A day of immoderate contrasts was yesterday. Cool and sunny in the morning, with ample wind to blow in a heavy cloud cover and with its arrival humid heat settled in and companioned us for the remainder of the day. Despite the discomfort of the humidity and heat, however, the constant wind made it most pleasant for us to sit out on the deck in the mid-to-late afternoon, reading the newspapers, discussing world issues, listening to the news, to the robins, appreciating such incredible comfort.

Even when it began to rain as we knew it would, there was no need for us to remove ourselves to the interior of the house, because the canopy that my husband installs in the early spring keeps us dry. So there we sat, listening to the rain splotch onto the canopy and fall beyond its reach, drenching the gardens, and making those robins ecstatic beyond mere song.

Earlier in the day, among other things, we'd gone for our daily ravine walk and there found relief from the heat. In many areas, despite being closely surrounded by forest the wind managed to penetrate, and helped to keep the mosquitoes in order.

The ravine hasn't really dried out yet this summer. There have been so many rain events and of a type that soaks completely in their ferocious downpour. The water striders keep being washed downstream, but the Damselflies flit lazily about above the water.

New wildflowers are evidencing themselves amongst the fleabane and daisies, buttercups and clover, conquefoil and St. John's wort.

The bedding grasses have almost completed their flower, but their fragrance still lingers on the air. Now we see the sunflowers reaching tall toward where they imagine the sun to be on these overcast days; their reward comes when the sun reappears as it thankfully always does.

Yellow loosestrife is in full flower, and should Monarch butterflies come this way as they occasionally do, they'll find milkweed in abundance. Yarrow is beginning its bloom, and the hazelnut bushes have had a good start on forming their net cases.

Speaking of nut cases, we came across a case of outright in frangrante delicto in our walk this day. There exists among us rank exhibitionists who haven't a care about restraining themselves in public, proceeding to submit to their base sexual desires arguing that nature has programmed them to reproduce so there cannot possibly be anything objectionable in the act itself, requiring intimate privacy....