It has been impossible to ignore the fact that there is a big fire at the other side of Pisticci. Although I can’t see it from here there are enough photos and live videos on Facebook for me to see what is happening. ( despite, or maybe because of the wobbliness of some of them it felt like being there.)

And overhead the fire plane and helicopter have been passing every 10 minutes or so.

It’s difficult to concentrate as I kept hoping to get a close up photo of the plane overhead,  but was always too late and missed a brilliant shot as the big yellow canadair plane appeared to miss the castle by inches.

It’s  being said that the fire was started deliberately.

I went out  to see which direction the wind was blowing ,and am hoping that  the fire is eventually extinguished after 2 days, before it reaches the end of my street.

In the last video I saw, it looked like it was dying down. 

Other than a sort of virtual firewatching, I finally finished my other commission so now I just need to get the mural finished and I can get back to my little paintings of Pisticci.

I was thinking about how I felt yesterday and why I was so discouraged and fed up.

Firstly if I had transport, then having a sore knee would be a manageable problem. A town full of hills and steps could be impossible if I had a serious problem.

Secondly ,my knee isn’t really sore, but when I walked home the other day it was aching by the time I got home. I remember about 30 years ago I played tennis and hurt my arm. It wasn’t very sore and rather than let my friend down I helped her to screw together a lot of IKEA furniture the next day. It was over a year before my arm was back to normal. I know that if I have a sore head and take a paracetamol then nothing I do will make it worse. But I don’t know if that would be the case with a sore knee.

I like it ,when after feeling that I am overreacting I actually make sense.

That was another plane overhead. They don’t fly in the dark so they only have a few hours left now to deal with the fire. The fire brigade do what they can ,but it’s the planes which have the greatest effect. The fire has burned overnight for the last 2 nights.

It has been very warm and windy today. ( bad fire weather.) It’s quite difficult to stay cool inside. The wind doesn’t help as it’s hot.

However the temperature should go down a little in the next day or 2 to more manageable mid thirties.

And now I am celebrating finishing the big panels and feeling much more cheerful.

Cheers 🍷🍷