Our youngest son called last night to let us know he'll be away all next week. He has planned a kayaking trip at Pacific Rim National Park. He told us he has a new tent, sent to him gratis, since the original one was still under guarantee. Somehow, the moisture-proof coating had become degraded and was sticky, so he contacted the manufacturer and they replaced it. He'll use the new one to take with him, handily stored in the storage compartment of his sea-going kayak. He uses small, light-weight tents on his getaways, since they're either of this nature, or alpine camping, so the lighter weight in his backpack the better.

As we spoke last night the atmosphere here was weather-roiled. There was a tornado warning in effect in the Ottawa area. And rolling thunderstorms with violent claps and plenty of fireworks kept lighting up the house and alarming our two little dogs. Our son told us that the weather forecast for Vancouver Island for the coming week while he'll be in that vicinity is for fair weather. The first time he did one of these ocean-going trips he had rented a satellite telephone. Only to find when he was in the midst of bad weather that the phone wasn't working. He has long since acquired a telephone of his own to enable him to check weather conditions on these trips.

As for us, our 'trips' remain now of the extremely light variety, confined for the most part, to our daily hikes in our adjacent ravined forest. And yesterday morning before the rains set in we had sunny skies illuminating the forest quite beautifully. Which made for a lovely, leisurely walk. These walks still require an effort on our part, since there's plenty of uphill slogging in the ravine, and tree roots to sidestep. I've had my share of tripping falls in there, and haven't any desire for more.