Figure 1 – August 31, 2015, September’s First Light. Fresh Pond Reservation, Cambridge, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

I went walking on Monday, August 31st, in the intensity of a late summer’s heat. It wasn’t unbearably humid, just very hot. There was that sultry silence of late summer. And there were the colors of dried vegetation: fluffy milkweed, wilting cone flowers, and desiccated Queen Anne’s Lace. The birds were for the most part silent – their voices silenced by the torrid temperature. I am not sure where they go or what they do during these afternoon siestas.  Along the path by Black’s Nook I saw this giant tree illuminated with an intense side light complete with the dancing shadows of the surrounding forest. Here it was the last day of August, and this tree was already bathed in the first glorious light of September.