Summer is Hanging on, but Falling Nonetheless...

I went walking early this morning, because I no longer have time during the week, and I'm terrified that I'll gain more weight...I know, it's beautiful outside and the air is refreshing, but If it weren't for fatness, I'd talk myself out of it, or into taking a drive instead. That's how lazy I really am. Oh well, all the confessions aside, I went walking early this morning.
Up by the courthouse I enjoyed looking at this sky and taking a picture. In fact, I took a lot of pictures, so here are a few of them. You can see that it was quite a bit lighter by the time I got home. Somehow that's what always happens when I take the camera along.

I'm enamored with the beauty of sunlight and shadow on trees, and stop to rest my eyes on clusters like this, where they huddle in creek beds.

These no longer wear clear spring green, nor yet the intense dark green of summer, but they are clad in a pale, dying green, a green already fading into dull brown fall.

There were a few brave flowers still in color,
but most have succumbed to the drought and look pretty pathetic.

Even the poison ivy has gone all red
and it snakes around the tree trunks
with a languor that makes it look
innocent and inviting.
We know better.

In some of the tree tops--already bare--birds
congregate to ponder upcoming travel plans
and watch the contrails high overhead.
Perhaps they are wistful.