And mostly working on latest commission  which is nearly finished and includes a bale of hay. ( or it might be straw.). That is not so easy to paint.

Sometimes I see something random on youtube and it sticks with me. Yesterday I think I heard a realist painter say that it was the abstract  which makes things look real.  I took that to mean that if you paint exactly the colours and shapes and marks you see then it will result in something real appearing.

Imagine  trying to realistically paint a big bale of hay.

I think I have made a reasonable job of it and especially  the shadows. When I was going to turn the canvas away from  the light and realised that the shadows were painted   . ..that was a good moment.😀

I seem to have painted since about 9am this morning.

My current audio book is quite gripping and disturbing. The time flew past.

It’s  been a lovely day outside and the door was open all day. I made time to sit on the doorstep  and read for a while after watering the  flowers and eating today’s  strawberries.  I dropped some mint leaves into my glass of water which made me feel good about not letting them all go to waste.

My basil has not died( yet) in fact it looks like it is getting bigger. 

From today everyone over 12 in Basilicata  can make an appointment  to get the vaccine. It sounds as though things are going well . There were only about 40 cases in this region yesterday.

On the other hand everything I read about the UK makes it sound like despite the vaccinations they are in trouble due to the new strain which used to be called the Indian variant, I think.

If  I understand correctly  then the more cases of the virus there are then the more chances that it will mutate again and again until it is vaccine resistant  which is why the whole world needs vaccinated and until then no one is safe.

It gets a little muddling ,but I was thinking it must be like the virus goes out one day and infects a few people and thinks this is fun and jumps from person to person having a great time and if no one stops it then it gets everywhere and in the meantime it gets better at jumping and does somersaults  as well and twists and twirls and gets much more skilled at infecting people.

I suppose that’s  why lockdowns are important and then vaccines so that the virus  can’t practice and get more skills.

Anyways I am just trying to make sense of this for myself after reading that some vaccinated people are getting ill with this new variant.

It was so very lovely being out last night. There were so many people in the streets. All wearing masks. Now I only notice if someone isn’t  wearing one. It felt like the old normal .

My new Italian detective series is looking good. And the weather forecast for my birthday weekend looks good 

Cheers🍷🍷