The crack of dawn

On January mornings when the weather is clear, the sunrise shines directly in my face as I'm doing my blog post or reading other blogs on the laptop computer in the living room. Sunrise today, for example, is at 8:34 a.m., so it's not an early dawning. By the time we really get some rays of sunshine, it's nearly nine o'clock.

This fact makes me realize that dawn has a whole different meaning at this northerly latitude.

Dawn breaks late in Saint-Aignan

Once I open the heavy wooden shutters that protect the French doors from the cold and the living room from prying eyes at night, I'm blinded by direct sunlight. I have to go work elsewhere. But it's nice to have the rays of the sun streaming in.

One of the pleasant things about this house on the edge of the vineyard is that we have a clear view of both the sun rising and the sun setting — when the skies are not cloudy all day.