a sunny morning in Pisticci- perfect scootering weather.....

It's nearly the end of July and such a lot has happened worldwide and personally since I last wrote. It's like the outside world has intruded on my little  fairytale life................
However  there are still many lovely things happening here and one of the nicest things to do in this gorgeous weather is to get on my scooter about 8.30am and dawdle off  to the nearest cafe. It's a different experience scootering in the summer when I can zoom around with tee shirt , shorts and sandals .
Work and leisure are very mixed here. I often get commissions from meeting people in cafes and yesterday I took a photo when I was dawdling about, reluctant to go home and its now drawn on a large canvas and ready to paint.
So am just going to look for some summery, relaxed photos which only give a glimpse of the experience that is living in Pisticci.

My "palace" in Pisticci

It has been such a joy to have my house back. No more flinching when I hear a particularly loud bang, no more plaster dropping from my roof into my studio, no more  wondering whether my house would survive - or indeed myself , and no more opening the door and being confronted by scaffolding

I can relax again........

I decided that I need to be nice to my little house and give it some TLC after its distressing experience.

So , I am never going to refer to it in a derogatory fashion again- no more apologising for it being an unrenovated house with a few defects.

Now it's an old and well loved building with a lot of history - which can be seen if you look closely.  It has been here , I think , for hundreds of years and lots of people have lived in it before me and hopefully more will after me.

I am lucky that it is not perfect because then I can be as imaginative as I like with it and I have some crazy plans for future decoration. No limits.

If the walls were perfect then I probably couldn't hang as many paintings on them- but I love living in a gallery and being surrounded by works of arts, portraits of family, old bedspreads. I love lots of colour!

I have so much space to play with and almost every part of the house I have painted or worked on myself or james has fixed is special. My painted fireplace with the roaring fire still makes me smile every time I look at it. The lovely yellow wall in my new sleeping chamber ( sounds more fun than a bed room.)  is a colour I mixed myself after I had been to Florence and seen it in an old cafe with crumbly walls and great atmosphere.

My gallery was painted a sort of orangey terracotta colour one night when I was in the mood for a change and fed up of white.  
The green door was symbolic- not just because it is a traditional colour here, but because I always used to want to blend in and not stand out  and was a bit timid so I changed it from brown to bright green in the hope that my personality would brighten up as well. ( worked a bit...)

Nearly everything in my house has a story.  The crazy tiling in my roman style shower room was decorated with sequins after I had seen a totally weird bathroom in a cafe in Matera.  Or the fridge freezer that a friend gave me several years ago which transformed my shopping life (I can buy ice cream.) and makes me think of her every time I open it.

There are 2 little soft chairs which came with the house, I re-covered them and sometimes I wonder who has sat on them before. They were the first chairs I had ever covered myself. And when I look round I see stories everywhere.

And outside my flowers are back at my door. I have bought some more to celebrate and I managed to save the plant that is growing round my door and  am very proud of it. My first yellow rose is out.(thanks Hans) my fig tree is not dead and quite a few of my plants are getting quite big. I was never a gardener so anything that survives me is a surprise. 

So apologies to my delightful little house/studio/palace and I will  never again refer to it as a shed. I will love the tinkling of raindrops into plastic boxes until I repair the roof again,  I will love the crumbly plaster because it lets me cover it with paintings and bright colours.

And found this old poem

let me grow lovely growing old

so many old things do

laces and ivory and gold

and silks need not be new

and there is healing in old trees

old streets a glamour hold,

why may not I as well as these,grow lovely growing old?

Christmas and now a new year in Pisticci

Last time I wrote this was before Christmas and such a lot has happened since then............since this is My life as a story ,then Pisticci is the background and the stage setting.
One of the local  organisations  put on a very good living nativity in my locality. There were also acrobats, fire eaters, a little pony, some sheep and various other activities and  traditional food. (The sheep was not seen after the first night and the second night there was a lamb stew but, I don't think it was connected!
 I spent Christmas eve with friends and then we went to the church service. That is the first time I have ever been here. It was interesting and quite different, lots of incense and singing, and some processing and it was Christmas day when we came out. ( and Igot stopped and asked about doing a painting.)
I walked home by myself at 1am and I think for a lot of people the night was only starting.
It was a beautiful evening.
In between Christmas and New year I had guests staying in my Arthouse. It turned really cold(-5C) and I had to use all the various methods of heating I possessed . The electric blanket was my saving grace. It was lovely to have American guests who appreciated the beauty of Pisticci.
At the same time I was part of an evening with food and drink and things traditional. I had been going to have a small exhibition under a gazebo but instead was organised into Vincenzo's house - next door to my Arthouse where several neighbours helped out with lighting, pieces of furniture and keeping the log fire going. The log fire was wonderful- I think quite a few people came in to get out of the cold. It was a gorgeous evening where the kindness of people was really the best thing. (Did I mention the prosecco and the pizza....) I sold some paintings again  which I enjoyed but the social part was even better.
New year.was great. I went out to take photos of the fireworks which seemed to be all round the town and got invited into a neighbours for cake and prosecco.
On New years day evening I went to a concert with my american guests in a most beautiful setting. The music was amazing.
It is nice to be back to "normal" now but even that is interesting. Last week I went to learn about what a cupa cupe is and how to make one. This week am planning to go hear some  local fairytales.
And Dirupo is getting more and more white thanks to the White Beauty Painters- of whom there are more every week.
I would very much like to invite others to come and visit Pisticci and spend some time enjoying a break from busy and stressful lives.

lovely red stove in the corner

ready for next guests

misty morning looking over dirupo

working on painting Pisticci white

you could have this much fun!!!!

thought this was a brilliant photo

one of my favourite views of Pisticci

my street in january

I loved these crazy trees and their shadows

gospel choir at the nativity. ( they were very good)

one of the many soldier/guides

nativity scene 

keeping cosy over christmas

exhibition in vincenzo's house

-5C in via custoza

snowy dirupo

(On that subject , I have now installed a large pellet stove in my Arthouse so that it will be cosy in winter. ) I decided not to live in it - despite the  temptation of the stove  as it was just too  complicated and I have too much work thanks to the 2 exhibitions and am hoping that maybe if I have enough guests this year maybe I will get a very large cosy stove in my studio for next year..........maybe....

A quiet life in the country

Oh dear, I think when I called this blog, My Life As A Story,  I really meant my life as an exciting story with lots of weird and wonderful things happening. Its been a bit quiet recently.................................................
I suppose flying off my scooter  was quite exciting , in a painful sort of way! Then being reasonably vain and not wishing to inflict my horrid looking face on other people I did sit around for a month - so adventures were a bit limited. Unless you count the time I just had to get some stuff from my studio and rushed from the car to studio in heavy disguise and then back again . Was still limping at that stage so luckily no one saw me as I may have borne a passing resemblence to quasimodo. (limp - creep-limp-creep!)
Admittedly going out on my scooter now feels a little more of a scary adventure than it did before. Am on the look out for dogs round every corner. Have already been chased by 2 more and spoken to the owner. But now know that if a dog jumps out at me I will stop. I  don't believe any longer that they will not attack my scooter. Having tried this - it looks like they lose interest and go away.
It has been very pleasant though- living the quiet life. I have been baking. Due to a temporary financial crisis I have been using up all the things in the cupboards and freezer and quite enjoying myself.
I invented olive and parmesan scones which apparently are just perfect with a glass of wine while in the bath. I found a tin of pineapple - but not the tin opener- so after some work with a hammer and screwdriver I made pineapple crumble. But what I am most proud of are my chocolate squares - made from a large lump of old cooking choc which had gone a bit white round the edges, half a packet of slightly soft biscuits, some marge  and half a bag of raisins. Yum!!
I have also found lots of old soup mix hidden behind things and we having been having soup and olive and parmesan scones for lunch every day.
I cant eat properly - my teeth are still partly numb, but improving- since the accident. So most of my cooking and baking has been with this in mind.
Sunsets have become important so I have to rush outside with my camera to photograph the best ones.
However the thing I have most enjoyed in my temporary quiet life, is my 4pm finish.
At 4pm I stop work, cooking or whatever and go put my pajamas on (think fleecy red ones) go find a glass and fill it with a really nice 15% red wine, shut the curtains, put on the heater, sit on the furry rug on the sofa and organise the night's viewing on TV. And that is my idea of a blissful winter evening in Italy.
We have been out and had  a lovely evening in Casa Elizia in Pisticci with friends in a beautifully restored house in Dirupo. A glass of wine, interesting local and sicilian snacks and good conversation - a night I would like to repeat.

But for all the rest, keeping warm , being entertained and a glass of wine will do nicely.
(The last photo is my temporary studio space in the country.)