So chill

Jim, as close to hammocking as he can get.

Exhaust pipe Jim reattached to the wall using something besides string.

Latest rearrangement of "living room". This is our sectional couch or two beds. They can easily be put together. This is a cool place to hang out in the heat of the day where we can read without the overhead light turned on.

This morning we took a long walk up behind the supermarcato on the other side of town. There were great views of four of the five towns in the valley, but it wasn’t a particularly paintable spot, especially because there was no shade and it was already hot before 9am. After getting back home with groceries we went to the hardware store and got knobs for the wardrobe and a clamp for the exhaust pipe that was hanging by a rope. Beyond that I took a nap, ate lunch, took another nap and then went out to my afternoon spot of Castel d Irie. It was a hot, long walk. We did not get hit by a car and there was not a motorcycle in sight. It was breezy, but the bugs were almost as bad as the other day. I was in a hurry to finish. Jim had wanted me to finish it from a photo and had said he wouldn’t go with me, but of course he did. My watch dog. On our way back we walked by a “garden” of oak trees surrounded by a seven foot tall impressive fence. The posts are made of concrete, because wood is so expensive. The trees were little and it seemed really weird. I had looked at them before, but had assumed they were fruit trees. We met another farmer up the road and he explained, in Italian, that truffles grow under oak trees. He had oak trees fenced in as well. We discovered he grew apricots and tomatoes and salad greens. He gave me a tree limb of rosemary and told me to use it for roasting. He also gave me another, more fragrant herb that was to put on bread with olive oil, garlic and tomatoes. Pretty sweet to go out painting and be given fresh herbs. When we got home, my neighbor liked my painting so it was a great afternoon. We are going to stay up late tonight and go downtown and see what's up. We are saving gelato time for then. There were older women sitting on the stone wall across the street from us until after midnight last night chatting away. This is the advantage of an afternoon nap, although I still am sleepy by 10pm. The heat makes everyone nocturnal.

Life in the piazza at night is exactly like life in the piazza in the day. The same 30 guys are there, no kidding, and a few other people. Counting me there were four women there. I think the women are always on the stone wall. The cars were zooming around and the only difference was the dark. Some people we know, Ermalinda and Violetto stopped by and handed us a bag of new potatoes out of their car window. They were from their garden. We scored on produce yesterday. The herbs made dinner delicious.