LABORS OF LOVE - 24 August 2011

24th August, 2011  

We are in the second week of a heatwave with temps in the high 90's. It's laborious to breathe, difficult to move and impossible to think. But, the Blog goes on!

I watch a little cinque-cento - miniature 3-wheel pick-up - go down the road. The back is laden with fennel plants. Fennel grows wild here and we have been making tea from the flowers, but we're both too feeble to even contemplate digging for the bulbs. Are you kidding? The earth here is clay and as we've only had one day of rain in 7 weeks it is now baked clay. 

To attempt introducing the blade of a spade into this "earth" would be like trying to karate chop a cement block. I'm just not doing it. But that man in the 3 wheeler, from the look of his load, must have been doing just that for the last 2 or 3 hours. In 97 degree fahrenheit ! And here's the other thing: these little 3 wheelers? No-one, I mean no-one under 150 drives them. Seriously, this is the vehicle of the contadini and there are no contadini left under the age of 70. Amazing. Meanwhile I can barely bring the laundry in off the line.

But if you think that's amazing, how about this? The temperature is reaching boiling point and Joel's gone off to shoot a fire! Talk about commitment to the creative process. For the last few years Joel has been working on a new series of photographs called "Elements." Air, water, earth, fire. He had an exhibition of Air + Water pieces at his NY gallery, The Edwynn Houk Gallery and this summer he's been working on earth. Forget fire in Tuscany in the summer. But good old Gianni put a call in to the local fire department last week asking them to call if a big blaze happened. The call came in half and hour ago and off they went.

Me? I'm sitting in front of a fan drinking iced lemon water, writing.

P.S. Joel would love to show you photographs of the fire but the helicopter got there first, extinguishing it with water from the air.