These really are the dog days of summer. But since it's August, a month we've always found to be volatile, and all the more so in the Ottawa Valley we've been ricocheting back and forth from dry spells to wet ones, extreme heat and humidity to drier atmospheric conditions with ample wind to keep us from melting in the heat.

Sitting around the table at mealtimes provides the perfect time for four of us, our son, daughter-in-law, my husband and me to catch up on a whole range of life events in more detail than distance communications permit. Spending leisurely evenings sitting around talking, discussing various issues seems like a real revelation, a warming comfort of familial serenity.

It's kind of amazing to get my head around the fact that our children have all passed their half-century mark in age. To view them as mature with all the symptoms of physical maturity in plain view. How then do they view us?

This morning I was out in the backyard, snipping back some of the plants, the spent lily wands, the Bergamot wands with their large seedheads, floral wands of our many hostas, cutting back the long-flowing branches of the Corkscrew Hazel, the drooping Mulberry trees. Dead-heading roses and other blooms. Too hot out there to spend too long, and Jackie and Jillie were anxious to get back into the air-conditioned house.

Where our daughter-in-law was busy in the kitchen. She offered to produce our evening meal tonight and that's just fine with me. Among her many other accomplishments she is a great cook. She was cutting up tomatoes, dicing garlic and sweet basil, pre-preparing a few of the ingredients for the tomato-cheese pie she has planned to bake.

Yesterday they accompanied us on our usual ravine hike, but today they've planned for an afternoon day-trip downtown to mosey about and re-acquaint themselves with places they've been long familiar with. Tomorrow's target will be the National Gallery for a special art exhibition and that one will be reserved for father and son exclusively.