It was a lovely relaxed early morning. After reading the papers ( twitter) in bed I got up and opened  the shutters and the door to let the sunshine in. Then as it was so pretty I went for a little walk to inspect my strawberries and other plants. My old ( 5 year) strawberry plants have grown new big bushy plants and the strawberries are big! And I had another tomato ripened as well as 4 more little ones.  It is still a big treat for me to grow things I can eat. So I ate my tomato and it was lovely.

Then back indoors I boiled eggs  and did  5 salutes to the sun . I had coffee left over from yesterday so put it in the microwave.

I am making a point of eating breakfast outside without  my phone and trying to notice things. Doesn’t always work. But today I noticed that there were not hundreds of black birds sitting on the tree. Am glad they must only have been visiting.

Sitting outside after that with coffee, chocolate and strawberries it felt a little like it did during lockdown when there was all the time in the world.

After that I wrote a bit more of my ” whatever”. Have a vague idea for a short story…..maybe at the weekend.

I remembered to go water my agave and while I was there stuck up a new vendesi sign. The film crew must have taken the other one down and put it in a safe place which I can’t find.

By 9am I was at my easel having decided to paint the biggest and apparently most complicated painting of Pisticci .Apart from brief  reading breaks I have been there all day. And it is finished. It is 40x50cms.

It is still a bit hot to sit outside. Even after removing the cricket which was sitting on my seat.

So it’s  wine time . And apart from the postman who brought 2 packets of small brushes for detail I haven’t  seen anyone all day. Maybe I should go out tomorrow,  but  on the other hand I have  3 more paintings to do this week if possible and then I could go out at the weekend as a reward. I am good at finding excuses to stay home………