LAST DAY of AUGUST

 I'm afraid the last day of August was filled with cats. Cats lounging. Cats watching. Looking. Staring. All the neighbours cats. Waiting for something. Cordelia watches from her lookout.

  Last day of August, and already it's started. The take down of old flowers that have bit the dust. Thornless blackberries, having never produced berries before, have decided to  show their stuff. Not a lot of berries, but enough for the birds to steal.

             And it rained. Wonderful rain. At last. The drought has gone. For now. The Hibiscus, huge this year, bigger than it's ever been, was pounded with rain. And survived.

                Spencer, visiting as he does every day,  slept through it all..............
                             
                       On my porch. In his chair. No one sits in his chair. Not even his brother Smokey. And  he's welcome to that chair. I even turned the cushion over so it would be more cushy for him. He doesn't seem to notice the fading begonias and fuschias. I  can see them slowly turning rusty. But I just can't make myself  yank them out of the dirt.

    Smokey has taken to the gate. To stare. When Spencer is fully awake, he has taken to hanging off the bench. To stare. To purr in the still muggy sun. To just hang out.

              I left his yellow cup for him. He likes his yellow cup. I'm saving the two ivy geraniums beside him to over-winter. Did that last year, and they came back with a vengeance.  I'll have to save Spencer's yellow cup as well.
           
  Then in the morning and the evening it is a staring match . A battle of wills between outdoors and indoors.  Weather's changing. They sense it.
               
  The stellar jays sense it. They steal apples. They taunt  cats. And the cats respond by flopping down in the grass and staring at the fence. But I think they're watching the flowers droop ever so slightly, or possibly more than slightly. I also think they are still hunting snakes up there. It's been snake heaven for Smokey this year. I'm not quite ready to say goodbye to summer. I don't think he is either.....