How foolish of me, what a short memory I have, to make such an immediate conclusion when our weather transited suddenly from hot and humid to cool and rainy, that summer had ended. That assumption was obviously premature, and there was little excuse for it, other than lamenting the passage of summer into autumn. At my age, having experienced these frequent events of weather seeming to change day by day in such huge leaps, I should have known better.

That we had been experiencing heat and humidity for a week, followed suddenly by a  spurt of subsequent days of plunging temperatures and non-stop rain should have nudged my memory for the many times this kind of weather ping-pong has occurred. It didn't, however, and after bemoaning summer's passage, here we are once again firmly plunked back into summer with all its consequent heat and humidity. Warranting a light dinner last night of a potato salad garnished with fresh vegetables. And salmon.

Our usual ravine hike was a heated affair, and we were grateful for a light breeze and the sun-shielding canopy overhead. We were also surprised at the presence of people walking dogs whom we'd never before encountered in all our years of daily ravine hikes. The ravine is a natural treasure, quite under-used, so it's always a surprise to come across those we haven't seen before. Two young woman walking large dogs indulged them with permission to cool off in the muddy creek to their hearts' content.

As for Jack and Jill, they were outfitted yesterday with new harnesses. They both agitate over having to wear harnesses, not that they're any more content to even wear their collars. We leave them collarless in the house, but once we venture outdoors, on come the collars. For identification purposes should anything ever happen and they become separated from us. Button and Riley accustomed themselves to these constraints and we hope that Jack and Jill eventually will, too. Meanwhile, they've both bitten through quite a few of them.

My husband is always on the lookout for those that are soft and yielding, for maximum comfort. Maximum comfort to our two little imps is no impediments to their free movement at all. That will eventually happen as they become older and more responsive to where we want them to be at all times, but that time hasn't yet arrived.