Am sitting here tonight in my nice comfy yellow velvet  armchair with my feet up on the antique wooden chest that doubles as a coffee table and occasional  bench. And in the corner the stove is cheerfully burning.  Don’t  tell anyone  , but I lit it this morning also.

I had another morning of waking up  at 4am. And at 5am when I thought I might as well get the day started it was dull and damp and depressing. It felt a little wicked lighting the stove. It is June after all and this is the south of Italy.  But after the security of lockdown  and as I adjust  to this different life with a lot of decisions  to make and brexit coming back into focus then a little extravagance  was very nice. This was the first winter I have been comfortably warm in years…unless you count when I was  living in a hospital and monastery .

It’s  cold outside again. Or to be fair there is a cold wind blowing and my street gets more than its fair share of wind.

Anyways after the usual morning writing and yoga etc and having fish fingers for breakfast as the eggs are out of date I went shopping.

And I must mention that the singing lady is back on form and I smiled all the way to the piazza. Where I put on my mask and my glasses immediately steamed  up. I was wearing a different mask so that might have been the problem or maybe it was the weather.   But I made it home safely by taking it off before I tried to go down the steps in a fog. My planning for a future lockdown by buying one thing extra every week is not going very well. So far have bought 2 boxes of hairdye and that’s it.

Back home and I had a portrait of a baby to do. I thought that if I could paint her eyes, nose and mouth that would do for today , but I  got on very well and should be able to finish tomorrow. I am trying to use some of the skills I am learning “painting ” on a screen and it is transferable. Painting babies is different from painting adults . I think it’s  more difficult.

It would have been nice to sit outside tonight but am assuming that the weather will pick up again and there is all of summer to come so no point in shivering outside…..especially when it is blissfully warm inside.

I think it’s  a holiday tomorrow and then there is even more freedom on Wednesday. 

Basilicata is now a 0 zone …or something like that. I think it refers to the rate of infections. We have been very lucky or law abiding  ( or both ) so far. We are the first in Italy.

This might  be a good time to say that my little house is still for sale. It’s  looking good with free murals and furnished.  (€25000)

Now its wine time .I can see blue skies outside so I might have to turn the stove off I suppose………