There was a heat and air quality advisory issued today by Environment Canada. One of those really hot days, fairly early in the season. Temperature expected to rise throughout the day to 33-degrees-Celsius. With thunderstorms a possibility in the afternoon. So it's humid, muggy, hot. Best, we thought, to hie ourselves off for our daily ravine walk right after breakfast.

Sure enough, in the wooded ravine there was great relief from the moist heat of the gathering day. Robins know enough to seek the shelter of its cooling canopy and they chirp happily in gratitude. We saw a cardinal streak scarlet across the trail as it accessed one high perch from another. The squirrel population is rather lackadaisical from the all-enveloping heat envelope. Our two little dogs required plenty of encouragement to trudge along. Perhaps at the ground level they occupy they cannot take full advantage of the blissfully cooling breeze that we enjoyed.

The bunchberries were still in flower, although the dogwood panicles have surrendered to oxidation. But bright yellow buttercups are now blooming along with Solomon's seal, and there are also delicate pink fleabane with their soft yellow centres beginning to flower. And the secretive and lovely Jack-in-the-Pulpit are still in bloom.

Before we exited the ravine an hour and a half after we entered it, we witnessed a delightful and unusual scenario. At the foot of the first long descent into the ravine from the street where we live is an old pine with lots of nooks and crannies that we daily stuff with peanuts. Beside it, on an old log straddling the creek below, there was a tiny red squirrel with two miniature clones beside her. Could she be teaching them where to go to seek out daily treasures?