The cool of stars.

We are on our way into the hottest days of the summer this week, the weatherpeople tell us; tonight, my house is a good number of degrees hotter inside than the outside air, and so I'm trying to air everything out before heading to sleep. One lovely thing about days as hot as we've had lately can be (but isn't always) the relief of the evening's cool. Walking home from having done some reading at the bookstore, I realized with pleasure that my bare arms were almost cold, swinging through the night air. And when I arrived at home and got away from the street's canopy of lights and leaves, I realized how profoundly visible the stars are tonight. And so, bien sur, I got out my tripod, lengthened the shutter speed on the camera, and took you a picture. (I took it particularly for you city-bound folks.)


It's not a fantastic night shot, I know. You might have to turn off the lights where you are, if you want to see the stars against all that black. But they're there. Click on the image to see it larger, and you'll maybe see more than just the one near the bottom of the image. And now fill in all those dark spaces with a plethora of smaller, lighter stars, and you'll have some sense of the sky under which I sit tonight, reading about imposition and gearing up for a hot, hot day tomorrow. For now, there's no haze, no heat, no hurry. Just night, and cool, and stars, and a fervent hope for universal clarity and moves toward benevolence.