Fajita Friday

Yes, fajita Friday! Now don't get us wrong, we LOVE Italian food as much as the next Italophile, but sometimes you need a bit of spice, and of late we've resurrected an old staple of ours from England... or Mexico I suppose we should say: vegetable fajitas. A great way to prepare a tasty veggie dish, quickly using the glut of wonderful veg that Italy grows.

We've been looking forward to tonight's dinner ever since the beginning of the week - and to breaking our week-long alcohol ban for a couple of glasses of wine in front of the fire.

Before all of that though, we had the day to deal with. I was heading off up the valley to Lanciole to do a day's gardening work for the first time in weeks, and Helen was due back in the office again - except that, somehow, when I offered to take an especially energetic dog with me to give her some peace and quiet, I ended up with both dog and wife in the car as we headed up the valley.

I'm not sure whether it was curiosity to see to exactly where I've been spending these odd days, or a lack of trust with regards to how I would handle Reggie, but either way the three of us left the cats to have the run of the place for a few hours - I had only planned to spend half a day working up there, and by taking Helen along as well, meaning twice the manpower, we could get in a whole day's worth of work.

Over the next few hours, I reconstructed a log-built bench for which I'd previously concreted the posts into the ground, a fence got similar treatment, and Helen spent the time cutting back trees - all while the dog ran around to the point of exhaustion, safe in the knowledge that the whole place was fenced in and safe for him. Well, I say safe, but that was until he decided to bite through a small, recently pruned branch with his molars, simultaneously slicing it with both teeth and leaving a piece of branch wedged right across the roof of his mouth, jammed between his teeth. When I heard Helen's distress on having realised something was wrong, and I saw him salivating and pawing at his own nose, I thought maybe rabies had set in. However, on opening his mouth with my hands while Helen held him still, and reaching into the back of his throat, I coaxed the offensive piece of wood from his mouth and off he went straight back to his mischief - without a thank you or lick of gratitude in sight.

Come mid afternoon we packed up, loaded some more free firewood into the car and went home to be greeted by both cats milling around on the drive. I'm not sure either of them had been aware that they'd had the run of the place to themselves - a missed opportunity on their part! Either way, Helen bundled them into the house one by one (much to Reggie's displeasure when he caught sight of his mum holding one of them through a slit in the side of his crate).

We unloaded the car, lit the fire, and I made a warming mug of cocoa while Helen checked emails and did an hour's worth of office work, after which we finally sat down for a glass of wine in front of a fully loaded raging hot wood stove soon to be followed by dinner and, hopefully, a comatose-style sleep.