Five Feet, Nine Inches Above Ground

On Wednesday March 16, the weather was cloudy and overcast. There was rain in the early morning and when I ventured out on a walk around the village outskirts in the afternoon, there was a strange, brownish gloom in the air.

The air is heavy with the scent of orange blossoms. I wish it were possible to bottle the scent and bring some home! The sand in the air is a problem, however. Vehicles are covered with it. Laundry cannot be dried out doors and it has a tendency to seep in through doors and windows. It’s sand that has travelled from the Sahara desert, not an unknown natural phenomenon. I think it caused pink snow to fall in Paris several years ago. Luckily, it doesn’t happen every year.