This post is not for the faint of heart

Yesterday I brought Olney to Ruffia so he could run around like a crazy pup.  Maria Pia met me there and we dusted and put away these chairs they bought from the Irish Cave.  Everyone got something from the pub closing!  So Maria Pia and I were inside and Olney was outside running around with his cow bone from Epiphany.  He had buried it outside and knew where to find it.  Then Fabri called to say he was on his way to Ruffia from the hospice and I looked out the window to check on the pupper and saw Olney running around with a dove in his mouth flapping its wings!  I told Fabri that I can't talk, Olney has a bird in his mouth and ran outside to get him to drop it.

Well, he didn't drop it, he killed it and ate it instead.  It was pretty disgusting.  Eventually we got a couple pieces away from him, the head & a wing, but the rest he ate.  I was mad because he was not being obedient and I didn't want him to eat a whole dove.  I don't know how he got it in the first place.  I was worried it was sick, but Olney's always been VERY interested in birds, and if it had been flying low or not paying attention he wouldn't have hesitated to go for it.  Also, it had just been eating (lucky me, I got to see the stomach full of corn) and if it had been sick, it probably wouldn't have just had a large meal.

Then the rest of the afternoon Olney was not listening.  He put up a huge fight about getting in the car to go home and I almost left him in Ruffia.  But when we were back home he was being his usual self and listening to commands.  I think he is less likely to listen when Maria Pia is around because she lets him get away with anything and gives him treats for it!  But I have to reinforce to Olney that my word is law, and he better listen!

From Saluzzo Carnevale

So this post was supposed to be about Carnival in Saluzzo.  This year I went to the parade for the first time with Anna and her peeps.  She goes every year and said this year was the smallest and the fewest people she's seen.  The weather was very bad switching between snow and rain, so I can't blame the crowd for not coming out, also we were at the end of the parade route.  But it was cool to see all the floats.  Also, the whole thing about Carnival is that the people in the parade throw confetti at you and in your face so that you're picking up the little pieces of paper off your floor for weeks!  Thankfully I was warned, and stayed away from the fence when the people were walking by.  But there was one cool float that had a confetti cannon that shot confetti up to the people standing on their balconies watching the parade!

There was a Dante's Divine Comedy Float.

There was a crazy Berlesconi cowboy float.

And there was my favorite, a crab float!  Go MD!!

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was on a Sunday, so we had sort of a Valentine's weekend.  Friday Fabri gave me a beautiful freshwater pearl necklace.  He wanted me to have it early so that I could wear it when we went out Friday & Saturday nights.  So sweet!

From Blogger Pictures

Friday we went to our favorite pub in Saluzzo, the Irish Cave.  They used to have Murphy's beer (super delish!) but they are closing this week, so they don't have the good stuff anymore.  When we heard they were closing right before Christmas we asked the owner, Michele, if we could buy the wooden Murphy's signs decorating the pub.  On Friday we finalized that transaction and got 3 beer signs, 4 other wooden signs, 2 framed maps plus another frame and a Murphy's tray.  Olney really liked the tray which must have had some beer left on it.

From Blogger Pictures

Then on Saturday morning we walked with Olney around the market.  On Saturdays we often go to the market and buy something to make for lunch, but nothing was exciting us, so we dropped Olney off at home and went to Fujiyama,  the sushi restaurant in Saluzzo for their 10 euro lunch buffet.  It's really the best deal around and Fabri and I have been stuffing our faces there or at their Cuneo location for several weekends in a row now.  I even have it written on the calendar for this coming Saturday! Saturday night we headed to Savigliano with the intention of meeting up with some friends there, but we only found Gibo.  So we had a romantic pizza dinner just the 3 of us.  Gibo's one of Fabri's best friends and a fun guy despite the fact he doesn't speak any English.  Chiara, Gibo's girlfriend joined us after dinner when she got back from Turin, but we headed back to Saluzzo after dinner.  We had big plans for Sunday! Sunday we headed to Savigliano with the pup to make bugie for carnivale. That was fun, but sort of a lot of work.

From Valentine's Day 2010

 Fabri flattened the dough with the pasta maker.

From Valentine's Day 2010

I cut the dough and knotted it or filled it (see last week's blog).

From Valentine's Day 2010

Then Maria Pia fried them in oil.

From Valentine's Day 2010

And Francesca finished them off with a generous helping of powdered sugar!

From Valentine's Day 2010

Then we brought a bunch to Giovanni's house for lunch.  This month is Giovanni's birthday so he hosted the whole family to a lovely Valentine's Day lunch where we ate and drank like morons.  We ate so much that Fabri and I didn't even eat dinner that night!  Which is really strange for us, especially me. 

Hair Cut!

I finally got my hair cut a week ago.  We really dropped the ball by not taking a photo right after it was done because the hairdressers styled it so nice and all.

From Valentine's Day 2010

Note new hair and new Valentine's Day pearl necklace.  I'm making bugie (fried dough filled with jam or nutella and covered with powdered sugar) for Carnival.

Snowshoeing February 2010

From Snowshoeing February 2010

Now that we're expert snowshoers and own all our own gear, we're going to the mountains whenever the weather's good.  Last weekend we went to Pontebernardo in the Stura Valley.  Even though it had snowed the night before, the roads were very clean.  We had been worried that we wouldn't be able to get all the way up to Pontebernardo, but it was no problem at all.  The roads in Stura Valley are better than in some of the other valleys because it's a main driving route to & from France.  In fact, we saw a lot of trucks and plows.

From Snowshoeing February 2010

Pontebernardo from above

Anyway, it was us, the pup, our adventure couple friends and their dog again.  We parked off the road in Pontebernardo and then we headed up, up, up.  One thing you have to know about Pontebernardo: It is up a VERY STEEP hill from the road.  Now they are up in the mountains, so the people there know what they're doing.  The hill was pretty much clear of snow, but I think it was still the hardest part of our trek.

The snow was perfect.  Very soft and fresh.  It was at least 2 feet of snow.  We followed what, in the summer, is a paved road snaking up the mountain.  There is always a concern about avalanche's, but sticking to the road kept us safe.  That and we were in the woods pretty much the entire time.

From Snowshoeing February 2010

Last time we went we didn't see much wildlife.  No animals and only a bird or two.  This time was exciting because we saw 7 mountain deer called comoscio in Italian.  They were across the valley from us walking straight up the steep, snow covered mountain without problems.  I'm sure Davide's fancy camera caught a better picture than this, so I'll exchange it when we get those pictures from him.  I also saw some cute little chick-a-dee-type birds. They were flitting around the tops of some pine trees probably eating seeds from the pine cones.

From Snowshoeing February 2010

At one point I fell behind everyone else.  I'm probably in the worst shape, but also I'm a slow hiker/walker.  I like to look around a lot.  I was the only one who saw all 5 comoscio in the second group.  In the summer I'm always stopping to collect insects & in the winter I'm stopping to look around for deer and birds.  But Fabri & Olney waited for me and we all caught up at what must be a summer restaurant and took some photos.  That was after about 2 hours of snowshoeing.  From there we turned back and headed down to Pontebernardo which took a little less than an hour.  Then we went to lunch at the only restaurant in Pontebernardo, the Osteria al Pecora Nera. 

From Snowshoeing February 2010

Fabri and I had been wanting to try the Osteria al Pecora Nera since we hiked up there this summer.  We made reservations for 4 plus 2 dogs for lunch.  They're famous for their Sambuco lamb.  Sambuco is a sheep that comes from the Stura Valley and after lunch we got to see them in their barn being sheered.  We wanted to try the place because they have an American chef!  I don't know how this poor American guy ended up cooking Italian food in the middle of nowhere, but he did a good job.  We'll be going back!  Then I'll get the chance to ask him how he ended up there. 

From Snowshoeing February 2010