At our house the last few years, the end of summer means putting the leaf net on the pool. I admit it's a sad day. It is especially for me as the autumn season change affects me emotionally. I'm outside a lot during the six months of April through September. I swim every day that I can and I enjoy the sunshine. The rest of the year is not without attractions nor days outside. I wear more clothes. I walk instead of swim. There are lots of good things that I anticipate. But it's always sad to put the summer away, until next year.

I imagined what it would be like to have a swimming pool. But I am still surprised by how much I enjoy it. I swim nearly every day from early May until now, often several times a day. Ah, the life of a retiree! I could say that it just came with the house. A pool was not at the top of our list when we were shopping for our retirement home. (Today is the fourth anniversary of our purchase). It would just be a bonus if the house we bought had one. It's been quite a bonus with the best part being that our granddaughter, Maddy, loves swimming in our pool. Sweet!

Today will probably be the last swim of the summer as the days get shorter and the nights get cooler. It's been a wonderful summer.

Okay, here's a closeup of yesterday's photo. The original dimensions of yesterday's photo was 7952 pixels by 5304 pixels. The cropped version for today is 2970x1981. That makes it about 6 megapixels and I routinely made and sold 13 by 19 inch prints of the 3000x2000 images produced by my Konica-Minolta 7D. And I can tell you the resolution of that older camera doesn't begin to compare with this. Could be why I am excited about this new camera and lens combination. This crop is 14% of the original image. Can you see the pollen on the bee's "hair"?

Another experiment with my new camera and macro lens. Details: 1600 iso, 90mm lens, f/8, 1/200 second. This wildflower is wingstem, a sure sign of late summer. The plant is just at the end of my backyard, and I saw the patch of yellow from my deck, so I thought I ought to investigate. A couple of bees were searching the blooms for pollen, carefully but efficiently gathering what they needed. I got close but I was not their subject of interest, so I could focus close on them and the blooms. I like it.

The kids have been in school for a month. The last days of swimming in the pool will likely be this weekend. And the milkweed pods are exploding.
 

I have a new camera. And two new lenses. Oh, wow! For my photographer friends, this image was shot at iso 2000 at f/5, with the new Sony a7rii and the 90mm f/2.8 macro, an incredibly sharp lens.
 

I'm sorry to see summer end. The summer weather has been mostly glorious. And soon autumn begins with scenes that delight the eye.

Can't wait to see. I'll take you along.

The railway turntable was invented in England in 1840 to be able to turn steam engines 180 degrees. While diesel locomotives can run at the same speed either forward or backward, steam engines were limited in the speed they were able to run backwards, so a method was needed to be able to turn them around to utilize their speed efficiently. This turntable is located in Chattanooga with an engineer operating the controls in a small shed that rotates with the section of track atop the turntable.

I can imagine other situations where it would have been helpful to easily make a 180 degree turnaround in my life. Just push the button, be patient, and head back in the opposite direction. Sounds theological.

At the end of August and nearing the end of summer, I like to say that there are still several weeks of summer. Swimming in my pool generally ends about September 21 as the water temperature drops into the 70s. In Nashville, the mild weather continues often into November. And the seasons change.

The summer has been glorious. Almost like the days of childhood that stretch on for ever, beginning with watching the hummingbirds before breakfast to the seeing the fireflies flash in the darkness. I don't have the energy to go and go, but I still have the wonder. My appreciation has deepened of what I have the opportunity to savor.  And I have time to reflect even on reflections and days gone by.

I love butterflies. I have no idea how many images that I have that contain some species of butterfly. In addition to the digital images, I have hundreds of slides and negatives, taken over a span of years, of these beautiful insects.