And writing. This morning I was up by 6am and enjoyed writing my sort of diary thing. It does seem to start my day well. Coffee , chocolate and a laptop.

I wasn’t going to go out and then I just felt like it. I try not to resist good urges. Exercise and practice mask wearing. As before It was only me. But I wasn’t in the middle of town. However I kept my mask on and It didn’t bother me while I was drawing. I have told myself that I am taking no chances of being fined €400 and I actually think its a good thing to do so may as well get used to it.

As for the exercise….walking slowly up a steep hill then sitting down for an hour before walking back down ….not sure if that really is exercise. On the way back I stopped several times to check out different views to paint. I think if its a lonely restricted winter that I can paint the whole area without ever going into town.

However today there were a few people about . Terrevechia is not a district I have painted very often. It is the oldest part of Pisticci. Even older than Dirupo where I live. So all I need is an empty doorstep or a low wall and a half decent view. I could easily spend all winter there.

When I got back I painted a saint. It was a bit faded after being in the sun for the last few years so I brightened it up. Will varnish it tomorrow. It belongs to my neighbour. It felt like a very neighbourly thing to do.

This is a week full of birthdays. 3 grandchildren and James.

I spent about 4 hours this afternoon drawing a portrait of James. It was quite difficult as I had to use my phone and it’s difficult to measure as the photo moves if you touch it. Eventually when I realised there was something very wrong with the proportions I printed the photo so I could check.

I was drawing it on my kindle because it’s easier to use than my phone.

My dark tree emails arrived from my kindle this morning. What can I say!!

The time passed and I went out to water the flowers and found a leaflet that had blown down my street saying that the electric would be off for 3 hours on Wednesday. I am fairly sure I would not have seen the notice .

I checked the size of my cardboard tubes in which I could post paintings in my sale. They are bigger than I thought so will cut canvas 45cm by 60 or 70cm to fit in them. My plan is to leave enough space around the edges so they can be put on stretchers by the purchaser. Now all I need to do is decide on subjects. I have 11 tubes.

I might need to make some prints too.

Exciting……

But now it’s wine time and I should try for the 3d time to catch my grand daughter and wish her a happy birthday.