The best news is the cooling trend. The rest of the week there will be highs in the low eighties, and the nights will be dipping down into the high fifties. Soon I'll be able to leave the windows open much of the day, and then will come the time when I can close them at night and leave them open all day. The air should start smelling of autumn before too long. I'm starting to think about pomegranates again.
But that's October and November, and we've still got September to get through. September can be unpredictable, blowing hot and cold by turns. Hot is not so bad when it is preceded and followed by cold, though. Leaving the chilly house for a warm outdoors on a mild September day can feel more like getting toasty than like getting braised. Even today is not too bad, and I'll probably be able to open my windows by six o'clock, or not long after. I'm hoping that a breeze comes up, as it sometimes will on a warm but overcast day.
That strange bird I've heard but never seen who has been hanging around the neighborhood all summer is still out there, hoot/coocooing. I think it might be calling for a mate, but if so it has been disappointed so far, and is likely to remain so. I'm pretty sure it's the only member of its species in the vicinity. Early one morning a week or so ago I thought I heard a faint response from another bird with the same call somewhere over toward the river, but the bird nearby didn't respond to it.
Either I heard something that wasn't there, or the other bird was of the same sex as the nearby bird and so they took no interest in one another. It seems rather late in the season for them to nest anyway. Maybe the stray bird will return to its normal wintering ground once the weather grows harsher. I've enjoyed listening to the song for the last couple of months, though, even if coming to this exotic place was a wasted trip as far as the bird was concerned. I can sympathize, as I certainly know that feeling.