14 August 2010

Lights out

The power went out yesterday morning, and the electrician and I just now restored it.  In fact, it was the simple matter of switching the main breaker.  Dr. Ewell had told me where to find the two fuse boxes inside lo Stallino e la casa grande, each with a main breaker of its own.  These were all switched on, but not the mother breaker, which I just now found hiding in the external wall side of the Stallino.


While not having electricity for twenty-four hours may sound like an inconvienence, it was lovely.  It rained yesterday afternoon, and I napped with the windows open to the cool air.  At night, the skies cleared, and I built a fire and cooked porkchops and peppers.  Mist breathed in the valleys, and the headlights of the cars that swept across the hillroads formed solid mass that drummed staccato through the trees.  I sat in front of the fire past midnight with Toby and a bottle of Syrah, reading and watching fire from the pit and the silver candle-sticks brought up from the dining room, while over time, their dripping wax gathered in weeping stalactites.  Night birds and tree-frogs sang to me, stars fell overhead, and I bathed in firelight watched the heavens' silent chalice turn.

06 August 2010

Outline Done

I have completed an nine-page outline.  For me creating an outline is always harder than actually writing the paper.  I can generate ideas and arguments quickly, but rigidly organizing them so that the logic smoothly cascades from one paragraph to the next is a greater challenge.  If minds were guns, I would be a shotgun, not a rifle.  But now that the outline is done, I am cranking on the writing.  I should have the majority of this thesis knocked out by September.  This fall, I will need to continue to read through the Berenson archive at Villa I Tatti, and what I find can be inserted into the paper to further support my conclusions.  I doubt I will find anything that jeopardizes my argument.

Otherwise, for my birthday tomorrow I am roasting a leg of lamb, and today I am preparing a crust of mustard and rosemary in which I will marinate the lamb overnight.  This is a favorite dishes that reminds me of special events at home: birthdays, Easter, etc.  Tomorrow night may just turn into a Townsend Party: me, red meat, red wine, Otis Redding, and more red wine.  Ah, the pleasure of one's own company.