Nice

Clouds and moonlight and cool breezes have made this my favorite kind of autumn night. For a while, the clouds grew so dense and the air smelled so damp that I thought we might get, if not rain, then at least a bit of mist, but they thinned again and the moon re-emerged, and the night remained dry. Strangely, the katydids are still about, sending their shrill cries through the no-longer summer-like air. On the occasion of stiff breezes, they were accompanied by the autumnal sound of oak leaves skittering along the street. Dry oak leaves, tough and crisp, make the best sound of any windblown leaf. Even with the sounds of the leaves, the insects and the humming pines, the night was remarkably peaceful. I did startle some deer when I went out about one o'clock, opening the door to quickly. I heard their hooves clatter as they fled down the street toward the orchard. A few minutes later, I heard the orchard sprinklers go on. Perhaps the deer got a nice bath in exchange for having their late night stroll disturbed by the clumsy human.

Monday Being Monday

Goodness, it's warm today! I keep hoping that some of that fog I've been hearing about will make its way down here from Oregon and Washington, but instead we're getting Fresno's fruit-ripening heat. There's no need of that here, since just about everything has been harvested already. (Incidentally, this year California growers have harvested over a billion pounds of almonds for the first time. A billion pounds! That's just nuts!) Anyway, the fan is back in the window and will probably be there all night. It's so noisy that I can't even hear the katydids.

I just noticed that a new link has appeared on my user info page. It reveals that I have 7 pictures at LJ photo hosting. Apparently, every paid user who has uploaded pictures to their space there now has a link to them on their user info page. I wonder if having the link displayed is an opt-out feature? If it isn't, I expect to soon see some drama over it in paidmembers.

I had some other thoughts, but the heat has driven them from my mind. It's back to the iced tea!