The wild boar has continued his nightly rampages in our olive grove. Various illegal solutions have been proposed by our friends at the pub who assure us that we can bribe the police to look the other way. The bribe is wild boar meat.

Apropos of that, we were invited to a hog slaughtering (which was absolutely meant as an act of kindness and inclusion, although it may not seem that way at first glance.) At least, we think we were invited to a hog slaughtering. Our translation skills can still be sometimes rather shaky in new situations with new vocabulary. We are often unsure if what we think we heard is at all what was intended. When we first arrived in Italy, for example, I thought that I was being invited to a lesbian orgy, but it turned out to be a breast self-exam clinic. In my defense, the pictures on the invitation were ambiguous.

The lovely Renata is back for a very brief visit. We saw her last night and will see her tonight again at the Sunday night Giro di Pizza at the pub. Because of her, everyone smiles and laughs a lot more. It is like a piece of early spring sunshine has arrived.