And this is a photo of how it is ending.

Brutto was waiting at the door when I came back inside . I  stroked him, telling him that he could come inside, sit on my knee , keep warm by the stove and have a lovely life. He ignored me so I tipped some more cat food into the plate and shut the door. Cats!!

This morning I ate my last little ginger Swedish biscuit given me by a thoughtful friend. I have been enjoying one every day since before Christmas. 

The plan today was to staple canvas onto 5 or 6 wooden stretchers  ….all made by me.

I had finished the biggest one when the stapler started to go wrong. The staples went in shaped like an “m”. And despite changing the staples incase it was somehow a bad batch it carried on producing “m”s.

For some reason I thought it was Sunday  and then I realised that it was wednesday and I could go out and buy another stapler.

I had been planning only to go out for shopping for the next few weeks. That’s not going well.

It was another lovely day and safely hidden behind an FFP2 mask and dark glasses I set off for the nearest ferramenta.

On the way I met a friend and we were discussing how neither of us could wear glasses properly with a mask . We managed to avoid a car which luckily we could see.

It will be no surprise to learn that my stapler worked perfectly when the guy at the ferramenta tried it. He said I should turn a little round thing and make it stronger. We had a brief but friendly conversation and I left happily and having not spent anything.

Money was obviously burning a hole in my pocket as I was strangely drawn to the chinese shop even though I didn’t need anything. I compromised by finding €1.70 in my pocket and deciding that I could spend that. The shop is like a treasure chest containing everything you could possibly want.

I bought sandpaper

Then walking down the steps into Dirupo I met the organiser of the Christmas Market. We talked about what had happened. He said that there had been about 90 cases of the virus over that few days in Pisticci and people were worried. There had ( I think I understood this right) been queues of people waiting for tests at the farmacia.

And I get a refund for the 2 days that the market was cancelled .

All that energised me and by mid afternoon I had finished all 6 canvases.

Next I checked if my Internet bill had been paid . It has. Hurray! I emailed the person who has been answering all my questions and thanked him for all his help. He even replied on a Sunday. ( not a call centre)

There was time to watch 3 episodes of ” landscape artist of the year”

And now it’s wine time.

Very satisfactory day.

Cheers🍷🍷