when not painting...

Yesterday friends helped me to carry tiles that would have been thrown out during building reconstruction. They will replace the ugly modern roofing over my kitchen steps. I am now well accustomed to scavenging in the dusty caverns, first checking for snakes and bats and then watching out for scorpions as I move things that are damp.

Today I cleaned in my exhibition space, the room where oil was pressed. (Photos later).It is an impressive and interesting place. The wheel was turned by mules. The owner, who lives in Rome, gave me permission to have the lock changed so that I could use it. People in a house above it will supply me with power to have lights on the paintings.

On Saturday people invite family members home to the village for a big lunch, and then in the evening the festa begins. An artist originally from this village will come to exhibit in the piazza. There will be concerts both nights. The poles for the big lights over the road went up today. I hadn't really thought about it before, but when your village is built upon the rock the poles are not put into the ground, but attached to other poles, balconies, trees.

There are at least two special masses, an afternoon band concert, and who knows what else? My mostra (exhibition) is only a tiny part, but because of it people will be able to walk around in the old oil pressing room which has been closed for years and inhabited only by pigeons.

I guess you could say I have been getting my hands well and truly dirty lately, but a long shower before a nice dinner with visiting Kiwis made me almost human again.