Carefree rhythms .

It's hot . All the village houses have their shutters firmly closed to block out the sun . However , here at the rickety old farmhouse the shutters are kept resolutely open . This , according to 'the font ' is so that the bats , and their young , can sleep contentedly in the shade behind them . Bats it seems eat 600 insects an hour . There are literally hundreds of them behind our shutters which may explain why we have no mosquitoes in the garden . A bug free poolside in return for open shutters seems a pretty good trade-off .

Across the road the old farmer has now finished putting up the row of coloured Christmas lights around the eaves of his house . Mid - morning and he can be seen clambering up a ladder , carefully training an electrical cable through his climbing nicotina plants . At this rate it can't be too long before the lights are turned on and the village turns into a minitaure Coney Island . Thankfully, there's no sign yet of the huge Christmas star . Walking home with Wilf ' the font ' notices that our neighbour is working feverishly in his garage with what looks like ancient welding equipment .

Exhausted after an early morning trip into town for croissants and cakes , Wilf decides that sleep is a priority . Most of Sunday is spent dozing either in the hallway or on the shaded front doorstep . 23 hours of naps . The carefree rhythms of an old dogs life .