Seems crazy that Air Canada has had to cancel all kinds of flights after technical issues with their flight communication systems. We're just so glad that the situation didn't impact Jordan, who flew Barcelona to Montreal, Montreal to Vancouver yesterday after his month away in Spain. We've got a lot of 'catching-up' to do, listening to him tell us of the details of his hikes through the Corsican mountain range and general impressions - he did compare them to his hikes in the Pyrenees; similar raw geology. 

It's pretty steamy here in Ottawa. Overnight temperatures gave little relief before we were engulfed yet again in a humid, sunny-hot day in a series of heat wave-days we're being told might set a record dating from 1944. Some of the annuals are beginning to look slightly bedraggled, actually burnt from the heat of the sun. By Saturday when more normal temperatures are set to prevail they'll quickly return to prime health.

Shortly after breakfast this morning, the appliance repair man showed up to install the new motor in our dishwasher. He was accommodating enough to shed his shoes before entering the house, a sensitive gesture on his part, without being asked to do so. While he was in the house, grappling with the dishwasher in a fairly tight space, Irving kept him company. Before he left after speedily bringing the appliance back to working order, we were given a notional sketch of his life.

He's trying to notch up the odds to favour being healthy into his later years, concerned over health issues and has sworn off convenience foods in an effort to guide himself to more nutritious whole-food alternatives. He is the single parent to a young girl and her welfare is uppermost in his mind. It's for her that he wants to be healthy and capable for as long as possible to ensure she has the support she needs throughout her formative and growing years. Whenever anyone comes to our house to provide a service Irving always gives them a token appreciation of $20; invariably service people state there's no need, but when Irving says it's a mere token of gratitude, they always accept.

Every now and again Irving decides to re-arrange furniture and objets d'art and he began doing just that, moving about awkward and heavy ornamental things to better suit his sense of aesthetic. He enjoys viewing things from different perspectives; changing places presents things differently. I'm more routine; once something's in a place I leave it there. Sometimes I try to sneak things back to their original position and he just does a mental shrug.

In the ravine with Jackie and Jillie early afternoon it was already 32C, but clouds had moved in, white and puffy, and obscured the sun for much of the time we were out on the forest trails. This was a rare occasion when I relented, to use insect repellent which I dislike using. But with this kind of heat, covering up limbs against heat-crazed mosquitoes is too uncomfortable. For the first half of our trek through the trails there was a light breeze and some air movement, but of course the longer we were out the more energy was consumed and we began to feel the heat. Still, it was pleasant enough.

Like yesterday, the atmosphere was close and it was serenely still. Absolutely no one else around. The forest floor is brimming with new revelations daily; foamflower in bloom, raspberry canes in full flower, false Solomon's seal flowering, and so are buttercups. Jackie and Jillie are subdued in the heat, walking calmly along, absorbed by odours and looking out for movement anywhere. Jillie always ahead, Jackie preferring to trot along at our heels.

Back at home, the decision; to water or not to water, that was the question. The answer was although the soil retained some dampness from the last watering, given the heat it wouldn't hurt to water the garden beds and borders where annuals had been planed, along with the garden urns and garden pots, and so it was done.