The pigs have arrived and have taken up permanent residence in the “loge” just across the courtyard. This unfortunately heralds the simultaneous arrival of an army of flies who congregate on the fly screens, waiting to gate-crash as soon as anyone opens the front door.

The two pigs (and flies) will be in their new abode for the next couple of months or so and as is the case every year, I always take great pleasure in throwing them our vegetable scraps. It is my mother-in-law who feeds them on a regular basis though. Every morning she goes in and braves down the frightful beasts armed with nothing but a bucket of “soupe”. Being a townie, I am still getting used to this animal thing and am too cowardly to open the door. I don’t want to dramatise, but I fear that even if I opened it a crack they would smell my unfarmer-ness and stampede, trampling me in their efforts to leg it down the road.

So, in order to do my bit for the environment I courageously throw my peelings in through the window, being careful that they don’t take my hand off in the process. I then stay and watch for a while, as there is something satisfying about this sort of recycling.

There is also a second reason that I stay and watch. I secretly fear that one day they may miss a peeling and my mother-in-law (who of course, never misses anything) will see to what extent I peel my potatoes badly, leaving more potato on the skin than I should. I think this is called damage control, although with retrospect, I cannot imagine how I would ever rescue the offensive peeling if it came to it.

The pigs are very versatile and will eat most scraps, but we never give them meat. It is rumoured that this turns them into insatiable carnivores and I wouldn’t want them eating my mother-in-law.