And it's true that the ravine dried up as it always does once spring finally arrives, but then the rains began. Not the sweet-tempered rain of the usual April showers, but unrelenting downpours, day after day, from mid-April into the month of May. The full month of May, as it happens, when April rains are traditionally the introduction to the first of the May flowers.
The rain continues, interspersed with sunny days, so we haven't too much to complain about, unless you're one of the many who experienced flooding and had to evacuate your home, or like a few of our neighbours whose houses back onto the ravine whose slopes had melted away into gigantic slumps causing the city to bring in engineering and construction companies to figure out how to stop the deterioration, while the families of those affected houses have also had to evacuate until such time as it is judged safe for their return.
Yesterday's ravine walk for us followed more all-day rains, particularly Monday when the rain was ferociously driven by winds determined to penetrate anywhere they could. What we discovered during yesterday's woodland ramble was that the situation on the ground had reverted to what we experienced in early spring, and gone beyond that point; hugely unusual.
Now that the bracken has arisen from its slumber and the forest floor is once again green, the presence of various types of ferns filling up the blanks, with the appearance of large pools of water the landscape has really taken on the look of a bog.
Still, though trudging through deep mud in some places on the trails, we were happy to discover the honeysuckles in full bloom with their white or pink flowers covering the otherwise-undistinguished shrubs, and dogwood as well, in full flower.
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