Driving home yesterday the heat was so intense, even in the early evening, that I felt I had to stop the car and rest for a while.
I turned off the main road, and then turned off again into a quiet village.
Six o'clock, the sun still high in the sky, the air so hot I felt it warming my lungs as I breathed it in.
High above the private hedges that screened the houses I could see a sliver of silver moon in the cerulean sky.
The key to the church was kept at the Hall, but the Hall was silent so that the house itself seemed exhausted by the endless hours of oppressive sun.
I looked round the outside of the church, the silence a little unnerving. Obviously an ancient and holy place, the tower at a different angle to the rest of the building, the finials on top of the topmost pinnacles dazzling gold with the sun. In my mind the music of Debussy's Apres midi d'un Faune.
Dappled sunlight on honey coloured stone, the archaeology of the building complex, Romanesque remains next to gothic tracery.
The silence disturbed by a sound of hissing and sizzling, so that going back out onto the round I saw a traction engine trundling along the deserted street, accompanied by billowing clouds of soot and steam.
It was a bizarre intrusion into an already preternatural experience.
I turned off the main road, and then turned off again into a quiet village.
Six o'clock, the sun still high in the sky, the air so hot I felt it warming my lungs as I breathed it in.
High above the private hedges that screened the houses I could see a sliver of silver moon in the cerulean sky.
The key to the church was kept at the Hall, but the Hall was silent so that the house itself seemed exhausted by the endless hours of oppressive sun.
I looked round the outside of the church, the silence a little unnerving. Obviously an ancient and holy place, the tower at a different angle to the rest of the building, the finials on top of the topmost pinnacles dazzling gold with the sun. In my mind the music of Debussy's Apres midi d'un Faune.
Dappled sunlight on honey coloured stone, the archaeology of the building complex, Romanesque remains next to gothic tracery.
The silence disturbed by a sound of hissing and sizzling, so that going back out onto the round I saw a traction engine trundling along the deserted street, accompanied by billowing clouds of soot and steam.
It was a bizarre intrusion into an already preternatural experience.
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