It was a warm afternoon in the swamp... too warm for snakes and squirrels to be out. Not many birds were active, but there were a few interesting bugs around. I could feel a promise of Fall in the air, but I don't know where that came from: the temperature was high, it was humid, no leaves were dropping or turning color, and the only fruits ripening were elderberries and poke berries. Maybe there was a specific smell, a certain barometric pressure, or some subtle change in the forest spirits, that gave me a sensation of Summer beginning to fade into Fall.
