Klondike, those roses are just gorgeous and nice shot of them, too.  Our little pink miniatures didn't like the heat or something.  Sad summer for them this last month or so.  We were in triple digits here for three days running.  Once I got brave enough to look at our thermometer in the shade.  It was 110.  Honestly, when I put my hand to windows I felt as if I could cook eggs on the glass.  Now we're due thunderstorms and almost fall like air, going to be in 70's next three days or so.  We need rain so badly, and I think we just may get enough to help the brown grass, wilted trees.

When I add chopped celery to home cooking I like it on the crunchy side so only blanch it or micro for a short while before adding to my recipe. Last night I guess it was a lil too crunchy for Foxy Lady as she ate everything else but left all the celery in a nice lil pile on the floor for me as if to say - nah, thanks, but nah....

Wow, catbird, I could just about visualize those cranes, reading your description.

I'll be hanging around this summer thread for a long time, maybe. It can be as late as November when the leaves fall, down my way. Nevertheless, in August the light changes here. The bright areas become more golden, and details are more defined; the dark areas become deeper. It brings on something DH and I call "that awful autumn feeling" - a profound and unspecified longing. We shouldn't complain - we could have two, even three more months of warm weather if all goes well. But that doesn't change the calendar, or the fact that all that golden light is going to one day smack us in the face, gathered, intensified, and thrown back at us by the harvest moon. Neither can we change the tilt and whirl of the planet, which changes the light and brings winter, eventually. It's a good thing actually, that we can't! But I'm not so fond of winter.

Sadly, another sign of this time of year in my area is the hurricanes. Gustav is now taking aim at the Gulf Coast and whereas the exact landfall is unknown at this time, it could be close to New Orleans. I'm in a Gulf Coast state*, about six hours from the coast, so my state's emergency teams are getting ready to take care of those who will be evacuated. The storm could also come across us as a hurricane remnant - a much weakened Katrina did. It still dropped 500 trees in town and set off the tornado sirens with winds in excess of 50 mph. And, there are two more tropical storms in the making out there....

*The main reason I don't reveal my state is that I might want to dis some of the big money people here some day.

Catbird, your insights really articulate the character of the light. I was sort of just seeing it and not really grasping how it does what it does! Also I have to agree, the fading of the year is connected to thoughts of migration and mortality as well as traditional autumn festivals.

Fortunately, the warmer autumns can be quite balmy and magical.

I trust your in-laws were safe although the home was damaged by Charlie. Right now Gustav is projected to track farther west and would only affect us with some rain - but the track is subject to change over the next several days. Preparations to take care of evacuated persons are underway in my area and the local news just announced they will set up a shelter for the animals they bring - in a city at some distance from me so I don't know the details. It may not be possible to set it up this way but I'd prefer to stay WITH my animals if I was evacuating - to make triple sure we did not get separated and lost from each other.

Nice downpour.  That pic was real neat.  I would just LOVE to see a good downpour like that here where we are in Texas.  It's been a miserably hot, dry summer here.

     August (the dog days of summer) has always been my least favorite month, but I always looked forward to September, or really, Labor Day.  I always thought of this as a "new beginning" time of the year.  The time when Summer was gone and I enthusiastically began projects, house cleaning, etc.  I still think of it that way, but I think that in past years it had to do with the children going back to school the day after Labor Day that sparked that feeling.  I would be totally messed up if I had children these days going back to school in August!     These days, another reason I don't like August, and even my September is a bit tarnished, is because of the prospect of hurricanes since my daughter lives in Florida.  catwoods, she also endured TS Fay sitting over her for days (33 inches of rain, I heard), and is still drying out and recovering from basement flooding and cleanup.  We are praying for a bit of a break before another storm hits that area.      It seems that, even though hurricane season doesn't end until the end of November, that there are fewer and less severe storms once October comes.       

Klondike, your analogy about the changes in the light and the works of different artists is a very apt one!  And catwoods, that lavender-colored sunset sky must have been awesome!

Interesting, Mandycat, that you should mention that "new beginnings" back-to-school feeling.  I have been reflecting on that quite a bit recently.  This is the first year in 21 years that I have not had a child starting back to school (to me, school includes college.) Thinking back, I realize that, combined with my own years of school, most of my life has been filled with that particular excitement and anticipation in the late summer.  It's kind of painful to find it gone.

But the other change to look forward to at the beginning of September is that it is no longer hot here!  (or it isn't supposed to be--we are forecast to reach 89 today and 90 tomorrow.  That may seem normal to those of you further south, but it's way too hot for me!)  My brain seems to shut down in hot weather, and I feel a lot more clear-headed once the cooler weather comes.