Another scorcher for us following on days of hot, humid weather. Nice breeze, though. And it's a cooling breeze when you're in the shade. And we can always find relief from the heat, inside air-conditioned interiors.

Right after breakfast we went out to the front gardens to cull the sunflowers. Some of the giant stalks have begun to look pretty ragged, their blooms well pecked by the gorgeous little goldfinches that have taken to frequenting the gardens. We hauled out quite a few of the sunflowers, but left quite a few more intact because they are in better shape than those we've decided to dispense with.

Hauling them out of the garden soil of necessity requires care, that other plants nearby aren't also yanked out. And after knocking the soil off the clumpy roots the discarded plants go directly into large composting bags to be hauled off eventually by the municipal waste crews to the huge composting areas the city maintains. Their absence will allow other plants more air, more sun, more room to stretch out a bit.

Before breakfast we had gone out for an early ravine walk. And this time we showered on our return from the ravine. It's hot in there, too, though nowhere near what it's like on the street. We came across two tall muscular men who had just finished chain-sawing that tree that had fallen across the trail a month back, the one I hit the top of my head on weeks ago. These municipal workers were happy to stop and talk awhile and it gave us an opportunity to thank them. The older and larger of the two said he'd never been in the ravine previously, and was surprised by the rough terrain, taken aback when we informed him that winter hikes in the ravine are not as dangerous as he surmised. They had also replaced some of the rotted planks in one of the footbridges that had gaping holes that had developed over time.

At home later, there was plenty to do. Tradition is big in this household; oh not so big, just that Friday night dinner wouldn't be the same even on such hot days without chicken soup and rice, so that had to be attended to. And garlic-Parmesan croutons to go with this evening's chicken Caesar salad.

And lately I've alternated between cherry and peach pies for Friday night dessert, since both fruits are available in abundance at this time of year and there's nothing like Niagara-region grown fruit in season for delicious flavour.

The temperature, we're informed by news readers, seems hotter than it is, since high humidity levels make it feel like 39, even when the heat itself is recorded at 30 degrees. Good thing I don't use the kitchen stove in the summer relying for the most part on our counter-top convention oven and the toaster oven to do the baking when the barbecue isn't being used.

I also prepared bread dough for our Saturday night pizza, on my husband's wonderful ceramic tile countertop for my baking island, under which are all my baking supplies. Even for the pizza, the kitchen oven won't be used, since the microwave oven has a pizza drawer that is superbly useful in the quality of the pizzas it turns out.