The weather forecast offering more of the same, mid thirties and humidity 80 plus, the sky hazed, glowing with the early morning heat, a change of routine, coffee and then departure, postponing what should be done until return. Today's breeze is cooler, almost taking the edge off the heat, almost, but not quite. Streets are quiet, figures hiding from the sun beneath umbrellas, gazing out from windows, closed doors forming brief sanctuaries for the price of a cup.

The hill's also quiet today, the breeze caught in the undergrowth, not reaching the path, footsteps winding through pockets of humidity warming in the still air, scatterings of sunlight breaking through, converting layers of tone breaking into colour, sharp reds rising, white and purple lilies aglow along the side of the path, molten lead spreading through leg muscles. From the first viewpoint horizons are lost. To the west the city shrinking, scraps and remnants of imagination forming the landscape, sketching hills upon the murk. The northern hills marked by white cloud rising, the shift in tone all that defines their presence. There's a sense of solitude cloaking the day: a scattering of vagrant figures collected here, each within their own world; one sitting drinking from a bottle of water, one in a static pose, balanced upon one leg, gripping the other, the third beyond the shelter, framed in wood, glowering seriously upon the scene.

The weather deciding that the wander should be curtailed, that today the slightly higher hills should be left alone, I begin the descent. Walking through the cat temple there's a statue of the goddess of mercy surrounded by bottles of water, a few offerings of food scattered within the circle, the sound of voices from below. In the west the skies have begun to darken, clouds devouring the haze, teasing with the possibility of rain but, too soon, disbanding into blue sky, the unchallenged sun brightening as the heat rises once again...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcYdrZoFcFM