In fact a few of them were chirping all through the bright afternoon today. These were making the soft chirps that crickets make once they've attracted a mate with their louder chirps. I heard two pairs of mating crickets in the back yard—one safely tucked away in a flower bed against the house and the other out in the wilds of the lawn where they are apt to have my giant feet clomp down on them when I'm out for my walk. Lucky for them the walk was so brief tonight. Come to think of it, maybe it was they who hypnotized me into staying so long on the Internets. Well, they'll still have to move soon. The lawn is getting very long and will have to be mowed within a few days. If they haven't taken their leave of it by then, there could be cricket bits flung hither and yon by the mower blades. Cruel reaper of insects!
Among all the cricket chirps I can still hear the loud croaking of one frog. It is somewhere up the block, and I have no idea what water source is keeping it alive and so happy. Maybe one of the irrigation district's pipes has sprung a big leak. But as far as I'm able to hear, that's the last of this year's frogs, whose songs were so noticeable a few weeks ago. The season is rushing. It feels almost summery again tonight, in fact. Having lost most of the evening to this machine, I think I'll go out and enjoy a bit of the night as compensation.