Canon Rawnsley's August at the Lakes

The weather is very changeable at the moment, with warm sunshine followed by heavy downpours  and thunderstorms and then beautiful sunsets. We are even forecast HAIL all day this Friday.....

It is very comforting, when faced with this weather in late August, to read Canon Rawnsley's description of August in the Lakes over a century ago.

August is as changeful as April in its moods and mind.... August is a month when, if it is fine during the day, it very often rains hard all night... August has also an unfortunate way of beginning with fair promise at dawn and breaking her promises about two o'clock in the afternoon. How often does the unknowing visitor go to the hotel door and rub his hands with delight, take his seat in the coach and set forth with a belief that his way will be sunshine to the end. He has not seen the fair white fleecy clouds roll up over the southern hills, but by noon the sun ceases to shine, the wind blows the dust along the roads, and by two o'clock a fine drizzle sets in that becomes a downpour, and all the comfort he will get from the coachdriver is the promise that "it'll likely git oot by t'evening, and it ull be a grand neet." August is a month of surprises....

It certainly is proving to be a month of surprises this year....