August, in our experience, has always been a strangely inconstant weather month. When we were young we always thought of August as being the very height of summer warmth, leisure, opportunity for spontaneous activities and fun, the last gasp before returning to school in September. When we became parents ourselves and it was our children attending school, we tended to set aside a week in August for that celebrated family holiday before the start of the school year.

Invariably, wherever we would go -- and our modest income meant not too far from home but always where we could enjoy natural landscapes as the most integral part of our getaway -- we'd find the weather to be disappointing. Too cool as much as too warm, and more than ample rain to ensure that some of those days were either wasted or embarked upon with the knowledge that the outdoor adventure wouldn't be as carefree as we would have liked.

So now we're in mid-August and as usual there are mixed reviews about the weather. We've had it all, an assortment of hot, muggy, windy and rainy days. We're not on vacation anywhere and it's a whole lot more comfortable deciding when we'll take the risk of being inundated with heat and humidity, not to mention mosquitoes -- let alone rain events, so it's all manageable and we continue to enjoy ourselves despite the constant murmurs of complaint.

But August wouldn't be August without the intervention of cooler, wetter days plunking themselves down into a host of hot, humid days, and that's what we appear to be in at the present time. At our age, weather patterns don't so much matter as they did when we had a young family and children anticipating exposure to beaches and lakes and swimming opportunities just as much as the chance to explore mountain forest trails.

We plunged suddenly yesterday from close to 30C and high humidity the previous run of days, to a dry 21C under a clear blue sky, a change that pleased us mightily. A cooling breeze added to our comfort as we swung happily along the trails in the ravine. It was beyond pleasant and refreshing. And nor did Jackie and Jillie have to forego their refreshments in the guise of ripe wild berries and apples plucked alongside the forest thanks to nature's generosity of harvest.

We came across lots of fall asters, the early mostly white ones that aren't nearly as attractive as the later-blooming specimens that are larger, the petals fuller and the colours tinging to bright pink, dark purple and mauve. We also saw the first bloom of pussytoes alongside the asters and the now-fading Queen Anne's lace, with an occasional bloom of fleabane, the most perfect of the daisy-shaped flowerheads.