What a lovely summer night. Faint music drifts through the wide open windows while a gentle breeze ruffles a gauzy curtain now and then. Having returned to Saintes last Tuesday, it’s very enjoyable to be home again after almost two months of continuous travel.

It has been unseasonably hot most of this week and I don’t envy those who have to work in steamy offices and shops. I had a much needed and eagerly anticipated haircut on Thursday and everyone in the beauty shop was minimally clothed, just enough cover not to offend. A large floor ventilator was providing relief while blowing a cloud of my nearly invisible clippings all over my face and neck. You win some you loose some!

We keep our shutters closed during the day to preserve the cool nighttime air as long as is possible. The dim light and muffled sound created by those tall shutters protecting the inside space against the blindingly bright outside world remind my of the lazy vacation days of my childhood in our grandmother’s house in southern Germany. Those dog days of summer were just as sweltering as the present ones and the shutters at her house created similar patterns of shade and brightly glistening strips of light as ours do here, thus resurrecting a fondly remembered atmosphere of haze and tranquility.

After sundown, the temperature drops sufficiently to open all the shutters and windows but one and allow a cooling draft to work its magic for a good night’s sleep. The one window that must remain closed has a streetlight mounted near it, attracting a plethora of unwanted insects ready to swarm the premises, should you be foolish enough to grant them entry.

I must, however, open other windows facing east to catch a glimpse of our neighbor across the river Charente, the Gallo-Roman Arch of Germanicus.

I miss that sight when we’re not home!

Today was my auntie’s birthday, she who grow up in the before mentioned shuttered house of summers past. As I was up early, I took some sunrise pictures to tweak into an electronic birthday card for her, which somehow, in between going to the market and watching the Formula One P3 and qualifying events in Spa, Belgium on TV, turned into a veritable pixel play in yellow, pink, blue, green, and turquoise.

Just having fun!