These suffocatingly hot, oppressively humid days we return from our ravine walks utterly drenched. Because the days have been oven-heated and damply unpleasant, the merest breeze is celebrated. And the knowledge that the green living canopy of the woodlands offers shelter from the brazenly burning sun, speaks sensibly to us of the merits of embarking on our daily walks in the morning, not leaving them to the afternoon.

Today, for example, the high will clock in at 34 degrees. Yesterday the temperature rose to 33.9 degrees, so likely we'll surpass 34 today. After breakfast, and after I'd done a little bit of early gardening, just tidying things up, we went off to the ravine with Jack and Jill. Jill lately has been 'hiding' when she hears us ask wouldn't she like a ravine walk? Once she's in there trotting along things don't seem so awful to her.

Jack never seems to mind anything, and it's why we refer to him as Smilin' Jack. It's not just his attitude, but also his facial expressions, quite markedly happy-go-lucky. Their personalities are that different.

Venturing out into the ravine early means that when we return I then pay attention to matters that I would normally have looked after before jaunting off. It just calls for a little flexibility. Even though we go off in the morning for our walk though, the heat has already built up with a sticky, hot atmosphere; there's just no evading it other than remaining in an air-conditioned environment. And that's no kind of life.

What surprises us is that more people seem to be seeking out the relatively green cool of the ravine than we would normally see. Yesterday we came across people we'd never seen before, enjoying a ravine walk; not one of the regulars we've become accustomed to seeing over the years. There was a young family with three children, all boys and looking fairly grim-faced; possibly over having been yanked by parental decree away from computer games.

And then there was a group of a dozen boys about eight to ten years of age in the company of two older teens, shepherding them about on bicycles. Representing, no doubt, a day camp. None of those boys looked ecstatic to be out in nature, and all of them found it beyond difficult to acknowledge a cheery greeting, other than the two older ones. We did come across one of our old friends and that kind of meeting is always good for a protracted halt-and-chat that mosquitoes eventually interrupted.

Today we came across other old friends, one of whom we haven't seen in years, though we more frequently come across her son who walks his own two terriers. She told us that one of the terriers, a middling-sized, hairy little fellow had been attacked in the ravine a few days earlier by a bull mastiff. We know the offending dog and we know its owner, neither of whom were threatening in any way, but then brief and unexpected things happen often. The little terrier had some stitches at the back of his neck and seems fine now. The owner of the bull mastiff will likely take to walking him with a leash for awhile.

We were glad to see that the public works department of the municipality has finally turned its attention to ameliorating the trails that had been impacted so deleteriously last winter by the earth movers and tracked shovels used in the reconstruction of the bridges. One man has been assigned, with his small, maneuverable tracked shovel to put down stone dust on the affected trails.

Now, no more huge pitted areas of muck requiring avoidance. All the ruts have been levelled and filled in. And the stone dust put over the too-heavy gravel pieces that tend to move underfoot is a solution to potential slides and accidents that the municipality sees itself concerned with in averting the possibility of having to address lawsuits.