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Last week offered abundant opportunities to muse about the weather.

We had a thunderstorm Saturday night. A thunderstorm. A real rain. Lightening lit the sky. At 10 p.m. the thunder was distant from La Conner, but it came steadily close, out of the west. Fifteen minutes later the rumble had moved closer, centered over eastern Fidalgo island. It woke people up in Shelter Bay.

The report from Seattle was of over 1,250 lightning strikes during the night. That probably included our local light show.

Saturday offered a storm for the senses: lightening lit the sky, ears echoed with thunder. For the first time in a long while the smell of rain was strong in the air.

Water beaded up on the window and was caught in the screen on the windward side of the storm. In the dark could be heard the sound of rain dripping from trees.

When was the last time that happened?

After dawn Sunday it waited till nightfall before raining again.

The quantity of rain since Saturday, almost two inches inches, was finally significant, more than July and August combined and the most in a month since April. Over half of the Septembers this century have not experienced two inches of rain. Imagine going on incessantly about two inches of rain.

When was the last time any of us could muse on that?

We will find out if the weather has blown in fall. Last Friday the air was warm, maybe up to 70 degrees, but early and late in the day a coolness was in the air.

Friday’s sun was bright but there was a softness to the light, much different from summer. Shadows were longer, companions through much of the day, walking with me to work and waiting at the office door to follow me home late.

The sun’s arc is again across the south side of the horizon pointing shadows north.

Leaves are increasingly sprinkling the ground, brown, dry, crinkly, much sooner than is healthy.

Remember last week’s blue, blue sky, when there were no clouds? That is a constant carrying across the seasons.

Fall breezes, well there’s a definition of fall.

I heard a farmer say that September 1 is the season’s change, not the equinox.

The weather seems to bear that out.