This afternoon there was a brief period of anxiety provoked by a sudden wind. In many places an afternoon wind on a hot day would be welcome, but this particular place is located in the midst of a giant tinderbox. The combination of heat, a hugely combustible landscape, and sudden wind is conducive not to relief but to an anxious watchfulness. For half an hour we frequently scanned the sky, but no plumes of smoke appeared, and the wind eventually died down. The town has survived another day.
This evening I saw—heard first,then saw—a large moth which had trapped itself in a skylight. Not much of a trap, as the skylight is one of the two in the porch roof and, the porch being open to the world on three sides, the creature had only to fly downward and then to the side a few feet to escape. But moths are thick-witted lepidopts, and the silly bugger persistently flapped and fluttered, expecting to reach the bright evening sky and freedom by passing through a bubble of solid Plexiglas. It reminded me how I do hope we're not being watched by some species far more advanced than ourselves.