Nothing stays the same

I've been gone to the city for a couple of weeks, and returned to 'camp' to find that even in late August, the season has begun to shift...in very subtle ways. The strawberry leaves are brown at the edges. The bunch berries have 'berried out' brilliantly. The goldenrod are blooming, and the crickets are quieter now. Hardly any sign of the hummingbirds, which usually stay until just after Labor Day. This reminds me that nothing stays the same up here, as in life. We've got a new neighbor building a log cabin, and a new family has bought a place over in the next cove. They shoot off fireworks and play their boombox loud at night on the weekends. Has the neighborhood gone to the dogs? Hardly. But it's different. Yet the blueberries are super-abundant this year, and the loons laugh in the early morning as always. Still, the cool breezes today seem to have banished the doldrums of summer overnight.