It's been quite a day today, apart from the fact that we've had another in a series of hot, hot days this week. 'How about getting out for our hike early this morning?' greeted me even before I opened my eyes. We were heading for 32C and we had made a habit last summer of getting out before breakfast on these really hot days to avoid the mid-afternoon heat-of-the-day zenith. So, yes, good idea! Jackie and Jillie know instantly when something different is afoot, our very own little elfin Sherlocks.

They were excited and anticipatory, and so we bustled about and left the house, intending to shower and have breakfast on our return. There was a municipal work crew already on the job; two front-end loaders and two hot-looking men, the sound of the engines deafening. There were there to ameliorate an alternate trail the municipal parks department had engineered to prevent people from using the old trails right at the banks of the creek. It was that alternate trail that I had alerted them about three years ago; badly engineered and dangerous. 

Now they're fixing it, three years or so after I had a fall that caused me so much pain for so long affecting my chest wall, my underarm, a discomfort with torn shoulder ligaments that returns on occasion when my body feels stressed. After that fall we reverted to the old trail that we had used long before the municipality ever took responsibility for the forest system. Their intervention really dates from the time one of the hillsides collapsed into the ravine. We soon left the noise and the activity far behind as we made our way through the ravine on this hot, sunny morning.

The heat and the sun and the imminent filled-out leaf canopy has given a spur to the early spring wildflowers; it's now or never, before the sun can no longer manage to shine its luminous warmth right through to the forest floor. So all the wildflowers are now competing with each other for bloom-awards. We took an off-trail this morning out of curiosity, one we hadn't used for ages. Clambering up the steep hill to gain the height of the forest, we saw the first of the wild apple trees beginning to bloom.

Jackie and Jillie have had the ravine to themselves these days of extreme heat. People just aren't coming out as much, and neither are their dogs. Which means that our trips through the forest have been serene events; no reason for our two scamps to bark and shriek their indignation or greetings, as the case may be. I had worn black leather tennis shoes the last several days thinking they'd be lighter than the hiking boots and perhaps more comfortable. Wrong. For forest  hiking there's no substitute for hiking boots; they provide surety of footing and comfort at the same time. Back to the boots.

Once home again, showered and everyone having breakfast, I asked Irving what he'd like for a baked treat today. To my surprise, he said poppyseed, something with poppyseed in it. A strudel, a bun filled with poppyseed, like Hamantaschen? Something like. So that, in a sense, is what I baked. First making up a sweetbread dough, letting it rise, then preparing the filling; poppyseed and raisins. Took awhile, but I've got time. In between cleaning up the kitchen, putting on a chicken soup, cleaning the powder room...our bathroom...

And while I was busy doing that Irving went out to get bags of soil, aged sheep manure and peat moss. To fill the garden pots and to try yet again to amend our truly pathetic lawn. When he returned and unloaded the truck, I began giving some attention to the trees in the front garden. Non-productive (as in dead) branches to be cut back on the Magnolia, the Sargenti crab, the holly. Irving didn't want me to use the garden saw, but I did; big deal.

We were out for several hours - mid-afternoon in the heat, doing all of this in the garden. And didn't it feel good?! Everything looked a bit neater when we were finished. There's a lot of work ahead of us in the coming weeks, and suddenly Irving is enthused and brimming with energy to spare. 

Jackie and Jillie, all this while, were in the house, looking out at us from the front door. When we're busy doing things out-of-doors they can be a real distraction. Our major concern is that they'll run onto the road if they see someone familiar going past. They'll race onto the road if someone walks by with a dog. Ours is a very quiet street, but we just can't take the chance that they'll run out and have an accident. So, unless we can devote ourselves entirely to their welfare (they can race past us in the blink of an eye) they stay in the house.

And when we finally finished our work for the day in the garden, they were beside themselves with joy at our reunion, racing about dementedly all over the place. They knew I'd be preparing their afternoon vegetable salad, and that gives them a huge sense of anticipatory excitement. Faster, faster, cut up those veggies!