We awoke today to an ideal summer day. A day for linen and shorts. The sounds of the crickets, birds and insects amplified the already magnificent clear blue sky.  The glaring sunshine is so bright it is more white than yellow. The backdrop of foliage is an exuberant green. The temperature rapidly mounted.

Fortuitously we are engaged this afternoon to visit my erstwhile physician on his country estate in the Village of Ashton. It is a venture we’ve always enjoyed in the past. We appreciate the opportunity the more so because our host is so often out of the country – indeed around the world, whether on a mountain, in a jungle or atop a pyramid.