From a darkened room

We are enjoying, if that's the right word, the effects of anticyclone Lucifer with exceptionally high temperatures day and night accompanied by a hot wind straight from the Sahara. I have gone native and like the ladies of the village am keeping the doors windows and shutters closed to keep out the heat but still the temperature indoors remains above 30 degrees. We cannot cool our bedroom, typically its around 32 degrees when we go to bed after midnight, we have a fan that makes no difference apart from wafting a bit of air over us. We keep that going all night then around 5.30 as it comes light we open the windows briefly before things get seriously hot again. We have a billino rosso, a red alert, for dozens of cities and temperatures forecast to reach 50 degrees before this record breaking heatwave is over. Additionally there is a wild fire on the hillside about four miles from us, it's been burning for two days now filling the valley with smoke and haze that intensify the inferno effect. Now have a little above ground pool that gives us some respite. It's deep enough to immerse and I can swim across in three strokes, perfect. Mr FF has also made us an outdoor solar shower for rinsing before and after using an old table, some coiled water pipe, and a hose, all bits and pieces he had in stock. It's not a thing of beauty but it works perfectly. Unfortunately with the hot weather the pool water is getting a little bit too warm, no breath taking shiver when you enter, that would be nice. For health and safety reasons I have closed the kitchen, by the time I'd cooked our evening meal I was so hot I had no appetite so now we are eating lots of salads or pasta with our own vegetables. Of course we are drinking litres of tap water cooled in the fridge and in the evening a glass or two of wine with ice. The end of Lucifer is I believe in sight and life might become more normal, not that it's stopped Mr FF working. He has been breaking out concrete for a new damp proof course at the front of the house, working until around midday when he takes a dip in the pool and retires to bed. He's gone native too.