Haiku for the week

The nights are cooler;
White Dew Day heralds autumn;
And the mooncakes come.

Ah, September in Beijing!  It's actually still pretty hot during the day (set to be scorchio next week!), and sometimes a bit too humid for comfort overnight, but you can nevertheless sense a faint chill in the air.  A couple of days ago we had Bailu (節氣), the 'White Dew' day, the beginning of the 8th lunar month in the Chinese calendar, which is traditionally held to be the point at which the temperature starts its inexorable slide towards winter (in fact, I gather Bailu  is properly applied not just to a single day but to a 'solar term', the 15-day period leading up to Mid-Autumn Day - which, this year, by rare cosmic coincidence, falls for once almost bang on the solar equinox).

Let us enjoy our last few weeks of dazzling blue skies and 'Indian summer', and not dwell upon all the fog and smog and arse-freezing cold to come in the second half of October.