What a contrast to yesterday. Heavy rain this morning and very little colour so today’s sketch is almost monochrome - better weather tomorrow forecast!
Tuscany is now full of wild flowers which add colour to a very green and lush landscape although it is hard for me to spot red poppies as I’m colourblind in reds and greens but these poppies in the foreground were tonally lighter than the darker green grass so thankfully no problem.
At last we are getting some decent weather. Tonight there was a summer evening feel in Barga, people strolling around in light clothing, restaurants busy with visitors and that beautiful evening light that bathes the buildings with a warm glow. The long summer days have arrived!
Arrived back in Barga late last night to discover there had been a thunderstorm whilst we had been away and the electricity had gone off and freezer full of food had gone off as well - literally! Veg are doing well at last, and grass needs strimming. Weather still not settled and today the sky was a dark grey, impending rain but did not materialise.
Just above San Remo is the old village of Bussana Vecchia. An earthquake struck in 1887 totally destroying the village but in the 1960s it was taken over by hippies from several European countries, repairing the houses to a reasonable state and creating an artist colony. There have been several attempts by the Italian government to evict, the last being in 1997 but so far they have succeeded in staying. I like the village a lot. It has a creative atmosphere, lovely to stroll around and see what these inhabitants have done with very little money on improving their homes.
Menton on the Cote D'Azur is famous for its lemons so while I was here I felt compelled to do a sketch of a lemon coloured building with a palm tree, so typical of the area!
If you drive 20 minutes inland from Ventimiglia (Italy) you will suddenly arrive at the French border in the mountains. Only a few French signs tell you this. No passport control, no buildings apart from an old hut. Just around this bend in the road is another country, another language, another culture - amazing!
