New York City, August 4, 2015

★★★ Leaves and tree blossoms were piled on a storm drain by the museum, swept there so fast they hadn’t even gotten soggy. The sky was cloudless but haze-tarnished. Already the puddles were few, with dampened rims marking their ongoing diminishment. At Herald Square the upper subway platform was notably hotter than the lower. Cool air flowed under the glass canopy at Union Square. Again the direct sun was piercing, but the shade held, bolstered later in the day by a real wind, trouser-fluttering, coming off the river. Clouds had arrived, their edges frayed. A rose-colored lowering ray of sun precisely traced a rounded cornice. A man hit fungoes to three children in the diminishing daylight on the near-empty playground.