A cool August afternoon

The calendar says August, the month of 'dog days" and sweltering heat, but the breeze from the north is cool and refreshing. I sit in the glider on the deck with a book in my hand, reading while the wind chimes play their tune and hummingbirds flit about, performing aerobatics with incredible speed and precision.

To what do we owe this respite from summer? Autumn is still more than a month away. One branch of the dogwood thinks it's autumn already; its leaves have bronzed and stand out against the green forest curtain — willow oaks, a chestnut oak, a Bradford pear, pines and sweet gums — as the yard slopes away from where I sit. A few leaves have given up the fight for life and have fluttered to the ground to lie in the grass awaiting the rake I have not yet unsheathed. The pines know it's nearly time for fall; they are as far ahead as the stores' displays of Halloween and Thanksgiving wares. Pine needles litter the lawn and the driveway. I will collect them, heap them into a pile and use them for mulch in the plant beds.

But raking can wait. Let me savor this afternoon of low humidity, blue skies intersected by high, filmy clouds, and that breeze from the north that blows away all my worries for just a little while.

Goodbye August; hello September

Today, we say goodbye to August. Tomorrow, we are in September. Oh, the promise of September! The month brings its cooler nights, its refreshing days, its cooling breezes. Already, we are seeing the gloaming light after sunset as the sun's angle grows more acute and shines its eerie glow into the sky from beneath the horizon.

I love September. When I worked in Washington, Augusts were intolerable. Not only were the roads clogged with tourists, but smog hung over the city so thick that I could not see the Potomac River from my seventh-floor office barely a mile away. In September, the crowds thinned, and the air cleared, at least a little, and I appreciated the beauty of the nation's capital.

As August swings into September, opportunities to do yard work after leaving the office grow shorter. Mowing grass will have to wait until weekends. Walks or runs in the early mornings or late afternoons are imperiled by darkness. Even the stroll down the driveway to retrieve the morning paper is done in darkness now as I try to discern the rolled-up newspaper from among the streetlight's shadows.

Those shorter days of September have their detriments, but the benefits of cooler days make up for the longer darkness.