I'll start here. It's August and I'm happy.

My god. I wake up every morning (okay, early afternoon, if I'm being honest) and continue to be stunned by the beautiful weather. Up on our third floor condo, we have a clear view of the Oldman River, blue and sparkling as it lazes northward. Tucked at the bottom of a coulee, I'm surrounded by sloping grassy hills and valleys like nothing I've ever seen. I've never traveled to the countryside of Ireland, but when I dream of it, this is what it looks like.

It's high summer, which I'm delighted to find means highs from the upper 70's to low 80's most days. Coming from Tucson, with months upon months of temperatures in excess of 100, this is unbelievably cool and lovely. Most of these summer afternoons have brought stunning skies. The clouds build and fluff themselves upward throughout the mid-day until late afternoon when the winds come, and the clouds turn impossible shades of slivers, blues and blacks, bringing a little shower to cool us off for the evening.

The cats are delighted. Coming from the desert, we were terrified to let them out. Coyotes howled from the arroyo just beyond our yard in Tucson. Scorpions lay under rocks, and this was no place for felines. Here, three flights up, they are able to sun themselves for hours on the balcony. Birds land and sing in the nearby trees, songs these cats have never heard before. Dogs and their owners walk below, and there is no end to the delight. Even when the storms come, the winds carry exotic scents and raindrops, all new and exciting for them.

I know this is all temporary. I can already sense autumn approaching. Just last weekend on a tour of the haunting Frank Slide Park in the foothills of the Rockies http://www.frankslide.com/info.html , I spotted yellow birch leaves dotting the creek bed. The cold is coming.