Another reason for getting out on the bike these days – as if fetching the paper weren’t enough – to get warm. We’re having, at long last, something of an indian summer here but that means clear cold nights as well as lovely still calm days (‘sunny’ would be going a little far). The net result is that it’s now warmer outdoors than in, and as my day now consists of staring at the laptop with my feet on the power transformer to keep warm, occasionally I have to get out and go for a quick ride (well, quickish – let’s not go mad here) to defrost.
And there’s another sign that, fine weather or no, the summer has gone: the swallows. It’s hard to notice an absence, but they have not been around here for a couple of days. The other half has seen them elsewhere, but there are fewer, much fewer, and the sky seems so quiet without them. If it takes more than one swallow to make a summer, how many non-swallows does it take to make it end?
And we’ll be getting fewer evenings like these, too, soon. Must remember to enjoy them while they last.
What a super picture!
Thanks…
African or European….? (sorry, someone had to
)
If you must know, the Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)
They were European a few days ago & they’ll be African ones soon … assuming they survive the trip.
72 m/s unladen i believe
Oh…it woud be so easy to lower the tone of this post…by a country mile!
Odd, I didn’t know you had Indian summers over there. Next you’ll be telling us you’re having a cowboy winter…
That aside, I do envy you those frigid feet. This has always been my favorite time of year; I miss the seasons here in L.A. There’s nothing more pleasant than a chilly morning that leads to a lovely sunny afternoon. As for birds, we have seagulls, pigeons and crows year ’round, with the occasional hawk and hummingbird thrown in for good measure. Though we did have an owl in the neighborhood for awhile, which caused the pigeons to relocate elsewhere; not the same as swallows commuting to another continent, I suppose, but one must make do.
R::B – lucky I didn’t post about the great tits, then, eh?
bikinginla – I think we only started talking about indian summers because the americans did. Before that it was just nice autumn weather… but after the July & August we’ve had I’ll take any kind of summer at all.
You may have my cold feet, & welcome…