We had a great time on our fiftieth birthdays. As our birthdays are only 12 days apart we decided to have a joint celebration, along with Meeno, one of Erminia’s sons who had his 53rd birthday around the same time. The night before we went up the road to Meenos for his birthday party and then the next day we organised lunch for 25 under our new veranda. Meeno and his son, our builder Paolo, turned up in the morning with scaffold poles and netting to rig up more shade and help lay tables and chairs. Sue’s friend and teaching colleague Pat came early to help prepare, as did our friends Claude and Jane. The remaining guests were all members of our neighbours Erminia and Paolo’s family. I guess the lunch was our way of saying thank you to all these people for their kindness and generosity. Pugliese people have big healthy appetites and are also particular about their food, not generally liking any kind of foreign muck. Not trusting us to cook anything remotely edible we had a ...

We now have two animals. “Chiaro” the cat was in fact a sitting tenant when we arrived. Chiaro originally belonged to a Calabrian family, who rented our house until a couple of years before we bought it, and Chiaro had somehow stayed, fed occasionally on pasta by Erminia, who like so many country people has a love hate relationship with domestic pets, alternately making a fuss of Chiaro then chasing him with a broom. When we arrived and started giving him real cat food he decided to move back to our house pretty much full time, although the rule is he is not allowed inside. Chiaro is a big tomcat and a kind of sandy colour which matches the stonework of the house. I guess he is about five or six and this spring he had trouble coming to terms with the fact that he may no longer be the toughest cat on the block. Every night we would hear blood curdling yowlings and growlings and other signs of feline mayhem and in the morning Chiaro would come limping for his food, bloody and wit...