People that live in stone houses should not drop glass

July 25

We got up too late for our morning spot so we went out in the field. (I posted my picture yesterday.) There is a man who works at city hall that Jim gave a painting to. He reciprocated by giving us some potatoes from his garden. (great french fries) Today we went to see him about paying our taxes. There were so many people in city hall. I have no idea what they were doing, but I think they had been waiting a while. They were having a good time all talking and enjoying themselves. No one seemed impatient. We got to go right in. (I do think all the people were waiting for some other official) We have to figure out our taxes which are due on June 16, 2012. We are supposed to pay them in person, but we are not sure we will be back to do that, so we want to pay them now. Vittorio said he would figure it out and to come back tomorrow at 10 a.m. We use google translator to talk to each other about these complex matters. Earlier this morning his wife showed us the rooms she has to rent for tourists. They were so nice and include a kitchen. They were really nice!! I would be happy to recommend them to anyone. It would be a great place to have a group of art students stay, for instance. After that we went for caffe and then the weather started getting threatening. We were sure it was going to rain. I wish so much you could see the mountains here. Every moment is a different cloud phenomena. Today it was raining across the valley, but in the end we only got maybe two drops. We could see the rain coming over the mountains and starting across the valley. There are almost always clouds climbing over the mountains and sliding down the sides. The sunsets are always incredible with the combination of clouds and sun. It is like a message from God. Rays of light shine down and illuminate different fields and you can watch the sun move over the land as if in a speeded up film. Our friends, you should come here. Spend some time without a car. Experience the slow life. Learn to paint. Face yourself, because you have nothing else to do. Meet wonderful people who will try so hard to make you understand what they are saying. Relax, because you don’t have to talk about the horrors of your life. Let go and let Italy consume you.

July 25
Today was market day. We restrained ourselves from buying too much as we seem to have to eat non stop to catch up. We are working to pay our taxes for 2012 ahead of time. So far we have managed to pay our garbage fee. We kept saying no this is too little. If we didn’t have our friend to help us it would really be hard. It would be hard if we didn’t have google translator to help us both.

Between market, business and caffe most of the morning was gone. I got some sand paper at the hardware store to see if I can use it for pastels. I only have two reasonable sized pieces left and then some very small ones. I did some drawings yesterday while waiting around the house thinking it would rain. Gregor sent us some colored charcoal pencils and some regular colored pencils....all the colors of Abruzzo. It was fun to just play around. The other fun activity is scrubbing the tile floors on our hands and knees. Jim is mostly letting me do this fun job. I will let you help if you come visit!