P day (puglia adventure)

After a few minor disasters such as debit card being suspended, running out of credit on phone while trying to sort it out, and housekeeping barging in early in the morning as they thought I had left, waking me up in a panic, and the stress of ryanair and their horrenous excess baggage charges,but the day got better once my new felt artist friend Yulia arrived to take me to Stansted airport with a drop in to her home and studio on the way. Her friend and also felt artist Sue Pearl popped in , and we went for a pub lunch before heading to the airport. Sue kindly offered to mind my extra luggage while away, and take me to Heathrow on my return.
After I was dropped at Stansted and scraped in underweight by a smidge, I waited to meet up with Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn plus the other participants. We found a couple of the ladies and flew to Bari on the northern side of Italy and then a 1/2 hour drive to puglia in the dark , arriving at the Masseria at about 10ish at night. We were greated by Rosa, the housekeeper, and found the other 4 participants for our course awaiting our arrival. There were 12 of us in total including the tutors. I shared a room with a lovely older lady called Joy. We had a supper and intro to the venue and met all the participants - which included Ann from Houston, Elizabeth from Finland, myself and a mixture of girls from all over Britain. The morning light showed how lovely the property is! And how lovely the countryside is and very different from Tuscany in colour, stone and light. It is quite an arid landscape , it can't sustain livestock but does suit fruit trees and olives well.