Are these days hot or chilly? All afternoon, working on my back porch, I put on and take off my sweatshirt, step into the sun to make phone calls, lean against the cool clapboards with my laptop. For days now, the air has been smoky with wildfires far away in the north. In the mornings, I wake coughing, wondering how people are breathing, so much nearer these fires.
August, and the raucous summer abruptly quiets. Walking in the woods with a friend, she notes a bird singing — wood or hermit thrush? — but all else is quiet save for our conversation. I’ve been here before, the pause between high summer and early autumn, when the swimming’s still good and the sunset lingers long after supper, but the mornings are filled with cool mist, and the shadows are not warm.
In past years, the faintest shadow of Long Winter has filled me with dread. Again, I will lose my tan, carry my laptop to the kitchen table, maybe go mad talking to my cats. Or not. Twice a day, I water the nasturtiums hanging in baskets on my back porch, listen to the neighbor boys biking. These days are yet long.
From Sunday poetry readings at the local arts center…
Wavering
What makes you think you’re so different?
That was my weaker self hanging around outside the door.
The voices over the telephone were accusing, too.
“Must you always be you?” (They had the advantage,
More bold without faces. They swirled a few ice cubes
With a suggestive pause.) For a moment
I took my heart out and held it in my hands.
Then I put it back. This is how it is in a competitive world.
But, I will not eat my own heart. I will not.~ Ruth Stone
Stony Soil Vermont 
I can’t imagine living closer to the fires. I am in PA and I woke very congested this morning, my asthma not happy. It will be closed windows and air conditioning for a bit here, much as I would rather have the windows open.
Still smoky…
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I too am already wondering about winter, how I will be this time around, another chance to feel differently about it, already imagining the blankets and slippers I’ll need. I am reading Kari Leibowitz’s book call How to Winter in hopes that a new mindset will be enough to embrace winter as I do summer. So far I’m optimistic. But then, it’s still August. Hope your smoke dissipates soon.
Great book!
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Enjoy your winter reading in August!
It’s a kind of out of body experience!
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Today we have no air quality warnings but my asthma tells me the air quality isn’t great, and the red sunrise attests to that. We were up in Vermont a couple of weeks ago and the smoke was intense.
We are also in that pause between full summer and autumn. Last week birds were few. This week the sunflowers are beginning to ripen – as they will in stages – and the birds are back. This morning a catbird hit one of our windows. Fortunately she bounced off the scene, seemed dazed for a short time, then appeared to be back to normal. Sadly, birds hitting windows is not a rare event, although, thankfully, that seems to seldom happen at full speed.
May we all resist the invitation, or demand, to eat our own hearts. Take care.
Always nice to hear from you….
Very beautifull pic 👌
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The air has certainly been challenging. Where did the Adirondacks and Green Mountains go?
It is a mystery!
We’ve been experiencing the effects of the wildfires in central Illinois, and the air quality is driving my respiratory system crazy. Not sure how they’re surviving in those places close to the fires.
I wonder, too…. Thanks for your update.