It didn't take long for me to settle into routines here. Wake up, make a coffee from the Melitta, check my email, have that perfect plain yogurt that seemingly only Europeans know how to create. Maybe someone will have gone to the local bakery for a fresh baguette.
Some sort of activity after that, or leisurely layabout until lunch on the terrace, followed by another Melitta, followed by another activity followed by dinner, then a sunset that's almost always pink and then....a walk.
The air this time of night, the way all the animals and noises are changing, the light is shifting, the calmness overtaking. On the heels of the solstice I can still venture out well after 9 and have enough time to make the full loop and back before the sun fully sets. It's one of the best, recurring, parts of my days here.
Lost in my thoughts, but seeing and hearing all the things I never hear during the day. The temperature shifting when you go from high to low. The landmarks. The menagerie of dogs (golden retriever, shar pei, French bulldog) barking as you pass by. Check in on the goats. Take a right at the vineyard entrance, see the grapes growing, slow progress of new vacation homes on the hill, someone is building what appears to be a stable on the other side. Up the hill, to your right again, the old blue wagon next to the house where they eat outside most of the time, next to the house building a bocce (excuse me, boules) court which will inspire our own. Turn through the town or bypass it. See the church and the old lady who feeds the cats. Keep going, past the olive trees, and if you're lucky, stumble upon a full family of wild boars - mother father six babies (at least) - the likes of which you'll always be too stunned to photograph. Past "the commune" where someone will invariably be cooking or staring out the window. Eventually up up up the hill I'm still not brave enough to bicycle.
Finally, home.
Already ready to do it all again tomorrow.
