In late August the high valley meadows are no longer July green. The drier and moist turf is straw and tan in patches, the wet ground by the water stays green, and taller tufts of cured bunchgrass stand through the dry meadow. The turf had been following a lowland calendar 55 days late.
The wet sod cures too. Away from the water its sedge browns at the leaf tips, so the meadow where you wake reads straw-olive instead of lime green, while the sod at the water’s edge and in wet swales stays green. Farther out, past where single grass blades stop being drawn, a meadow’s color follows the date and the height: summer green, then late-summer gold, then autumn straw, instead of one fixed color all year. Meadows above about 1900 m had been treated as six weeks behind the season, and run on their own measured rate.
These are modest steps. The near and middle meadow is still greener than the reference photograph, which is straw-gold everywhere, and there are no stones or litter in the meadow yet.
