Our weather patterns here in the Ottawa Valley seem so imperturbably intransigent regardless of the season. It should be a lesson learned that you cannot expect normalcy here, since what is normal in this region is instant change from dry and hot to humid and cool or any alternate combination of those weather values.

Still, though we are so focused on the weather, and its impetuous-seeming nature, volatile and harsh at some times, beneficent and life-affirming at others, it's what we have. And truth to tell, what we have, though seemingly never settled is, in fact, beneficial to all growing things. Regardless of the season we can always anticipate plenty of sun.

There is always wind which has a drying effect, and to counteract that, a never-failing source of rain or snow, a vital factor in any natural landscape to aid agriculture and forests and let us not forget, our domestic gardens.

The day we returned from our week away in the New Hampshire White Mountains that saw us hiking in old familiar landscapes, it was hot and dry. The following day? Cool and wet. Day after that? Continuing rain, copious at times, wind and despite the high humidity, very much on the cool side. All of which make for thriving green spaces.

Yesterday turned out an almost-hot day. Hot, directly in the sun, tolerable toddling our way along shaded forest paths in the forested ravine we take our two little dogs to daily. And there, while they snuffled and sniffed about, we saw nature's bountiful display of floral offerings in the wild. From already ripening strawberries, to raspberry and blackberry blooms, and the colour-startling deep pink of thimbleberry in bloom.

We also saw maturing mulleins, really hefty this year, more so than usual. And surprisingly, a wildflower we'd never spotted in the ravine before, a perky and pretty columbine. You just never know what you'll come across in that wooded ravine.

There are fewer daisies than what we used to encounter there, and more buttercups, and cowvetch is already beginning its bloom, along with bedding grasses. When the grasses fully open their floral buds, the fragrance, sweet and light, will overwhelm the senses in their near vicinity.