Feck! Flipflop failure at the vecchia fontana

Mid-afternoon, under the scorchio sun ( 39 Celsius today! ), I walked to la vecchia fontana, less than 10 minutes from our place, to get us some acqua viva e molto fresca...

I passed the three ancient oaks ( multiple hundred years in age ), at the start of the forest track and then turned left on the asphalt road, to walk uphill towards the fountain...

These days, @clareartista and I are drinking loads of water. We have to. The weather is super dry and almost unbearably warm, for us Northerners.

If we don't drink enough, we will slowly but steadily shrink into nothingness.

More on the heat in Clare's: Hot. , written earlier today.

Now back to my walk...

When I reached the fountain, I noticed the sheer amount of bees hanging out there. Now I'm not afraid of bees ( I also believe that being afraid of something has the opposite effect and increases the chance to attract it ) and there's usually some of them there.
In fact, there's a bunch of bee hives nearby, including some positioned on the field at the other side of the road that runs along this fontana.

They tend to drink here daily.

This time around, there were hundreds of them though...

...and I had to tread carefully, to not step on them nor disturb them too much.

So I started out with greeting them - it is likely that they recognize me, by now, as I go there (almost) daily - and then I calmly started filling up my flask, glass bottles and plastic container with living, cold spring water.

It was such a spectacle to witness though that I had to take pictures. Luckily, bees don't mind being in the spotlight that much.

_{Did you know that they secretly bingewatch Project Runway, at night. Hovering in front of people's windows, to Netflix and chill for free}

Comunque / anyhow, the photos hardly capture the sheer amount of busy bees that were enjoying the water ( sometimes a little too much ). I saved a couple from drowning. They were everywhere. On top of the fountain, at the side, below it, taking swimming lessons in the tank and flying around me.

Also, whilst being there, my right flipflop turned into a flop and broke down on me...

The quality of plastic - and rubber - these days is lamentable

On my way back home, I found a piece of old string and I MacGyvered the thing just enough to make it back to Clare.

She was in dire need of cold water. 🥵💦🍶

How was your day? And how is the weather out there? Hot or not?