Deer and Stones

Josefin and I believe this is the kind of deer we saw. It is a red deer and the Italian name is capriolo.

We have done nothing today. We did go to market and I got a phone!! Now if I am out painting alone I can call if I get hurt or lazy or whatever. I had to show my passport to get the kind of phone you buy off a rack at Walmart. I have 12 minutes before I have to recharge it. So I am pretty excited.

We also set up a halogen light in my little studio so I have somewhere to paint when it is so hot. I started a pastel today. I work on my book everyday so I am not just goofing off. I did take two naps today so that is pretty much being lazy and I did not take a single picture. 

 Each town has its own coat of arms made in stone on the street. This is Rocca di Mezza. The one below is Castelvecchio.

Pictures by Gregor

Yes, I have been remiss. I freely admit it, but we have been having so much fun with our friends, the fun you could be having instead of reading about it, that I haven’t had time to write.











Gregor and Josefin arrived Thursday afternoon. We had the best three days of summer so far. It was hot, but not so hot. We walked all over CVS up into the earthquake zone and all the places we had not found when they were here last summer.
























  Jim inside a house where he should not be. Gregor is also inside this house. Josefin and Jeneane are wisely waiting outside.


















The Gagliano Danes very graciously drove us all up to Rocca di Mezza. It was beautiful on the drive. The mountains are enormous. It is hard to realize from the valley, but once you are on top and you can see the entire valley with its villages spread out below you get a sense of the hugeness of the landscape. I road with Kirsten in her Jeep sort of auto. They had bought it from some people that used it to jack wild boar. These men would go out at night, turn on the light and ram the boar with the grill on the front. Jim, Josefin and Gregor had the smooth Alfa Romeo ride with Rolf.

 Driving in the Alfa and the views along the way to Rocca di Mezza.






























Saturday Josefin and I walked to Gagliano Aterno.   We took a small road that went more straight across the valley than the main road. We were walking through wheat, sunflower and other grain fields. Two deer ran across our path through the wheat. We spent a little time looking around Gagliano, because it only takes a little time, and had an excellent cup of coffee.




As we were starting to leave town we passed a woman and man selling garlic from the trunk of their car. The garlic was in long braids that split after about 8 inches. The woman kept crossing herself and holding up the garlic as if you would put it around your neck. We were virtually the only people in Gagliano. I do not know who she expected to buy. Once I had given in to the garlic, out came a huge bunch of onions. I bought those too, but clever me asked for two bags so I would be even on the 4 km walk back. The garlic are beautiful and we feel much safer now.

On the way back to CVS we took an even smaller road which proved to not be any shorter, but had more shade. It was obvious no one had walked or driven this road in years. The ruts were 2 feet deep in places and the entire road surface was covered in sticker plants. At one of the worst places in the road we were met by a real tractor, not one made out of a rotor tiller. It was pulling a large piece of equipment and I would have been felled by that if Josefin had not pushed me further into the sticker bushes. I had to un-thread the stickers that were stuck through my pants to get out. The tractor driver was also surprised and will be telling the tale of the crazy Danes for years to come. (since everyone assumes we are Danish, it is quite convenient to blame them as needed) He did confirm it was the road to CVS.





After a long nap we all set off for Castel di Ieri to have a coffee and as it turns out, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. It was pretty bad having been in the freezer case for at least 2 years.



G & J left today. It was great to have them here in their Italy home. Now I have to get back to work.

Swedes

Jim, Gregor and Josefin at an old church on the hill

Josefin on our way back from Gagliano Anterno.

Coffee in Gagliano.

Jim and Gregor on the road.

Gregor going into one of many really damaged buildings.

Jim, Josefin and Gregor on the edge.

Stealing the internet connection.

We have been having so much fun that I have not had time to post a thing. I know this has ruined many peoples' day and I am sorry. I promise when the ONLY company we will have all summer is gone that I will tell all. For now here are a few pictures.

July 4, 2012

 Our fourth of July dinner was a big success. Jim is getting a well deserved reputation in Italy for being a good cook. His favorite moments have been when our neighbor made lemon granita after having it at our house and asking him to give her the recipe. She had never seen long grated strings of cheese. Jim had used a lemon zester to make grated cheese for burritos. Enrica was so impressed she purchased a lemon zester, came out in the street with her cheese when Jim was walking by and had him show her how to grate cheese into strips.

At the store you can have hard cheeses ground up to look like what we know as parmesan cheese in a green can, (obviously it is much better) but long strips of shredded cheese do not seem to be known here. After bringing the paper hat to Africa, Jim has now brought shredded cheese to Abruzzo.

I love having dinner with all of our friends, but when you don’t really speak the same language there is an element of playing charades all through dinner that makes it pretty funny. Enrica and Salvatore’s daughter came with them. She knows some English. Salvatore does too, but he likes to mix it and me up with German and French. He is a serious joker. Enrica brought a great cake to dinner and she left it with us. Most cakes seem to be a lemon pound cake, but then different things are added. In this case homemade blackberry jam and chocolate.

Today Salvatore took Jim out to teach him how to tie up tomatoes. We thought he wanted Jim to come work in his garden, but it was for instructional purposes only. Jim said that Salvatore pulled up some weed that he used to tie up the tomatoes. He also gave Jim swiss chard from his garden. While I was walking out to paint, I met a man who owns some chickens that he keeps in a building on Via Sotto Castel. He was gathering weeds to feed the chickens. Salvatore told us that our houses were built in 1800. He has an old photo to show us sometime. And so ended another successful social event. I can’t believe I wanted to go to sleep at 9pm. The day had just started.

It is hard even for me to imagine how I get from here to there. 

Bugs under control

Well the bugs are not under control, but the itching is. The Zyrtec is helping. Our friends told us that they have a mosquito net for night and that the problem is the little bugs bite you over and over spewing anti-coagulant while looking for a vein. This explains the giant itchy areas instead of one nice, clean, bite. I think I saw one. It was a black dot with transparent wings. Yesterday was cooler, but today is hotter again. I did not go painting this morning which is a big mistake for me. By the end of the day I feel a little crazy. Instead I painted on the back room which is where I keep all my art supplies. If I was sure I had enough supplies I would do some still life while it is so hot, but it is not my first choice.

It is substantially hotter this year than last. Last summer we had one week of unbearable heat, but it has mostly been hot for these three weeks. Jim decided to close the louvered doors over the french doors in our kitchen/dining room/living room and that has kept it much cooler down here on the second floor. We have been hanging a sheet on our clothes line on the terrace as a make-shift awning. The sun does not shine too far into the terrace, but it does makes the wall of the bathroom blazing hot. We also have been leaving the louvers closed with the door open at night and there have not been any flies in the morning. Small improvements are greeted with gratitude.

This valley now has mandatory composting and recycling. It works like this: the Commune gave us a brown plastic container that has a second ventilated container in it.

Compost goes inside the two containers in special plastic bags that the city also gave us. Twice a week compost is picked up. We put the two containers, one inside the other, outside after 10pm and before 6am and away it goes. Bones and all organic matter are composted. Trash is picked up once a week. That sounds impossible, but we basically have no trash. Trash is put out in the exterior compost bin also in a bag from the Commune. There are plastic, glass and paper recycling bins up the street. They are located all around the village. The problems are that they don’t pick up the paper often enough and some people put their trash in the recycling bins. There is very little glass as most drinks, including wine, come in cartoons. Once or twice a month you can call the Commune to come pick up large items like our old TV. You can have up to three items picked up. There is still a problem with trash blowing around. There is more trash on the ground than we would find acceptable. This was true last year as well. I am constantly tempted to pick it up, but I don’t. This proves to me that mandatory composting, recycling and limited trash pick up can work. The city has made it convenient, provided the proper containers, bags and bins.

Everyone in town can walk to a recycling bin. Vermont would need pick up of recycling and many people compost already, but it would be great to be able to have the type of compost you don’t want in your garden picked up and kept out of the land fill.

Our friends walking back from the store under our terrace

Yesterday we made peach granita. (ice) It is amazing. We used a container of peach juice and Jim mashed up two peaches. It is better than ice cream, especially when it is this hot. It is even better than gelato. (SHOCK!) I was so excited that I ran over to the neighbors to see if they wanted to come over after dinner and try some. (we had already eaten at the totally unacceptable hour of 7:30) Well, no that would not work, but dinner tomorrow would be great, but not till 9pm. So they are coming tonight for hamburgers and fries, watermelon and peach ice to celebrate the 4th of July. It is hard to wait until 9pm for dinner. I think this is why every day in Italy = two days in the United States.

Tomorrow Gregor and Josephin will be here. If you are not a painter and you don’t have a car, I am afraid there is not much to do here. Our Danish, artist, friend offered to take us to a market at Rocca de Mesa on Saturday. When I told her there would be four of us she immediately said we would all go and take two cars. So generous. So at least G & J will have something fun to do one day. Last year when they were here we went on several walks. There are some places I would love to go exploring around, but except in the morning, it is too hot. I have only painted in the morning. Last year I always had a late afternoon spot as well. I try to console myself that we will be here much longer and that there is no need to get anxious. Just chill, in a dark room, in Italy?? It doesn’t seem right somehow, but neither does melting before you get the front door closed. Jim says we need a pool.

Small Things Continued

Key stone

Store window with Oceanside, San Diego Tshirt...beach where Jim went as a kid

Door knocker

Door knocker and stone work

Small things

Yes we lost the game to Spain, but we chose not to speak about it. Spain out played Italy. End of story. The piazza was a sad place where a chill wind blew. Italian flags were taken in and shutters closed. 

This is the beginning and this is the end, except the painting looks so dark in the house you can hardly see what is going on so changes may have to be made. 

Spot I was painting at the top of the forbidden zone. Some guys came to work on the electric. They had to unlock a gate to get where I was, but I had climbed up from the other side. I wish I had a hard hat. My earthquake plan for today was to get under the big arch that is still standing.



















Small things I have noticed on my wanderings.

Car abandoned in the earthquake zone in front of the Castel.

Address tile in the earthquake zone.

Keystone of Grapes.

 Someone's nice door in an abandoned house. I think this is right next to where houses fell off the hilltop.

Door knob on barn door.

One of many Egyptian style door knockers.

Almost full moon over Castelvecchio with Lights of Castel di Ieri in the background.

Like a heat wave...just like

It is the fierce heat of the Sahara slamming down on to Castelvecchio. The sky is blasted of all blue and the mounting clouds appear pale agains the ivory sky. The stone bench, where I sit,  on our terrace, holds a little of the night’s coolness, but it is nearing body temperature. The sheet hung across our terrace does something to keep the sun off and the plants still look lively. The bells ring for mass. It is cool and dark in the church and the liturgy provides relief from the heat of the mind.

Tonight is the football game and the artist and her husband who own the gallery are coming for dinner. I think we’ll eat inside. Our house was built for this heat. The only exposed wall is over two feet thick and we are built right into the mountain. One step out the door and it is a sauna, dry and blisteringly hot. I took a bath in only cold water, but I did not need a towel. Why did I get out? Unbelievably, I was cold. My bug bites are less itchy after the cold water. On the internet, I found 40 ways to make mosquito bites quit itching. At least my eye AND nose are back to normal. 


I took Bella out for a walk at 6am and it was cool and nice. Just sitting here, my hair, that was wet, is turning to sweat. It is 5:30 pm and it will probably get hotter. This morning we painted up in the forbidden zone of earthquake damage. There is a car still parked there that no one ever bothered to retrieve. Clay pots are shattered  below terraces and two clumps of iris are all that survive. Where I was painting the pavers were interspersed with dead grass. Under the arch, in the narrow roadway, where the sun never shines, the weeds were still green. Houses, one acquired just before the earthquake, stand renovated and empty. More work has been done on the creation of terraces that follow the footprint of the shattered houses. No one goes up there, but us and the Danes. The heat shimmers off the new, white, stones. In winter, it would be a fine place to sit. Stone building are held together, wreathed in wooden scaffolding with no difference from last year. It is desolate. A ghost town at the top of Castelvecchio. 


 Bella's home where we have been hanging out while dog sitting. Her owners come back today.

 This is where I was trying to finish my pastel in Castel di Ieri. It was a highway this morning. A very narrow highway. Every kind of vehicle came by. The most unhappy guy came by about 10 times in the stinkiest three wheel truck ever. The other unhappy guy was riding a bike.

This is when I had to move entirely to get away from the person who wanted to drive out of her garage. No matter where i took my stuff I was in the way. It is hard to back out of a garage on a narrow street in CdI. At the same time the guy from the Comune came to do the trash.

Me having a coke instead of coffee after finishing my painting. This resturant is in CdI and is really great, but also very expensive. We spent 50E here last summer for lunch. The coke was great!! No corn syrup. What a difference. We walked the mile back and I went to buy some Zirtec. 5.50E for 10. I feel less itchy already. I could hardly concentrate this morning between the cars, etc. and the itching.