Other signs of the season are that our local ice cream shop has closed its doors for this year, and little stands selling hot roasted chestnuts are springing up on every street corner (Gabriela and I decided to buy chestnuts and roast them at home this year while we are working on her English homework for school.) If I walk to the library in the morning, I no longer walk through the tables and chairs of street side cafes where Spaniards are drinking their coffee or having chocolate and churros for breakfast. People are having breakfast inside the cafes now. Once I get to the library, I find that I no longer need to dodge the ice cold drafts coming from the air conditioners; it's warm air that's coming from them now.
Meanwhile, town council employees are climbing up to prune branches off the palm trees and to put a protective covering on the treetops in preparation for the rainy and colder winter months. People who have summer fruit trees in their gardens are also beginning to prune off branches.... and I've gladly collected some of these to add to our firewood pile at home. Although we usually don't need to make a fire until sometime in November, there's no harm in being prepared.
We've been spoiled with mild sunny days of 23 degrees over the past week, but rainfall is forecast again for this weekend. It's still dark when we get up in the mornings, and I need to wear a sweatshirt when I'm walking to work in the morning. I guess it's official: summer is behind us now and winter will soon be on the way.
