Am lying on my bed in my gallery writing this. Outside there is a strong wind blowing, a little river running past my house as it is raining heavily and the thunder has been gojng round and round for the last 2 hours. Every time I think it is stopping it has merely gone round the other side of Pisticci and is on it’s way back. It is still warm inside and I have the fan at the end of the bed on at nearly full speed.

I am supposed to be up town in an hour but am not going anywhere unless it’s dry. However it may be all back to normal in an hour. There is an event on in town so I hope it clears up soon. The next 16 days are all supposed to sunny and hot so it is just unlucky for them tonight.

This morning I delivered my painting on the theme of ” violence against women” to the venue in town. I thought it was going to be outside, but it’s not. My painting is quite different to the others. I sent a short message explaining it this afternoon as I don’t mind it being different , but I would mind if everyone thought that I had not understood the theme. My Italian is not that bad.!

And it seems to be a competition which I hadn’t understood. ( I guess there was some excuse for people thinking I hadn’t understood. 🤔)

While I was out I bought some wood for stretchers. Unfortunately I thought I had a sort of scraping tool which I can’t find so I haven’t had a try at making one yet. If The storm goes away I might see if I can buy one tonight. I got 4 long strips for €12. My plan is to make small ones to begin with and learn how to do it before I attempt anything bigger. I am quite excited about this. The man in the hardware ware shop wished me ” buon lavoro”.

Blue skies are appearing in among the clouds now. I think that in an hour and a half it will be ok to go out.

I have sold another 2 paintings. That makes 4 this week.

I have one more week till August and have 2 more spare smaller canvases which I might paint next week if I can find another subject I like. It would be fun if I could also paint a small canvas that I have made the stretcher for.

Tonight I seem to have gone off wine. I hope I am not ill………😀😀