The Northeast has been enjoying a fantastic spell of weather lately. Here in the Outer Cape, today was simply perfect: low humidity, cloudless azure skies, warm sweet sunshine, and temperatures in the upper seventies, with a fragrant, balmy breeze as gentle as a baby’s breath. At Newcomb Hollow Beach, it felt more like August — the parking lot three-quarters full, families basking in the sun, children splashing in the water.
Just before sunset I took a mile-long swim in Great Pond — almost certainly my last of the year, and by far the latest in the season I’ve ever done so. After a full September of cool and lengthening nights, the water was cold — but given the gift of a golden, late-summer day in the second week of October, how could I resist?
Soon the nights will turn cold for real, and the chill November storms will strip the leaves from the trees and batter the backshore beaches. But today was a day outside of time, a dreamlike, elongated present in which the world seemed to stand still. And as presents go, we couldn’t have asked for a nicer one.