Reflections on late-August

There's no sign of autumn in the air; no chilly dawns, no mists rising off the fields, no scents of an impending Fall. A beautiful day today, crystal blue skies from morning to dusk - not just warm, but hot with a maximum of 32C, even some evening gardening on the działka has brought me out in a sweat. The sun is now setting at a quarter to eight, so we've lost an hour and a quarter of daylight since summer solstice two months ago. In another month's time, we will have lost another hour and a half - the change in day-length accelerates towards the equinoxes and slows towards the solstices.

Below: the scene outside my działka, looking across at the other side of Jakubowizna, around half past six.

We will also have lost the warmth of summer evenings, the hot noonday sun, the comfort of strolling out in one layer as the sun sets. Indeed; the sun has set ten minutes ago, as I write, and the temperature outside is 28C. 

Make the most of it. Today, I walked over 17,500 paces.

I predict a massive surge in Covid-19 cases in early November, just after the clocks go back across the Northern Hemisphere. We'll lose an hour's evening daylight instantly; the hammer of darkness will hit all those with Seasonal Affective Disorder, which in turn hits the immune system. Samopoczucie* goes downhill, and susceptibility to bugs increases. This is the time of year both my parents died; it's like they couldn't face yet another season of darkness and cold again.

Lockdown befell us just as spring arrived. The days were getting longer - and two weeks later, the clocks went forward giving us that extra hour of daylight. The pandemic might have been in full force, but there was sunshine, there was warmth, there were trees in bloom, there was summer on the horizon. 

But an autumnal upsurge in the pandemic will have no upside other than the distant prospect, half a year away, of another spring. Until then, drizzle, rain, mud, chill turning cold and darkness, trees reduced to bare skeletons, no leaves, no fruit, no flowers. Chill in the bones and sinews; coughs, sneezes, sore throats - Covid-19?

Every hour of summer therefore, is precious; waste it not. A local walk or the garden, a lie-down in the sun even, a bike ride. Fresh summer fruit and vegetables. A glass of wine at an outdoor restaurant table.

In summertime, when the living is indeed easy, there is a strong temptation to take it easy. To lounge around, to idle. Looking at my exercise log, I can see I'm at my hardest-working in the early spring, around Lent time. Summer days when I complete all ten sets of exercise are few and far between, this year and in previous years. Blog posts are less frequent. I get lazy. But seeing that summer won't last forever begins to motivate me. Ride the motorbike! Soon, the wet, cold, dark days will preclude that joy. Make the most of a dwindling resource - time. 

For soon, we shall go from living the Sublime to merely dreaming of it.

Late summer/early autumn - a metaphor for my Time of Life.

*Samopoczucie - a great Polish word without a direct English equivalent. Literally, 'self-feeling', how you feeling physically and mentally. What condition your condition is in.

This time two years ago:
Conscious of a waning summer

This time six years ago:
Plans for modernising the Warsaw-Radom railway line