Time to explore

Who in their right mind would have white long coated dogs? Leave the little darlings alone for two minutes and they reappear streaked,coated,matted and unkempt. It may have something to do with that deep rooted canine ability to find the muddiest part of the garden and choose that as their play spot of choice. For Wilf and Digby the arrival of the builders has opened up myriad new ways of having muddy dog fun. The tractors and fork lifts parked out in front of the house ( where they seem to have taken up permanent residence in the notable absence of the builders ) provide an excellent opportunity to find damp earth to roll in and dig. Today will be a major bath day in an attempt to redistribute some of the accreted mud that has formed on them over the last three weeks.

Here in Italy the top news story is the ongoing battle between the Prime Minister and his wife. Mrs.Berlsuconni has again written to the newspapers drawing attention to the upset caused to her peace of mind by her husbands wandering eye and penchant for promoting young ladies to his cabinet based on looks rather than experience.Anywhere else in Euope dirty washing of this kind would be a huge scandal - here it helps cement his popularity in the polls as a regular guy. All those killjoys who believe that the bureaucrats in Brussels will one day harmonize us all into pasteurised , standardized Europeans forget the cultural differences that exist in this little continent.