When it's not quite autumn yet
We are transitioning into autumn so slowly this year that I can’t tell if it’s exactly still summer yet. :)
29 August was a very rainy day and the temperature dropped rapidly. But as I was having my walk in the overcast evening, it didn’t feel really autumnal because I could still hear the screams of the swifts (they go quiet when the weather gets really autumnal).
I have become so adjusted to the heat that I feel seriously cold at 24C (75F), but I was very grateful for that temporary relief from the heat of most of August.
Photos of those electronic trolleybus stop signs (with the especially hot evening of 11 August for comparison because that’s the latest I have from before that colder rainy day).
35C = 95F
17C = 62.6F (29 August)
And then the temperature started gradually rising again, and today (3 September) was a very hot day… followed by a bit of rain in the night, so we’ll se how it goes.
I still have mixed feeling about the shortening days because I don’t like it how becomes dark at about 8 PM, but shorter days mean less time for the sun to fry us and more chance for everything to cool down during the night.
The house martins are still here and showing no signs of getting ready to fly south; I can still see young bids just generally learning to fly without following any pattern. Yet I know that I have to watch them carefully if I don’t want to look at the sky some evening and realize that they are gone. The swifts depart later and in much less organized manner because it takes them much less time to reach Africa.
The crickets are still very loud at night. The occasional yellow leaves are still due to the dry heat of most of August (even our famous silver lindens aren’t that drought resistant).
But I suddenly noticed yesterday that the peacock in the new park has shed the “masculine” feathers off his tail. I’m afraid he feels better this way because those feathers got in the way of his flying attempts, and now it must be easier for him to reach the top perching position on a dead tree. :) I tried to photograph him this evening, but didn’t manage a decent photo.
And here is another sign of the approaching autumn: wild clematis (Clematis vitalba) in varying degrees of fluffiness, complete with blackberries that may or may not live to ripen on that fence depending on the weather.
29 August was a very rainy day and the temperature dropped rapidly. But as I was having my walk in the overcast evening, it didn’t feel really autumnal because I could still hear the screams of the swifts (they go quiet when the weather gets really autumnal).
I have become so adjusted to the heat that I feel seriously cold at 24C (75F), but I was very grateful for that temporary relief from the heat of most of August.
Photos of those electronic trolleybus stop signs (with the especially hot evening of 11 August for comparison because that’s the latest I have from before that colder rainy day).
35C = 95F
17C = 62.6F (29 August)
And then the temperature started gradually rising again, and today (3 September) was a very hot day… followed by a bit of rain in the night, so we’ll se how it goes.
I still have mixed feeling about the shortening days because I don’t like it how becomes dark at about 8 PM, but shorter days mean less time for the sun to fry us and more chance for everything to cool down during the night.
The house martins are still here and showing no signs of getting ready to fly south; I can still see young bids just generally learning to fly without following any pattern. Yet I know that I have to watch them carefully if I don’t want to look at the sky some evening and realize that they are gone. The swifts depart later and in much less organized manner because it takes them much less time to reach Africa.
The crickets are still very loud at night. The occasional yellow leaves are still due to the dry heat of most of August (even our famous silver lindens aren’t that drought resistant).
But I suddenly noticed yesterday that the peacock in the new park has shed the “masculine” feathers off his tail. I’m afraid he feels better this way because those feathers got in the way of his flying attempts, and now it must be easier for him to reach the top perching position on a dead tree. :) I tried to photograph him this evening, but didn’t manage a decent photo.
And here is another sign of the approaching autumn: wild clematis (Clematis vitalba) in varying degrees of fluffiness, complete with blackberries that may or may not live to ripen on that fence depending on the weather.
