Less than a month ago when we were canoe camping in Algonquin Park we had frosty weather where the temperature of the daytime highs didn't rise above 9C, the sky was heavily overcast with intermittent rain events, and the wind blew incessantly. More like Arctic weather in early August than summer. On the Algonquin Park weather update site there was a questionnaire encouraging visitors to quantify their impression of this summer's weather; the most common response was "what summer?".

Several days ago it was hot enough for us to turn on the floor fans in the family room, too stifling to sit out on the deck, reading, enjoying the birdsong, reading the newspaper, smelling the fragrances of summer still lingering on late-flowering plants.

The floor fans are now stilled, with today's high matching that of our Algonquin Park expedition, including rain, though the wind is moderate. Riley is finding comfort sleeping in front of the warmth-giving fireplace. And, as usual when September arrives, the only way to stop him from shivering is to clad him in one of his little jerseys.

Yesterday, I baked a really, truly decadent pecan pie. My husband, who stops by the bulk food shop now and again had seen pecans on sale, so he bought a bagful. It was his idea to have a pecan pie for dessert on Friday evening. I would have gone for a fruit pie, since fruit is so abundant now, fresh and locally grown and we've been consuming tons of it. So pecan pie it was, with a moderate grating of orange zest, three eggs, half-cup of brown sugar, three-quarters cup of corn syrup, one-third cup of butter, sprinkling of salt, 2 tsp.vanilla, and the pecans. Decadent doesn't begin to describe the taste, texture and mouth-pleasing flavour. I baked it in the pottery pie dish our younger son had made for us fifteen years ago and it was divine.

Earlier in the week we had gone out to Ritchie's Feed & Seed to pick up more peanuts. We re-discovered Ritchie's in our search for industrial-sized bags of peanuts at a decent price. It was a place we had gone to for garden nursery plants 40 years ago. They've since expanded their inventory substantially.

And there I truly indulged, buying corms and bulbs to plant for spring-time pleasure. Among them Siberica blue scilla, blue poppy anemones, "shogun" tulips, blue muscari, purple allium, and a fritillaria mixture for the rock garden. Now, all I have to do is plant all those future promises. Eventually, when we do the garden clean-up in mid-October.