must write blog!!!!!!!

it would be nice to think that i have not written a blog for two weeks because my life is so busy, interesting and fascinating that i have no time. well obviously thats true (huh!) but actually its cause i am so cold.

( pause to get cup of tea, move gas heater nearer and put thick fleecy dressing gown on over clothes)

i suppose because this blog is called my life as a story you may well think i am being a little free with the truth to make a point but i am not!

it does sound ridiculous , that here i am in the south of italy where the temperature rarely goes below freezing and has been , in january, as much as 20 degrees, but in my studio it is a whole different story.

i think my studio is lovely. i have 2 little village houses, called lammie, which have a narrow connecting door between them. (about 50sqm altogether not counting the attic( library ) space)

both have a door opening onto the street. i am almost at the end of the short street so its very private and as the street ends ,the countryside begins i have a great view.

number 8 is the bottom storey of three but number 9 has its own cute tiled roof .

the walls are 70cms thick . the back walls are right up against the hill.

in the spring, summer and autumn its great to be here but in january and february its sooooo cold inside.

last year i decided to use electric radiators to keep the temperature at least moderate and it was definitely better but the electric bills were horrendous so this year i am trying the" wear lots of clothes and move gas heater around "system of heating which works up to a point but wearing gloves while painting is not really much fun.

however its only for about 2 months every year and if i tell myself that often enough it will make me feel like an intrepid artist struggling against the odds to produce my life s work rather than listen to the wee voice in my head saying "go get a job back in the uk and a flat with central heating".

anyways enough of the cold and a little about my little car. ( my amica, means friend in italian), it is possible that it could ,maybe ,be on the road with me driving it by this time next week. but i am not holding my breath. despite lots of trips to the agency to sort out documents it still needs to pass an mot. i am not confident!

naked woman in toilet

this is absolutely true. at first i thought it was a picture of marilyn monroe covering the floor of the most interesting , bizarre, weird, artistic and just down right odd toilet i have ever been in. but the second time, i just had to see it again incase i had dreamed it, i realised that to dry my hands at the electric blower i would be obliged to stand on her er naked chest! she virtually stretched in a sort of curled up position from the toilet to the wash hand basin on a red glossy background.

on opening the door to enter , it was like going into some sort of medieval cave. it was shaped like a cocoon and the walls were plastered in large curved crescents and painted metallic grey. there was a delicate chain mail screen partly screening the toilet and another one underneath the wash basin which was actually a large rectangular greenish glass box surrounded literally by flowers. i have a feeling that there were several mirrors on the door, which was also painted metallic grey and some decorations on the walls.

another unusual feature of this italian toilet was that it had, a lock on the door, toilet paper, soap and a dryer that worked. usually there is at least one of these things missing.

and this toilet was not in some odd night club or s and m club ( not that i have actually ever been in either!) but in a perfectly nice little cafe in matera. its called the tiffany bar and is not far from the piazza.

now i am inspired to do something radical and ourageous with my shower room in my studio.

mmmm!

( painting is of sunday morning in matera)

can a new desk really make me a good blogger?

i have a new desk in the corner of the living room. its an old italian table with 2 drawers which j has restored and its very pretty. i have taken a photo of it sitting there with the table lamp and my italian dictionary and papers organised on it , and my lap top. it looks , i think, like the desk of someone who could write interesting things, who has good taste and style and likes corners. the pictures on the wall are not mine but maybe i will change them so that then it will be the corner of an artistic blogger. am sure that will help.

or is all this just part of the fantasy i am creating, and always have, cause its more fun than the reality.

i remember years ago desperately wanting a trug because i believed that if i had one, i already had the big straw hat, i would be a better gardener. ( i think a trug is a sort of flat basket for carrying flowers in and i never did get one- and i gave up on gardening.)

i really believe that having a scooter makes me a more interesting person, and calling my little house in town a studio with a small gallery makes it easier to believe i am an artist.

its certainly more fun going to my studio on my scooter than walking to my little scruffy, damp, leaky (freezing right now) one roomed house where the draughts whistle through all the gaps in the doors along with the dust, bits of plaster fall off the roof when the wind blows ( inside) and the plumbing leaves a lot to be desired.

to be fair in the summer its cool and dusty and all these other things.

but i go up there all the time cause its my studio.

and then there are clothes . when i wore my new fake fur outrageous leopard skin coat ( bought second hand at a market) to go out for dinner i felt like an artist. i teamed it with a grey thermal hat with a torch like a miners lamp on it so i certainly shone out. ( we had to walk along in the dark)

so can having a lovely new desk, instead of using someone else s table make me a better blogger.?

cant help but notice that after having been stuck all week for anything to say i have actually got started again.

any comments welcome, suggestions gratefully received and encouragement badly needed!!