August 6

In the building light of the moments before the sunrise, on the eastern horizon the star Sirius now makes its appearance. It is just visible for a few minutes and then fades as the dawn’s approaching light becomes too strong. As the weeks progress, this star will precede the sunrise ever earlier, and we will look to its brilliant blue sparkle in the dark skies before dawn.

The ancient Egyptians looked to its summer rising as a harbinger of the annual Nile inundations, and they celebrated its coming. They also associated its arrival with the sultry heat of late summer, a time when lethargy took hold in the midst of the day.

Sirius was known as Caniculus, which the Latin associative is Canus, or dog. It resides in the constellation Canus Major, or big dog, and its summer arrival we associate with our “dog days” of August.

Indeed, our own two Westies seem to know that the dog days have arrived. In the middle of the day they have only the energy to trot to the middle of the yard and lie down on their sides, tongues rolling out loosely and bellies moving quickly up and down.