From My Bedroom Window

I opened my eyes this morning to the view I often have now, to the window on my left that lets in morning light through its top two panes while shielding me from the view of the row houses across the shared backyard gardens. Bless those honeycombed blinds that can be lowered to hide the bottom and reveal the top, which were already installed in the bedroom when we took over the house in February. I make sure that they are positioned with the bottom half of the window covered and the top half open before I go to bed each night, because I love to lie in bed in the morning and watch the sky come to life, sometimes with clouds moving across, sometimes with breezes blowing the leaves and upper branches of the trees, sometimes with streaks of sun shining through. No sun this morning, but the expanse of the sky was there, and pretty soon a cup of hot coffee appeared magically at my bedside, too, so my reverie could continue.

This morning I was remembering how I used to wake up in the bedroom in our house in Spain, where the window was on the right (and so was I) and where, if I had been able to look out the full-height glass doors to the French balcony, I would have seen tall yucca trees instead of the broadleaved trees we have now. Of course, I never saw those trees when I woke up because in Spain windows are covered for the night with rolling metal awnings to keep out noise, temperature, intruders and, alas, any morning view. We will be going back to that house in three weeks to close its sale to new buyers, and fortunately we have decided not to stay in the house for the few days we are there. A few months ago the yuccas were cut down on the advice of the real estate agent, who had listened to potential buyers note that the house seemed dark with their foliage. I was devastated, because the yuccas had shielded us from the view of the neighbors across the street and passers0by along the street during the day when the awnings were open, to the extent that I felt perfectly comfortable changing my clothes without covering the window. No one will be able to do that now, with the trees gone, but the new owners won't know that you once could. I think they are going to be an awful lot hotter during the summer months with the sun boring in than we were, too, but that's not my fault.