Stitched up

After last week’s decimation of the local mouse population, things have quietened down on that front. There have been a couple of casualties this week, however, and though only one was a mouse, both were in suspicious circumstances.

Stephen spotted the prostrate ex-mouse under the outside steps on Wednesday. It looked quite peaceful and one may have thought that, given the carnage previously wreaked by Stephen, it had thought better of trying anything on and had just given up the ghost. On closer inspection, however, when he undertook once more his undertaking duties, Stephen found a puncture wound on the dear departed. The finger of suspicion points to the cat that has been hanging about recently and taunting Harry from the safety of Mario and Luigi’s barn. We have a strong inkling it’s also decided that our bench is a likely place to sleep away the odd hour or two. What we have to decide now, I suppose, is which is preferable: a cat to keep the mice down but to wind our dogs up or no cat and more mice.

Our other casualty was Bella, who yet again has managed to end up with an injury requiring medical attention. How this happened is a mystery. All was fine when she went to bed on Tuesday night but when she was having her customary post-breakfast few minutes on Stephen’s lap (Harry has his on mine) he discovered an open wound, the size of a 50p piece, on her flank just above her back leg. Where this had come from is anybody’s guess as between going to bed and the wound being discovered she’d only been out for her morning walk, on her lead.

She was not in any particular distress about it and neither was it bleeding but it wasn’t the prettiest of sights. We bathed it and later that morning called Maddalena’s sister, Chiara, to check on the opening times of the vet’s we use. This isn’t as random as it seems, as she is the veterinary nurse there. She told us it wasn’t open until the afternoon but kindly offered to come and take a look at Bella. A little while later, Chiara arrived complete with her emergency kit and agreed that it needed stitching. In the meantime, she cleaned the wound and applied some cream, which Bella promptly started to lick off when she took sanctuary in her bed.

Stephen had to take Bella to the vets on his own that evening as I had lessons. This meant I was left behind with a very whiny Harry who cried nearly all the time, partly because he thought he was missing something fabulous and partly because Billy the Labrador was knocking about. Whenever Harry sees Billy he becomes desperate to get out and play – even though the Lab treats him with consummate indifference. Billy was hanging round LCDDB as Mario and Luigi had arrived just before Stephen left to take us up on our offer of free almonds. The tree in our garden is heavy with them, but as Stephen actively dislikes any kind of nut there is little purpose to which they can be put – though Bella does her best in polishing off the ones that have fallen to the ground. She is a dab hand at cracking nuts, spitting out the shells and swallowing the kernels.

Not that she was in much of a state to hoover away any tasty tidbits when she returned, complete with buster collar, from the vet’s, where she’d been cleaned up and stitched up (in the nicest sense of the word). The vet was unable to throw any real light on what had caused the wound, saying that to him it looked like a bite, but as she hadn’t been near anything that could administer a quick nibble we don’t see how it could be that. We can’t, though, complain about the service we received, especially considering how reasonable the charges were. I’m not sure if we get special rates due to knowing Chiara, but even so, €45 seems more than fair, especially considering it would be at least that just for the antibiotics back in the U.K., never mind the anaesthetic and consultation costs. We are pleased to say, too, that she has shown very few after effects and is now as near to being back to her usual lively self as sporting a buster collar will allow.

Elsewhere, the first part of the week caused a modicum of excitement in downtown MSP when we had the nearest we get to traffic congestion. There was a slight disruption to the traffic on the Via Porta da Sole last week when a truck was parked by the mediaeval battlements, above which the old houses of the centre of the town nestle. The local guardia was there with a small paddle making sure that there was no head-on collision between two cars intent on proving the number 1 tenet of driving in Italy: I have the right of way in all situations and I am not going to give way to any other driver. While she ensured no cars came to any harm a couple of the Comune workforce set to clearing away the creepers growing down the wall. This was bad news for some of the more enterprising locals as the vines are, in fact, caper plants that people have foraged over the years.

Matters escalated when the reason for the vine clearance became evident: renovation work to the ancient wall. This required, by MSP standards, a veritable cohort of workers and equipment, including no less than three large trucks. These were parked at regular intervals along the length of that section of the road, requiring not only a bit of nifty handling to weave through the temporary chicane but also a degree of chutzpah to outface oncoming cars in a game of chicken. Naturally, of course, while the guardia had been on hand to guarantee fair play last week, this week when the stakes were so much higher she was nowhere to be seen. Presumably, her remit doesn’t stretch to more than one vehicle at a time.

So what else is new at LCDDB, other than a return visit yesterday to L'Enoteca in Fermo for another very fine dinner, this time with Marco and Maddalena?

Well, following on from his recent triumph with the fried green tomatoes, Stephen on Tuesday turned his hand to converting some of them into chutney, with what appears to be great success. He used a recipe that I have done a few times in the past, which Stephen calls Prada chutney as it reminds him of their much favoured shade of muted green.

Friday we bought some plants for the two downstairs tubs to bring a spot of autumn colour to the front of the house. This was after we’d snaffled a panettone from Sigma while doing the shopping for the weekend. I think that I’ve said before how refreshing it is that in Italy Christmas fever is kept well and truly under control, unlike the UK where it is given full reign as soon as the summer equinox has passed. However I make an exception for the appearance of panettone, which can never come too early. Not that the supermarket made a fuss about it, there being only one small shelf stocked with a very modestly packaged variety. It may not have had the pretensions of its more glamorous cousins, but it tasted every bit as good – though I think Stephen’s suggestion that we have a quarter each with our afternoon coffee was a trifle excessive.

Yet it is difficult to think that the year is drawing to a close when there has been a return to balmy weather. So much so that yesterday Stephen put the fly screen back up at the front door, which he had taken down a week or so ago. We’d thought that there would be no more wandering in and out by Bella and Harry, but we misjudged the situation and ended up with more flies buzzing around in the kitchen than at any time during the summer months. We still have, though, an eye on the winter ahead, hence one of our infrequent trips to Ikea this morning, returning with a cosy new rug for the guest room as well as two mats for the front door, one outside and one inside. We hope this might help lesson the effect of wet days on the kitchen floor; not that Bella and Harry help with this, for, as intelligent as they both are, they haven’t as yet learned to wipe their feet.