There's but two of us, discounting the presence of our little dogs (though they too get an ample share of fresh fruits and vegetables) , to eat all the fresh produce that we bring into the house. When we do our grocery shopping on Tuesday, I calculate what we'll need for a week, but my restless husband who is an inveterate shopper invariably brings home more, more and more. He's passionate about food and the abundance everywhere now in the season of harvest, utterly captivates him.

A day after we'd been shopping, when he had an errand to run, he just happened to drop by one of the best purveyors of fresh fruits and vegetables that we know and returned home with another huge melon, a basket of fresh strawberries from Ile d'Orleans, six ears of corn and a huge cabbage, the 'smallest' he could find there, because he knows I prefer small ones for making cole slaw.

He brings these wonderful offerings home with a happy but apologetic air. Hoping I 'won't mind'. How could I? But it does leave me with a dilemma. Yesterday for example, with sole fillets we had baked potato, corn, and stewed tomatoes. I'm challenged to find ways to use all this munificence of nature's bounty. And today, I went about baking a peach pie, and that has used a good number of that fruit.

It appears that regionally market crops haven't completely been a disaster resulting from the inordinate amount of rainfall, spring and summer, making for new weather records. Yesterday the rain kept sweeping across the landscape, one cloudburst after another, accompanied by emphatic claps of thunder. We thought we'd found a window of opportunity at four in the afternoon finally, when the sun made a surprise appearance just as the last of the heavy rain began to life. So off we went to the ravine, with the impression that the rain was over for the day.

Halfway through our circuit we picked up speed with the distant sound of approaching thunder and the darkening forest. A forest that was well and truly drenched. Jackie and Jillie evade stepping in pools of rainwater on the trail system. The ambiance was dark and gloomy indeed, but inexpressibly lovely, with a brooding quality that is so attractive to us, in its intimacy. How did we fare? The rain took up again before we were able to exit the forest, but we didn't think it necessary to pull out the puppies' raincoats and made it back home before the full fury of a heavy downfall finally ensued.

I'd love to see the landscape dry out a bit. To give me an opportunity to get out into the garden and do some badly needed trimming. More rainfall predicted for today after a night of continual rain. The sun teases us with momentary appearances, giving me hope that perhaps there will be an opportunity to tidy up the gardens, even if I have to wait for tomorrow to do it, finally.