The dying days of August

The dying days of August usher in the return of white-hot sunshine to a brown land, dried out by winter and starting to cry out for the summer rains.

The humidity has not yet crept in, and these last days of "Winter" contain a strange, almost unearthly pleasure in the middle of the day. The sun reaches its zenith and hovers there between the hours of eleven and two, and the air practically vibrates with an indefinable "zing".

You feel somehow energised and soporific at the same time - as if you really should lie down in the shade, but secretly suspect you'd just hover a couple of feet off the ground if you tried. Watching a butterfly busy itself about the citrus trees and passionfruit vines is an almost out-of-body experience.

It's still the "dry season", but Winter, such as it is, is well and truly gone. The slight chill that was in the air has fled south, and the breeze now blows a warm, dry, comforting breath across the land. For the rest of the year the breeze will be somewhere between warm and hot. As we get closer to Summer, the humidity will leach back into the days and this warm breeze will begin to feel weighed down with moisture.

Right now, though, in the dying days of August, there's a lightness to the air. The warmth seems like a blessing of sorts, and you can almost hear the beach calling...