Thursday, July 16 Only five weeks till we leave

(sorry, I forgot to download my pictures so catch them tomorrow)

Today it is 37c tomorrow it will be 40c. How hot is it? That is your math puzzler for today. This morning Jim went to the grocery store and I found a new place to start a pastel also in the shade. 

I am going to finish the second one tomorrow after market. It was just too hot today and I was too tired to set everything up again even though I did go to my spot. 

While walking home, a guy asked me to come inside with Victorio so he could show me the work he was doing in a house. It appeared that all work had stopped on this house since last summer and that maybe someone had stolen the stones that were by the front door. 

This is not the case. Work has been going on inside and it was amazing. I kept saying, “wow”. Like 100 times. There was a rock wall of rough stone going from floor to ceiling that looked like it was going to be a fountain. Some old pottery had been broken and installed between the rocks to look like it was buried in them. The bathroom was che bello. And you know how bad bathrooms can be here. It had a beautiful deep sink that the woman can wash her hair in and the tiles were a sea foam blue-green. 

The mystery of the missing stones was solved. These stones are smooth and flat, not rough like a rock wall. I thought they were for the outside of the house. People like to put them on the edge of the house and make the plaster thicker so it looks like the stones have been revealed by chipping, but these ones were to use in the house.  At one time the guy had them all laid out on a piece of paper  to see how they would fit. There were a few still on the paper. He told me that he had had to cut almost every stone and I do not mean with scissors. The stones have rounded edges that look like sea glass feels. Not only are they cut, but then the rough edges are rounded over and polished till it looks like they came that way. They are about 1.5 inches thick. Most of the stones are on the wall going up beside the stairs. The spacing between them is completely the same. It was another 100 wows. No wonder it takes so long. I asked, but it is not his house. I had my camera, but I was too blown away to remember or think to take pictures. The only furniture so far is an old blanket chest that looks like a chest of drawers. What appears to be a skinny top drawer can actually be folded down to provide air to the blankets. Wow. 

I have been storing my pastels by the front door, but it seems to be too humid. They are getting soft and crumbling so now they are upstairs with the box open drying out. I had this happen once before when I had them in the trunk of the car during a hot summer in Vermont. I tore up the second water-colour I started. It was horrid. Now it is in pieces. Maybe this is not a portrait summer. What I really should do is work on some paintings for my show in September. Pictures of Vermont that is. Wouldn’t that be gross to work on photos of Vermont while you are in Italy, but in the afternoon it is just too hot to be outside. Thank goodness big clouds build up everyday or we would be roasted on the terrace. Jim got a blister on his elbow from touching the railing on the terrace in the middle of the day. Time to fry eggs. 

Since I wrote all the before with no relief in sight from the sun and heat, it poured down rain. We were up at the piazza having coffee with a friend when the rain started. Then there was lightening and thunder about 2 seconds a part. We decided to go inside the coffee shop. Just in time! Chairs blew across the piazza and the coffee cups blew off the tables. It was wild. After about two hours and six coffees and one gelato, we could venture back out. Back at home Jim say a streak of lightening go across the mountains that was as long as from his nose to his finger tip. That is a long piece of lightening. The sun is back out as it is about to set and it is as humid as ever. Whoops got to go It is starting to rain again!