Two great days

My pastel.

The artists.

July 20
Jim and I headed out before 8am, because it was a cool, breezy day. We went out in the field on the way to Gagliano. It wasn’t just cool. It was actually cold. The wind was blowing and the clouds were racing across the sky making areas go in and out of shadow. Just when I thought I might have to go home, the sun came out for good and I got to do my favorite thing: lie in the field and look at the sky. I didn’t even care that the field smelled of fish fertilizer and manure. We have not seen a single cow here but today we heard them in the barn. There is no land here that is devoted to pasture. It is all little fields of different grains and sunflowers. Nothing is fenced, so cows outside would be a problem.

In the afternoon we took a different route and found an oddly placed stone paved pathway. It led to an old church and a fountain, but the church was closed off and the fountain wasn’t running. We continued on the trail to its end at the fenced in archeological site of early Christian catacombs. We still weren’t satisfied with the view so we scrambled up a steep hill on our hands and knees. It was worth it for the view and the sudden feeling I had to sing, “The hills are a live, with the sound of music.....ahhhhhhhhaaaaa”, we kept walking until we came to the edge of a sunflower field and then looked back toward CVS. The clouds were still moving fast so I did the town when it was in sun and used the clouds shadows to my advantage.

We had a last minute invitation to Gail’s house for dinner. It was excellent. People are starting to return to their ancestral homes from Roma and other countries. There was a couple who live in Sulmona and return to Gagliano for July-Sept, two sisters were back from Canada and a man from Pescara came and cooked dinner. I do not think we have the attachment to home that Italians do. One woman left Gagliano when she was 15 and she has lived in Canada 54 years. She talked about how much it broke her heart when the family home was sold. That is why there are so many empty properties here. People do not sell the family home. With property taxes so small there is no imperative to sell. It was an interesting and unexpected evening. I finally got to wear the black dress Jessie talked me in to. It was chilly, but I used the scarf my mom gave me as a wrap. Thanks, Gail.

July 21
Gail picked us up at 9am after a wild evening. We drove to Sulmona and went to some of the stores that leave weekly flyers in our door. We now have two comfortable chairs and a stool for Jim to sit on when out painting. We parked ourselves just outside the piazza where we went to the big market. It was being filled with rock and sand for the upcoming Paolo. I did not know they had this horse race anywhere except Sienne. I am glad we went to market when we did, because there will not be another market there until after the horserace and midevil festival is over. There are four choices on view from one place. I started two pastels, but will either have to go back or finish them or use the photos I took. I am going to have to face the fact that I am going to run out of paper. We went to an art supply store today and they had no pastel paper. I guess if I had been thinking better I could have got a tube of acrylic paint and some watercolor paper. I did get a new can of fixative. I am thinking of seeing if the hardware store has some very smooth sand paper. The other option is to do pencil drawings. I thought I had so much paper I would never run out. I expected to leave some here. It is good how much work I have done. So we had a great day thanks to Gail. We had a great lunch with homemade pasta at a place she knew. It is starting to seem to me that pizza is an evening food. Although the bulk of the menu was pizza, it was not available till evening. They also charged a 2E a piece table charge. Once we got back to CVS we had gelato.

The New Zealanders are here. We ran into them walking up from their car. Their home in Christ Church was badly damaged by the earthquake and they had just gotten things back together when there was another bad earthquake on June 22. I hope I get to see their house. It is for sale, but too expensive for anyone we know. It is hard for everyone else when we got the steal of a life time.