Change

Clouds today almost like winter at times, their tumbled gray masses obscuring the sun and chilling the air, and then light will break through to kindle the green mulberry leaves and glittering pine needles and the bright colors of the late summer roses. The clouds themselves turn from gray fogs to white ramparts to burnished sheets of silver, constantly changing. It's been weeks since the sky last had as much presence as the landscape. Too, the landscape itself is enlivened by the play of light and shade the clouds provide. My skin tingles from the unaccustomed coolness of the air, and now and then I've felt an actual drop of rain. Following the monotony which has recently prevailed, all this stimulation threatens to overwhelm my torpid senses. Maybe it's a good thing I overslept and thus minimized my exposure to it.

It's only one day, though. Tomorrow is supposed to be warmer again, and clearer, but it's been nice to have a foretaste of an autumn day. In any case, autumn will continue to hang around by night. We've reached the season of diurnal extremes. In fact, I'll have to be closing my windows in just a few minutes. Time to dig out the sweaters.