Well, we made it. Sunday, Aug. 11, marked the official end of “The Dog Days of Summer,” which descended on us on July 3 and lasted the Biblical length of 40 days.

Why Dog Days? Some have said this period of especially hot and sticky weather is the kind not fit for a dog. Other folk wisdom handed down is that in the depths of summer, dogs go mad with the heat. But according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, these explanations, to give them their scientific term, are hooey.

The term that designates the spell of hot mid-summer weather comes (like most things) from the Greeks, who named the brightest star in the sky Sirius, or the “Dog Star,” which rose with the sun and, Greek astronomers believed, added to the heat of the day.

EarthSky.org reports that, “As part of the constellation Canis Major the Greater Dog, Sirius also earns the nickname of the Dog Star.” The Greeks weren’t right about Sirius causing wickedly hot weather. The Romans — more practical, and perhaps more brutal — “tried to appease Sirius by sacrificing a brown dog at the start of the Dog Days,” according to those Old Farmers.

If you’re up early these August mornings, you can find Sirius easily, since it’s still the brightest star, lingering in the east just before dawn.

Dog days or not, we’ve been blessed this August, even when the air we breathed was like molasses, or hot rain fell, it seemed, nonstop. Patience has its rewards, when we’ve had summer days this week that we seem to remember from our childhoods — warm, soft mornings, bright breezy days and evenings that are easy on the eyes. (Funny we don’t remember the horrendously hot days of childhood, but then, memory is imagination, a ghost telling halftruths, as someone once said.)

We’re not just lucky for endless beach days, or long morning and evening walks, or families and friends joining together for outdoor cooking and meals, but for people in our community who have brought us other delights of an East End summer.

We’re thinking of the vibrant new farmers market at Mitchell Park, the glorious — if a bit foggy — Fourth of July fireworks in Orient and the fun filled — if a bit soggy — cardboard boat races in Riverhead, to name just a few.

Soon enough, August will turn to September, and school and work and rigid routines will beckon, and all the other responsibilities that come with the change of seasons.

But not quite yet, while the August sky is still lighting the way.