The Wolf comes again

Just after I had finished last week’s blog, Sisi turned up looking a lot thinner than she had the last time we had seen her. She obviously had had her gattini. Over the next few days she stayed around our place for much more time than she had the last time she had given birth. We think this means that the “wolf” came very soon after the birth. She hasn’t been wandering around looking for them, again as she did last time. Two of the other cats have had litters since then, and one more, who we call Winkle, must be about to give birth any minute, literally.

This is Winkle
C’è la vita (this is a literal translation of c’est la vie, so it is probably wrong, but I am sure you get my drift).

Weather or not …..

We have at last had some rain. Not only were we pleased to see the veggie patches (VPs) get a good drenching and our rain water collecting bins replenished – we can store about 700 litres, but also it took some of the humidity out of the air.
The light at the moment is just fantastic. Driving to our nearest towns involves going a bit uphill. As soon as get to the top the magnificent Sibillini are on display and you can now see them with crystal clarity. Look the other way and you can see the Adriatic which must be at least 30 kms away. It is so beautiful.
So now I can sit out and write this blog (I always do it longhand first) without large droplets of sweat falling onto the page and making the ink run and paper wet so the whole thing look like a bad piece of papier machè. Or my pen slithering and slipping out of my grip. I did in fact have a spontaneous amorous turn a few days ago. I went over to the Duchessa and gave her a great big hug. Unfortunately a combination of my sweatiness and her perspiration (have you noticed women don’t sweat, they perspire) had a deleterious effect. She shot up in the air like an Apollo moon shot and landed in an Olive tree. The Judges’ verdict? 10/10 for technical merit. The Duchessa’s verdict? Deeply unimpressive.
I do not think I need to point out that few brownie points were garnered with that particular episode.

Relatively speaking

We have had one of the Duchessa’s sisters, the Marchesa, staying nearby with her family. It has been great fun to see them.
We went down to the beach at Porto san Giorgio where the men, well two men and two boys, re-enacted the Euro 2008 final. I wanted to be Torres, but everyone laughed and pointed at my hair, or lack of it. I felt quite hurt. So while we modern gladiators battled it on the beach, the Donne ate, drank and gave general encouragement.
It was a close game. 4 all. We were going to have to go to penalties but the rain started, so we agreed a respectable and creditable draw and went off to a lovely gelateria in Monte san Giorgio – this lad Giorgio obviously got around a bit.
The Duchessa and I were treated to a couple of fab meals out and we are meated-out for at least a week.
Excellente. Thanks rellies. Hope you had good trip back.

Competition Time - update

Well we are terribly disappointed. The courgette competition telephone lines closed last night at 21:00 and we had received …….. no winning entries. The solutions offered were quite frankly ludicrous, outrageous, impossible, dangerous, rude, disgusting or a combination of most or all of these. In fact, they were all rubbish.
Thankfully all is not lost, especially as the recent rainfall has given them a growth spurt and they are now so numerous and gigantic that I thought they might be heading for global domination. We have been approached by a consortium who own the Eden Project. They think they could use them as some sort of vegetarian bio hangars. Fortunately they have agreed to purchase them ex VP (remember, veggie patch?) with all shipping details and costs down to them. So it’s a done deal.

What else?

Oh yes, the bird is still sitting on the nest but it cannot be too long until the eggs hatch.

I discovered a wasp’s nest in our letterbox. I opened it up to see if we had any mail and three big wasps came buzzing out in a rather abusive and aggressive manner, at least I thought so. Well, they don’t own the box, we do and I’m not going to have any fly-by-night family of black and yellow stinging insects squatting in it. If they did, you bet your life the crime rate would go up and old people would be scared to put their noses out of the front door.
Call me waspist or insectist, but I’m not having it.

I’m rambling, but I will return to this subject at a later date.

Three big toms, not feline, or incorrect use of wine glasses

Ciao, mantenete la fede