Cosmos Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 12 x 16" 30 x 40cm
Beehives Blair Pessemier acrylic/canvas 12 x 12 30 x 30 cm
Fog Lifting Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 12 x 12" 30 x 30 cm
le Grande Caniche (resting, standing) Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/newspaper 17 x 24" 41 x 63cm
It was foggy this morning. That’s nothing new for November, but a bit unusual in August. The outside world was covered with a soft dew that also imparted a coolness to the air. It seemed like heaven, although the same situation another time of year could suggest hell.
You know how it is, don’t you? You wait, you plead you beg for summer and before you know it you are like, “ok, already! Let’s cool down.” And the same in winter, when one is mad for the sun and warmth. I don’t mind the heat during the day. We can sit in the shade, work on indoor projects, go for a walk after dinner with Harika, when the sun goes down. But the nights have been quite warm, and I like to shut the windows against barking dogs and passing cars at night.
My flowers are fabulous, but I have a scale bug infestation on my oleander. I have chopped back, sprayed with soap, and killed many with my bare hands, but I really can’t do anything else until May, when I can spray oil. In fact, I will try the oil treatment when they are relegated to the basement in November.
You can see I am thinking about November, when one can open the front door and gasp from the cold air. Socks. A sweater. The frozen dew on the lawn – Harika’a grass gelato. And we’ll move down to Stimigliano.
I am not the only one thinking cool. Last night, Ludovico, our caretaker, talked about cutting the pomegranate trees down to bush size in November. He says we need to change the soil for the oleanders. The line painters painted the white lines on the sides of SP623 this week, in anticipation of our November fog (in fact, the white line is sometimes all one can see in the fog). We can only take so much summer.
It’s due to be warm this week here in Rocca Malatina. I have had the best summer here ever, in any case. We made new friends, visited with old friends, and played hard in the yard. We opened the living room to make an indoor/outdoor house: we have large doors and panels at either end of the room, and when they are both open even butterflies fly through. I met a musician from New Orleans (was born here and visits in the summer) and we’re taking about a NOLO concert and barbecue in the yard next summer. Meanwhile, we take our meals beneath the parasol out back and listen to the radio.
It will be November soon.
PS. I've been painting a dog for somebody, but just can't hit the mark. He's a cutie, and offered at a very good price.
