We were out much earlier than is usual for us on the forest trails yesterday, with the intention of hoping to get in a long circuit before the forecasted rain for the day started. Environment Canada noted that much of the day would be rainy, and we did awaken to cloudy skies, but glimmers of sun managed to get through the cloud cover throughout the morning. Despite which there was a short-lived but emphatic little shower before noon.

We could use some more rain. Not that we haven't had ample up to now, but all growing things thrive when rain falls regularly in the spring and summer; not only farmer's fields require the rain but all vegetation everywhere including the forest which is now busy sprouting blackberry blooms for late summer picking.

And our garden, despite the pop-up mushrooms in one of our garden beds, could certainly use more rain interspersed with the heat of the sun. Not to mention the front lawn which my husband covered liberally in many places with fresh garden soil, sprinkling it with grass seed, hoping to undo most of the damage incurred last year from the incursion of Japanese beetles and their grubs hungry to eat the grass roots. I cringe at the very thought of seeing those admittedly beautiful insects, gathering once again on our roses and the foliage of the corkscrew hazelnut, destroying their beauty. But that too is nature.

We were amazed, actually, on yesterday's traipse through the woods to see ripe red berry clusters on a number of the baneberry plants in the ravine. Such a rapid transition this year is highly unusual. Speaks volumes of the weather we've been experiencing, since the reverse inclemency of early spring.

We came across several of our ravine acquaintances and their large dogs one of which was enjoying himself in the creek, in it up to and over his head, cooling off and getting quite brownish in appearance in his white lower half from trampling up the clay base to muck. Fortunately, his human, a lovely woman with two wonderful young adult children, doesn't mind, counting on the ambient warmth and breeze to dry him off as they continue to amble along the trails, before they head back for home.

As for the other, he is a former military man. Quite the physical specimen, his physiognomy far more emphasized than most people of normal height and size. I can only surmise that it is his military background that makes him impatient, curt and too physically emphatic with his six-month-old German Shepherd, a lovely, good-natured dog that will eventually become very large in maturity.

Because the puppy named Nova, is just a puppy yet he fails to immediately obey this man at all times he elicits temporary disfavour. Such as when he's in the company of our two with whom he wants to play. Leading him to follow us, not his owner, which infuriates him no end. He makes an effort to control his anger, we can see that, but it's obvious nevertheless in the manner in which he puts the puppy on leash and tugs  him about roughly.

In the end, he'll have an obedient dog, but it's hardly necessary to be so rough with the puppy, even recognizing that people who have such large dogs have an obligation to ensure that they respond to command given their size and the potential for wreaking havoc if and when they resort to behaviour inimical to their well-being and everyone else's safety.

On the other  hand, I can recall acutely how frustrating it was for us when our two were in their puppy stage, undisciplined and difficult to control. We were not always cool headed about it, come to think of it ... later regretting our impatience and anger at the two little imps that share our lives.