Unusual, strange, puzzling, all of those apply, and more. We may have arrived at the calendar-certified Autumn Equinox, but the weather conditions we've been facing have been most definitely hot, humid and totally reminiscent of the dog days of summer. This summer there were no usual long periods of hot and sunny weather. No complaints; we didn't mind the all-too-ample rainfall which also netted us from time to time alternately bright skies and mild temperatures; it was a summer that the older contingent of any population could appreciate.

As long as you weren't among the not-inconsiderable number of people living in vulnerable-to-flooding areas that necessitated evacuations, awaiting floodwaters to subside and homes to be cleansed of their effects, restoring them to  habitable conditions. A shock and misery for anyone forced by circumstances to undergo such disturbing and nasty episodes in their lives.

By some strange quirk of nature, however, summer finally woke up, realized it had forgotten to arrive, and has made its tardy appearance, totally confusing fall. We've now had two weeks of hot, dry and sunny weather. Only two weeks earlier it was cool, windy and wet. We were moseying about in the ravine on the woodland trails wearing jackets against the cool temperatures. Now we're pretty hot on our treks in there. Actually no; in the forest confines it tends to be much cooler, the sun filtering through the canopy doesn't really heat up the atmosphere in there as it does once we're back out on the street again.

But because it's so hot people tend to believe that it's intolerable anywhere in the out-of-doors, the result of which is that we see few people enjoying nature, ambling along on the forest trails. Of course, the heated temperatures also mean that any extraordinary expenditure of energy takes its toll; something people would prefer, understandably, to avoid. Our forest is ravined, there are many steep and long hills to climb and descend, after all.

Yesterday, as we had only been in the woods for about fifteen minutes, just over the first of the three bridges crossing the creek  in its depths, Jackie and Jillie heard and saw someone coming in the opposite direction. Someone on a bicycle, so we hastened to restrain them, though they were barking furiously and my husband called urgently to them to return to us. As we crossed the bridge and looked up the hill we would be climbing, we realized that someone had fallen from a bicycle and was half-lying on the gravel of the hill's pathway.

Calling out, we hurried over to find a young girl nursing the heel of her palm that was well cut by the gravel she had fallen on, and bleeding, but not as profusely as her left knee which was deeply scored with wide, grated furrows weeping blood. She was a lovely child, with smooth, sunburned skin and scant clothing, wearing flip-flops. In her fall one of her flip-flops had torn. She was calm and told us that the pain was ebbing, as she gently padded her bloody knee with the tissues my husband had handed to her. We stayed with her. She told us her companions would soon be along. She was obviously cycling much faster than they, since it took awhile before two other girls came along at the crest of the hill. The girl we were with had tried to brake when she saw the bridge below, losing control of her steering so the front tire of her mountain bike had caught in a bit of a ridge, causing her bicycle to keel over and her with it, a third of the way down the hill where we'd found her.

They were such heart-achingly lovely children, all three girls twelve years of age, making the most of a lovely week-end day. My husband walked the injured girl's bicycle, a really heavy affair, down the hill, over the bridge, and up the hill on the other side, to a flat portion on top where they would continue to bicycle to what we thought would be home. They thanked us and with cautionary words from us ringing in their ears set off again as we continued our way in the opposite direction.

A half-hour later as we began to ascend yet another hill we caught a glimpse of the three girls bicycling furiously along the trail that crested and bypassed the one we were on. Obviously the discomfort of badly scraped knee and hand had subsided sufficiently to enable these three little Amazons-in-waiting to continue on their determined path on a lovely, albeit very hot afternoon, instead of aborting their intention and returning home to nurse a wound.