As 
There is a serious chance that we can add the direct neighbor's plot of land to ours. This includes an 'orto' ( veggie garden ), numerous fruit- and nut trees and - as an added bonus - two attached buildings with a handful of rooms that served as chicken coops/stables and storage space, until recently.
This pic only shows (the top) part of these buildings, as seen from the front ( as they are constructed on a hill, like is the case with our house )...
Now we are blessed to have a super friendly neighbor ( two houses away ) who doesn't seem to live on his land/ in his house under construction but is there, nevertheless, almost every single day to do some DIY-ing. Or, as it seems, mostly to cut and collect wood for the wood stove in his main house in the village.
As can be read in Clare's post, mentioned above, this super friendly neighbor recently informed us that our direct neighbor - the one who was keeping chickens and working his veggie patch - is letting go of this labor.
He is 87, if I'm correct, recently fell ill and although he kind of recovered, he doesn't feel up to tending to the animals and land any longer.
In fact, the animals have already been taken away.
That is, aside from a friendly, super-meowy semi-starving cat who we kind of adopted, as she is still there and isn't taken care of any longer.
She used to keep the rodents away from the chickens but now no longer serves a purpose for the old man.
Comunque/anyhow, we learnt from that second closest neighbor that the old man's land and buildings will soon be for sale and that the old farmer told him to pass this news on to us, first.
As the direct neighbors we will be first in line to buy this property.
Pretty cool, right? ;^)
Now if you've been following Clare and my stories for a while, you might know that we could use more (storage) space and that we like our privacy.
Even though the old man only came over an hour or so per day, up till the moment he fell ill, his buildings are literally right next to us and we felt a bit watched. It also happened at random hours and did disturb our peace.
We did not move to the countryside to live right next to someone else.
Although we feel for the guy having to step back from what might have been his routine for decades, we are also super grateful for this opportunity.
About a week ago, the other neighbor showed us around the neighbor's buildings and we were pleasantly surprised with the state of them. They are more comfortable; warmer, drier and all-in-all more weatherproof than our current abode and the only building on our land.
our not entirely Winter proof house...
When we return to our land, after our current break ( see my post from yesterday ), we plan to set up a meeting/ get together with the old man to talk about potentionally taking over his land and having even more space and privacy.
Fingers crossed that he is willing to sell it for a good/fair price, as we are a bit low on liquidity at the moment.
It helps that we have another card up our sleeve, aka Clare's old house. Wele are currently staying there ( see my oost from yesterday ) to enjoy a much needed and deserved break from the 'hardship', chaos and discomfort caused by the Wintery weather on our new land.
We tried to sell this place but - up till now - without much success. Nevertheless, we do believe in things happening at the right time. So now we've learnt about the neighbor's land being for sale the pieces of the puzzle might be falling back in order. Things are lining up.
Exciting times!✨
I wil keep you all posted.
a puff ball or common earth ball. A mushroom that looks like a pancake or tiger bread.
Clare having fun cutting back/ snipping away at the giant bramble patch between our neighbor and our property.