Lovely long week-end here, the weather co-operating nicely, with clear blue skies, bit of a wind and sun, plenty of it. Enough, at 28 degrees to make it seem truly, really hot, even with a low humidity level today.

One of the people we often come across in the ravine told us yesterday that it costs him $45 a month to have his dog groomed. In the sense that he has the middling-sized terrier groomed every two months at a cost of $90. In our household, our two little dogs get groomed even more frequently since their haircoat seems to grow so fast. And today was one of those grooming days when I sat out on the deck with them right after breakfast, an assortment of scissors in hand, and snipped their hair.

A pair of tidy-looking little dogs...!

They look more presentable; their little faces and paws in particular get extremely messy, so getting their hair cut defines their profile and helps to keep them clean as well. The cost is negligible; my ebbing patience with Jackie who makes it difficult, unlike Jillie, who lends herself quietly to the enterprise.

By the time we went off to the ravine the morning had recently fled, but in there it was cool and breezy, and we had a great ravine walk. After which we decided to go along to a local garden centre, just outside of town. We'd gone to one in the opposite direction yesterday afternoon but it wasn't a pleasant outing. I had wanted a few perennials, my tickseed and turtleheads in the front gardens had been squeezed out by the aggressive large sunflowers that had taken over their space.

I found the garden centre in quite a bit of disarray and the plants looking fairly miserable, but I did select one mature tickseed plant and a gaillardia; I found the turtleheads priced much too steeply. So today we went along to the other garden centre, it was well kept as usual, the plants in perfect order, well cared for, but it was hot and we were directly exposed to the sun, and after looking around we didn't see anything that we felt would enhance the garden, and left.

Afterward, I did do some gardening. When you're doing things like cleaning up, tidying about, planting a few things, you barely feel the discomfort of a hot day, and I didn't. So I separated a few plants; heuchera and hydrangea, and transplanted them elsewhere in the garden, and planted the new perennials and it just happened to be shady in the places where I put them, which was a bit of luck; for them and for me.

As good a way as any to spend a holiday day -- oops! Labour Day; perhaps I shouldn't have been labouring though it was indeed a pleasure.