Her place by the river

32 degrees and rising.
The kids all masked, shlepping around with 40 kilos on their backs.
An airless south facing classroom with the shutters closed against the sun.
Not a trace of snow from where I'm standing. Even the high glacial valleys which hold on for a while have given up, letting it all go south.
The river was the only place to be between 12 and 2.
A black cat wound round our legs as we had our sandwichs and drank rosé from the bottle and a dog sat in the tree.