I've got to admit I felt so upset over Irving deciding to change the oil  himself in the truck that I wasn't able to sleep well, two nights in a row. He insisted he's done it himself for years although in the past several years he had agreed to have it done professionally. He just decided he'd revert to changing the oil himself. I visualized trouble; he's a fit man but he's also on the way to 86 years of age. He  happened to mention it to Mohindar and Imeran, that he was fed up with having the work done at Canadian Tire and waiting for an appointment.

 They informed him of an operation nearby where you just have to wait a short while and they speedily do the job. So he agreed to give it a try, drove over there this morning after breakfast and returned shortly afterward, the  work done. Now, he'll have to return everything he'd bought to do the job himself, and I'm resting easy again.

It's why I felt like staying in bed this morning, unwilling to rise earlier than normal for us, as we usually do to arrive early at the supermarket to get our shopping done before it gets crowded. We're still finding, though Ontario has dropped its indoor mask mandate, that everyone, store employees and shoppers alike, wear masks while serving and shopping.

Each day this week, including the weekend, we've been veering from sunny but cool and windy, to sun, breeze and heated temperatures. Day by day the difference can be gauged in the forest by accelerating foliage growth. Truly amazing. Now even the forest floor is beginning to present a green haze from a distance, reflecting the swift emergence of ferns and other bracken.

 

Today was forecast for heat and light, and we've got both in spades. When we decided to get out for our ramble through the ravine this afternoon the heat already stood at 25C and not a wisp of a cloud to be seen. The air seemed weighted with heat, though the occasional light breeze momentarily lifted the oppression of the searing heat.  This time, along with a bag of handout doggy biscuits, Irving took with water to dispense to Jackie and Jillie, though they're not prone to accepting it when offered, even on  hot days.

Even as the trees are filling out with great alacrity, so is the ground vegetation. We see colonies of False Solomon's Seal extending themselves, and the few patches of wild ginger we've come across are nudging up new plants while spreading their leaves fully open. This is a plant that flowers in around mid- to late-June. But the fleshy little red flowers are difficult to spot, they flower at the very base of the plant close to the soil. Try as I may, I've only seen one plant in flower over the years.

The succession of days of heat and light have encouraged more of the trout lilies to bloom. They too are a spreading colonizing plant. I planted a few in our garden a year or two ago, and I'm still waiting to see them adjust. Other wildflowers like foamflower, trilliums, Jack-in-the-Pulpit have taken lustily to our garden, spreading and outdoing themselves in size.

The tulips in our garden seem in no hurry to develop to flowering maturity. I'm still waiting to see what all the new bulbs I planted last fall have to say about this spring. I also found some tiny scilla bulbs uprooted along with their greenery and a few in flower that had been pulled out of the soil. Doubtless by mischievous squirrels. One plant that never fails to distinguish itself with surprise stalks of flowers is the Bergenia; some are in full flower, others lagging.\

I had cooked some potatoes awaiting our return from our hike, intending to make a potato salad for dinner. Summer salads seem quite in order on days like today, and as the temperature continues to warm our appetites will turn to lighter meals. For this salad which bears little resemblance to most people's familiarity with potato salad as an adjunct to a meal, this one is the meal.

The potatoes are mixed with chopped green onion, sugar snap peas, chopped bell pepper, dried chives, parsley and mayonnaise. That mixture is poured over a bed of lettuce. And in a depression on top of the potato salad, I place a tin of Sockeye Salmon that has been well mixed with a creamy Caesar dressing, ground pepper and sliced green pepper. On top of this goes sliced cocktail tomatoes. And that's dinner for this evening.