Life is life in Putignano

This week has been a little rough for my roommates ! Jonny and Nomade were both tummy sick for the most of it… I tried my best to take care of the both of them. We had a little scare and thought that Jonny might be lactose intolerant, but we were told that there is a virus going around Putignano…Well, everything seems to be back in order now.

The weather has been getting a lot better. I have to admit, it was a little sad at first to see the Sicilian weather forecast on the news… While it was 4, 5 or 6 degrees here in Puglia, it was 14, 15, or 21 in Palermo!! Finally, spring has arrived here in Putignano, so I’m happy. Jonathan and I will likely eventually make it to Sicily, we’re just not too pressed for time.

We’re slowly trying to figure out what we’re going to do after Italy. Jonathan has applied for a job abroad. We’re looking for something where we can settle for a while. I don’t like the idea of working as a geologist and doing “fly-in fly-out” like I did in Australia (it’s where you fly to a minesite for a set amount of days and then get flown back home for your holiday. Jonathan and I did 9 days of work to 5 days holiday). It ends up being a difficult lifestyle. You’re always living out of a suitcase, and aren’t in one place long enough to get rested and comfortable. I’m loving the country life, and I hope we can find a way to make our living while staying on a farm.

We’ve been toying with the idea to get a car or a scooter for the past month or so. The plan was to find something over 15 years old so we would pay very little insurance on it. Also, we were hoping to find something for under 500 Euros. The Wombat is running just fine, he’s just expensive to insure and hard to park in the city. A large 4x4 campervan isn’t the most efficient way to get around here. Apparently it was very possible to find a decent and running car for as little as 250 Euros in the region…but not lately. The government offered a 500 reward for anyone who took his or her car to be crushed. It’s a way to jump start the economy where people crush their old little Fiats and buy buy buy new little Fiats. Great for Italy’s economy but not for ours. Cheap used cars are now hard to come by… We have our hopes up though, because the government recently decided to stop this cash handout. We’re hoping something will come along. There’s another problem though: there is a 300 Euros change of ownership fee. It looks like it’s going to be pretty expensive to get a car or a scooter (a scooter is cheaper to buy, but more expensive to insurance than an old car). So we toyed with the idea of getting a horse. Jonny went to a man’s farm where there were dozens and dozens of horses. The man sells them. We joked that perhaps we could “loan” one for a few months. We have the fields and a shed we could turn into a barn. Also, our lovely neighbours have 4 ponies, and could help us to take care of him. Then we thought we could get a donkey. They are a little more stubborn but much easier to care for. I remember in Pakistan when I asked how much a donkey cost I was told they cost the equivalent of 30 Euros. I was also told that they’re much less trouble than horses. Horses need to run and eat grass. Donkeys, apparently, can just stand there all day. And that’s what they did. In Pakistan, you see donkeys tied to carts parked in the road like cars… just standing there. Well, surely our donkey would not have to live through that. He would be the happiest most spoiled ass in the world! Well, it’s all a big dream to buy an animal instead of a car, but it’s fun to consider. Never in my life have I been in a situation where that argument (horse vs. car) could actually hold any ground. I love living in the country!

I’ve been painting a lot lately, and I’m having fun doing it. Soon, I’ll be able to go outside and paint a picture of our trullo.

My little "studio":

I’m still have fun cooking and baking, although this week has been simple because of the tummy aches. I made myself breaded broccoli (Marisa’s recipe). It’s not the same broccoli I’m used to, it’s more of a mix between broccoli and cauliflower. Anyway, here’s how you make it:

Here is a photo of the broccoli-flower, fresh from the garden.

1) Cut in long stems

2) Put in baking dish with water and salt. Cover and bake for 10ish minutes

3) Take out of oven drain most of the water. Add crushed garlic, lots of fresh parsley, and oil. Cover and bake until broccoli is cooked to your liking (likely another 10ish minutes)

4) Take out of oven. Remove lid. Cover with equal parts of breadcrumbs and parmesan. Salt and pepper. Bake a bit and then broil.

5) YUM YUM YUM. Eat as first part of meal. Follow it by meat or cheese.

We went to have lunch at the Netti’s on Sunday. This time Jonny and I made brownies for dessert. It is a very American treat (nothing like Italian desserts), and I think everyone liked them. They were a little undercooked (gooier than some like) but there’s nothing wrong with gooey lovely chocolate.

Peace from St Peter in Bari

Last week was meant to be the last parade of the carnival (on Mardi Gras), but it was cancelled because of rain. It’s such a shame because it was gorgeous out the day before and the day after! The town tried to push the events to this Saturday, but needed permission from the priest. It’s not right to hold carnival festivities once lent has started. Mardi Gras” literally translates to “Fat Tuesday” and is the last day (Tuesday) before Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday marks the start of lent where Catholics give up something to feel the burdens Christ lived through. So, because for 40 days before Easter, Catholics have to live solemnly, tradition started to have a little party on the last day before sacrifice. Typically food had a big thing to do with lent. People would give up their favourite food, meat or even fast altogether until sundown. Understandably, on “Fat Tuesday” one would eat their favourite rich and fatty foods. In many catholic countries, a carnival is held in the days before lent starts. A very famous one is in Brazil or New Orleans (where they simply call it Mardi Gras, not carnival) or here, Putignano!

Disco Saint in Putignano

Anyway, the Mardi Gras parade was cancelled, but the masked ball afterward wasn’t. I went with some friends, while Jonny stayed home. I dressed up as Super Girl. The party was held in a kind of warehouse. It was nicely decorated, and there were some pretty amazing costumes! My favourites were: one guy who dressed as a bull, Jim Carrey’s “The Mask”, and a bunch of “The Incredibles”. We got there at about 11pm, when it started. At first it felt a big like a high school dance, but it finally got started at about 1am. I was exhausted. I remember in University, I could dance until 3 in the morning, no problem….I’m getting old! I had a lot of fun though. You could tell I was the only foreigner. There were lots of Italian songs that played, where everyone knew the words and the gestures and I kind of just swayed around. Still, at least I knew the words to “Volare”, thank goodness. :)

Sometimes I wonder if people recognize Jonny and I as the “town foreigners” There are only 28 000 people in Putignano. I don’t mean that everyone knows everyone but everyone knows someone who knows who your talking about (does that make sense?). Anyway, Jonny and I now have our little routine: we visit the Wednesday market, we go to see our friend Elena the butcher, we get our cheese at the same cheese maker as Marisa, and our bread at the same baker, we go to the same fruit and veg vendor….The other day, the fruit and veggie man asked Marisa if I was her daughter. She laughed and said “Yes, I decided not to teach Italian to that one”.

Well I’m sort of ranting now. Time to make lunch

MC

ps: here is a photo of something I find really neat. In a lot of the historical centres there are narrow roads with little ridges made from raised stone. You only find them on slopes, because they are there to prevent horses from slipping! Neat!

A few photos!

I wrote Nomade's name on her dish. I made a mosaic using electric tape. Here is when I presented it to her, and her thanking me with a kiss (actually, she was most likely checking if there was food on my face, because there was none in her dish)

Here is Jonny cutting bread to have with our pancetta wrapped chicken with leeks. You can see the kitchen, and our heating system (the fire place) I don't like the table cloth and am looking for a new one. I found one I liked at the market, but it was too expensive...

Here is our super long driveway.

Jonny: "Marie-Claude viens ici j'ai quelque chose pour toi"

MC: "Je joue aux cartes"

Jonny: "Allez"

MC: "k"

Jonny sort quelque chose de sa poche

MC: "AHHHH WOWO WOWOWO WOW!! AHHH TROP CUTE!!!!"

Jonny: "Il a 2 semaines"

MC: "WOW WOW AHHHH WOW"

Here is Liduina's blue eye. The other one is brown.

Enjoy

Carnival is so much fun!

We’ve had a great time for the passed few weeks! Having a house has been a fantastic change! Though it is only temporary, it’s nice to finally unpack my bags. Jonathan and I have been living out of suitcases for the passed two years, and are glad to finally have drawers. It’s made me really think about what I want in life and where I want to end up. I love living in the country, despite all the work that comes with the lifestyle!

Living in the country, you are never bored, (especially with a puppy…Nomade is lying at my feet right now, wondering when lunch will be served. The rule is that she eats after we do, and Jonny went to Bari this morning, and I’m waiting for him to eat, meaning she’s also waiting. She keeps sighing, it’s pretty cute). I spend a large part of my day cooking, and cleaning up, but I try and keep the complaints to a minimum. Here is a typical day now that we are pretty much settled in the trullo:

Lately, Nomade wakes me up at about 730 in the morning. She usually does so by liking my nose, or by frantically sniffing whatever limb may be sticking out from under the covers. After a few whines and moans I get up. I turn on the electric heater in the bathroom and the hot water heater if one of us wants to take a shower. Then, Jonny or I tend to the fire. There are usually a few embers left from the night before, and one of us acts like a caveman to get some heat going. Then, it’s time to bring wood into our big container in the kitchen.

Then, it’s coffee time! I make Italian coffee using the espresso machine we bought in Australia. We eat a simple breakfast. Nomade eats breakfast. Then, dishes, and sweeping. There will be lots of dust all over the place and little branches from bringing wood in. If it is raining, a little mopping is in order. Then, I usually like to sweep the bedroom and the bathroom. The plaster is peeling from the bathroom walls, so there are little white chunks on the floor in the morning. Nomade isn’t allowed in the bathroom, so I don’t need to mop there everyday. It’s not as bad as it sounds, I am just a little finicky.

After a few card games, some dancing in the kitchen and either a trip to town for food or the Netti’s home for a hello, I make lunch. I’ve been trying new recipes from a book Jonathan’s mom gave me for Christmas. I love cooking here, because the ingredients are so fresh! The Netti’s give us some herbs and veggies from their garden every week, and I make whatever I can with them! We stayed with them for 3 weeks, and Marisa (the mama) really inspired me! They eat so well. The first dish will be soup, pasta, or some sort of veggie dish, the second will be the meat and cheese dish. Then, we eat more cheese, or walnuts. Finally, the big bowl of fruit comes out for dessert. I like eating this way, and have adopted it. I’ve been having a lot of fun cooking. This week’s highlights have been a wonderful carrot cake (with Netti carrots, cloves, walnuts and lemon), an onion gratin (with Netti onions and thyme) and pancetta wrapped chicken breasts served on leeks (well, here only the thyme was from the Netti’s). One other great, and very simple, success was pancetta wrapped mozarella braids.

Pancetta is nothing like bacon because it is sliced paper thin, and is so delicate it can be eaten raw. Also mozzarella here is nothing like what I was used to in Canada...it's amazing in Italy. Hand made fresh mozarella is so wonderful, it makes me want to live in Italy forever. No joke. We get our greens from a super nice green grocer or the market, our cheese is from the cheese makers, or what we made on Sundays with the Nettis, and our meat is from our friend Elena’s butcher shop. Even Nomade gets to eat fresh meat from there. I love cooking because whatever I make usually ends up being pretty good because of the quality of the ingredients.

After lunch, we take Nomade out for a stroll, or go to the Netti’s for card games. I always love to make it down to the poneys' pen to say hello to Liduina, the one who loves cuddles.

I have started oil painting again, and I’ve been trying to get a few hours of painting in each afternoon. I am looking forward to warmer weather so I can paint the landscape outside. As the day goes on, I usually sweep some more in the kitchen and then play with Nomade. We either play ball outside, or with her beloved stuffed animal: Monsieur Nounours. She’s really getting into tug of war, and I’m starting to have trouble because she’s so strong. She’s just over 5 months and already almost as tall as her mom, Gitane. I think Nomade is going to be a pretty big gal.

Jonny and I are appreciating this time. Neither of us are working, and are using our time to discover new things. Like cheese making, archery, mechanics, fire building, dog training, oil painting...and whenever an opportunity to try something new arises, we take it!
I like to make dinner pretty late. Afterwards, we either stay in and play games, go to the Netti’s and play games, I play guitar, or we go to town for a carnival event. The floats at the parade were amazing! They have a parade everyweek!!
So that’s a day in my life right now.

Yesterday was the horned men holiday. The concept is that men who have been wronged by a woman grow a set of horns on their head. On February 11th, there is a big celebration in the piazza (same place where the bear declared a longer winter) where the men have their horns removed. We showed up, and the place was packed! It was much warmer than on the bear night, so a lot of people showed up. There was noise, shouts, laughter…it was a party! There were many men costumed in black and red capes and high top hats equipped with horns! We had a little look and I convinced Jonny to have his horns cut off.

As I was taking his photo, the top hat men called me over. Nowadays, women participate too! I was a little shy, but had fun! After your horns are removed (they stick masking tape with red dots on your forehead prove you’ve gone through with the procedure) they give you a certificate and move you to a “full body scan”. After, you can even test your strength. I was a deer, Jonny, a ram. Afterward, we went for a walk around town. It was very nice.

I made pork schnitzel for lunch. Jonny approved.

This weekend is Valentine’s day. It should be fun. Marisa invited us over for lunch on Sunday, and we're going to check out the carnival parade afterwards!

MC

It's been a busy week in Putignano!

So we're sort of settled in the trullo. I appologize for the lack of pictures this post, I am not on my computer. I hope to post some pictures in the next few days. Also, it should work to post comments now.

This week has been a little crazy. Jonny was sick for the start of it, and I was sick for the end. Moving into a home isn't easy when your coughing or blowing your nose every two minutes. Nomade, on the other hand, was ecstatic to have new things to smell and things to see. For the first few days, she didn't understand that she was no longer living at the Netti's (our friends), and kept running over to their house. Also, she has found a little buddy to cause a ruckus in the fields with. What Nomade doesn't know is that, in a month or so, we will have to forbid her from seeing her blond male pal...puberty is tough for us all.

So, we tried to make the cold trullo our home. We spent a little money to decorate and bought plenty of rugs to keep our feet warm. Nomade has adopted all of them as her own (we thought ahead and bought them all in dark tones to match her fur). We have a few plants and some pillows. The living room is empty, but it's cold in there and we prefer the kitchen anyway.

The house was FREEZING for the first few days, and I did not particularly enjoy having to wear a coat indoors. We figure that no one has lived in there since September... the house just needs a little love, and it'll warm up. We have lit many roaring fires and Jonny especially loves the fireplace. Yesterday, we cooked sausages on a grill on the fire! It was amazing!!!

Living in a house is splendid. The trullo is a lot of work because it is a little rustic, but I'm enjoying it very much. Sometimes I feel like my day is: sweep, tend to fire, cook, eat, do dishes, feed Nomade, and repeat about 30 times (yes, we eat that much), but I don't want to complain. After living on the road for so long, there is something comforting in this little routine.

I am finally going to start painting again. I want to paint a series of photos I took in the last year. I am starting by painting a scene of mine and Jonny's favourite beach in Thailand. It is where we spent a wonderful month in Koh Lanta. I hope to hang in it the bedroom to bring a little warmth.

The weather has been splendid in the last week, which is much to our surprise. You see, on February 2nd it was 'la festa del orso': the bear holiday in Putignano. Before I get into the bear holiday, I need to give you a little background information. Right now, carnival is in full swing in Putignano. As the oldest carnival in Italy, the Putignanese take this celebration very seriously. Although Putignano is a town of only 28 thousand, it has its own holidays, traditions, dialect, and friendly rivalry with neighbouring towns. In Noci, the town 3 kilometres away, the locals speak a completely different dialect, and it's pretty fascinating! Italy is so rich in culture, but more on that later. Back to the bear. The bear holiday is the Putignanese version of groundhog day, only a million times better in my view! If the weather is nice during the day of the 2nd, the bear can go out an build a new bed, so he will be in hibernation for another month, so winter will stick around for a month! If the weather is lousy, as you have likely guessed, the bear can't build a new bed, has to wake from hibernation for good, and spring time comes. So we spend the 2nd hoping it's going to rain or snow or hail or thunder or anything, and in the evening we head to the city centre's plaza to hear the results. We went to the centro storico's piazza, and were entertained with a lovely show. There were dancers, musicians, and a little play (mostly in dialect) with nice costumes. The play was a trial, with a lawyer defending the bear who was accused of farting and stinking up the carnival. The master of ceremonies left it up to the children in the crowd to choose the bear's verdict. It ends up the bear would be eaten with potatoes and rosemary. Those kids may be savage but at least they know how to cook a mean bear. Anyway, we moved on from the jokes, and the lady bear came to announce that she was able to build the bed, and that winter would stay for another month. Damn. Well, joke's on her, the weather has been gorgeous all week, but still a little chilly.

I have to go get ready, we're going to the city to watch a parade!

Bear day, trullo and carnival photos coming up in the next few days!

MC