stone house in the middle of an organic vineyard or a traditional trullo, we have it all. So if Rustic Puglia is fully booked, make Puglia Places your first port of call for a great choice of holiday homes.

Sheep attack

Claire — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:20:56 +0000

Beavis in bandages

Winter is a hard time for everyone, but it seems even more harsh in the country when we see the animals out in the elements. Puglia has a big stray dog population and it’s in wintertime that they gather in packs to find food, when they’re particularly cold and hungry. Last Thursday our ewe was attacked by a group of about 10 dogs, luckily Andy got to her before she was beyond help but it’s still been touch and go for a while. Her hind legs and tail were badly damaged and the shock put her off her food, but with lots of care from Andy we’re hoping she’s going to pull through. She is lucky as she has a good home but we feel very sorry for all the stray dogs who are the real victims here.

Let it snow

Claire — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:03:13 +0000

People are always surprised that it gets cold and even snows here down south in Puglia. The first year we were here it was so deep we were snowed in for two days! We’ve had a seasonally cold spell recently with frosty nights and sunny days, then on Sunday morning it snowed much to the children’s delight. But all their plans for making a snowman and having a snowball fight were unfulfilled when the sun came out and melted it all. They still had lots of fun catching snowflakes.

Merry Christmas

Claire — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 22:00:16 +0000

It’s a long time since our last post – the reality of having three children and being busy here at Rustic Puglia means less time at the computer, or just less time! Thank you to all the lovely guests who chose to have their holiday with us, with months and months of sunshine the pool was enjoyed by everyone right up until the end of October – amazing. Younger guests give our animals lots of pets and love, much to their delight, and the addition of the sheep, which Andy lead-trained so that he can graze them, has given us a lot of pleasure. Our real live Easter bunny surprise turned out to be less interesting to the children than the chocolate eggs they were gathering, and ended up terrorising the chickens to such an extent that they refused to go into the henhouse and lay eggs. They naturally shut up shop in August when they find it too hot to do anything much, but it was only when they were still not laying in November that we put two and two together. Now the rabbit shares the sheep’s lodgings and so far hasn’t bullied them into submission. Our project over the winter months has been to build a proper lounging area under the gazebo by the pool, now it’ll be even harder to drag yourself away from all the comforts that we provide. We’ve also done two presses of our organic olives for oil and, as ever, it’s a delicious taste of goodness and sunshine – yours for just £10/litre. With Christmas just a week away we can barely suppress the children’s excitement, the weather’s becoming a bit more seasonal but we’re enjoying stoking the fire with all the wood that Andy’s collected from pruning our trees to keep us warm. We wish you all a very merry Christmas and a rosy 2012.

Rustic Puglia features in Ryanair’s magazine

Claire — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 20:34:02 +0000

OK, we’re not exactly ‘featured’ but we do get a mention in an article about buying in Puglia. Ryanair may not be the world’s best-loved airline but we’re nevertheless thrilled to have our name in print, you just need your magnifying glass to spot us!

Sheep in the meadow

Claire — Tue, 31 May 2011 13:06:34 +0000

Our blog’s been a bit quiet recently thanks to the children getting their hands on yet another camera with very sorry results. We’re now back on track with a super digital slr and can report on the latest goings on at Rustic Puglia. We’ve been wanting to take another step towards self-sufficiency for a while – we enjoy our veg and freshly laid eggs but thought it was time to add some more livestock. We bought the property from a local farmer, who today sold us two of his four-month old lambs for us to breed from. Their rather undignified arrival was in the boot of his 4×4 – there I was thinking they’d come in a horse box! Our job now is to get them used to contact so they can be petted by our smaller guests and also led around the land to help Andy cut the grass. For more photos see our facebook page here http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150178639961594.292854.15834656593

We’re in print

Claire — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 19:11:40 +0000

Rustic Puglia

We’re thrilled that one of our guests in 2010 has chosen Puglia to write about and given us a mention in the article – thanks Alasdair! To read all about it click here.

summer holiday 2011

Claire — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 10:38:35 +0000

Don’t panic! Our holiday villas still have plenty of availability for the precious holiday period, so take a look at our holiday villa page http://rusticpuglia.com/holiday-villas/and book now!

Olive oil for sale £10/litre free p&p

Claire — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 10:04:23 +0000

We’re selling our olive oil. It’s ‘not just’ olive oil, it is extra virgin, stone ground, cold pressed, organic (uncertified) olive oil from the fertile Itria Valley. £10 per litre, free p&p.

Olive harvest 2010

Claire — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 13:59:21 +0000

On a beautifully warm and sunny Saturday in November we spent a glorious day picking our olives for pressing into delicious extra virgin oil. Friends Mat and Sean gave us a hand and we got our 3 quintale (300 kg) in about nine hours and it was cold pressed on a traditional stone mill at 8:30 the next morning. All this hard work gave us a smidge under 50 litres of peppery green organic extra virgin oil, anyone who’d like to order please drop us an email.