Dampened

Intermittent sprinkles have sent water through the rain gutters where, they being freshly cleaned, it trickles loudly. I can now tell without going outdoors when it is raining too softly for the drops to be heard. Before the gutters were cleaned, the water moved too slowly to be heard from inside the house. Had I known how pleasant the sound would be, I'd have cleaned the gutters sooner.

Apparently, there will be no snow. The slatey roof of cloud has prevented the temperature from dropping further all night. Indeed, compared to yesterday morning, it is now almost balmy. Well, it would be balmy for penguins, at least. But it's possible I won't need that extra blanket today, and the younger cat spent quite a bit of the night outside.

I think some deer passed by a while ago, as I heard some faint sound that might have been hooves on the wet pavement. By the time I went out, the sound was gone, and there was no trace of deer, but only the dark sheen of damp asphalt barely visible in the darkness. I had the urge to go walking, to breathe in the damp and to hear my own footsteps resounding through the stillness, but it is too near bedtime. Some other night, perhaps. Now, the cats and I will end our nocturnal watch and leave the world to the creatures of the day. May they make good use of it.

Foggy

Soft gray day drifted into a night of fog and mist. The headlights of passing cars are dispersed into auras, porch lights and yard lights are softened into haloed drops of luminance and the curtained windows of houses float in the dimness like reflections of light in a dark pond. As vague as dreams filled with echoes of half-forgotten conversations the evening passes, time slowed yet still more active than the unstirred air. As yet, the damp has not gathered long enough to break the silence with its dripping from trees and eaves. Though I cannot see them (as I will not break the spell with an intrusive torch) I know that the pine needles and the leaves of the bushes and the metal of the rain gutter now would glisten with moisture soon to seek the ground. I walk through the transformed wood, my only purpose being to breathe.