July First, Canada's official 'birthday', and Parliament Hill is crowded with celebrants, young, old and in between, to enjoy the social occasion, the free entertainment, the crushing heat... Oh wait, that's not official, but it is, unfortunately, reality. Nature loves throwing a spanner into the works and she's done a doozy this year, marking the festivities with a prolonged heat wave that is certain to break records in its severity. The heat is heavily oppressive. But not to despair, despite the 33C that 'feels like' 45C, there's a nice stiff breeze.


That breeze is wafting about in the most generous manner possible, stifling, oven-like, scorching heat. It's also a sunny day, so the heat is intensified by the burning rays of the sun. Even when there's a bit of an overcast and the sun temporarily withdraws the relief is so minor and so brief it hardly matters. The crowds this year will be just as large as they always are; preparations have been made to have ample water available, to have officials patrolling the venue to spot anyone in medical trouble. It's a grand public, social occasion and people, wearing the official colours of the Canadian flag are out to enjoy themselves.


As for us, we won't be venturing too far. Even early this morning the heat was well enough advanced to take our breath away venturing out to the back garden. And the exterior thermometer already read 32C, the low that we experienced at the height of the day yesterday. Which led us yesterday morning, anticipating the gathering heat, to the garden at back and front of the house to do a bit of watering and  tender-plant tending, taking stock of what looked heat-oppressed and what did not. In total, no problems.

And then off we went with Jackie and Jillie for a ravine ramble. We thought that if the heat seemed too overwhelming we'd simply cut our junket short and return home. No need, however; the shady canopy of the forest kept us well protected from the sun and the prevailing breeze made the ambient heat seem tolerable. For a change, Jackie and Jillie responded swiftly when they were offered water, unlike previous days when they spurned the offer.

Once again, we had the circuit of forested trails to ourselves. Not another soul, man nor dog to be seen anywhere. We did have the company of cardinals and their exquisite songs. Happily, given the circumstances of extreme heat and a breeze, those other forest denizens we fail to appreciate, did not gather and search out our tender flesh; mosquitoes and black flies, it seems, have no love of this kind of oppressive heat, and were conspicuously absent.

Because we weren't suffering any kind of discomfort and being out in the forest is always such a refreshing experience, we decided to just keep going, and so we ended up with a longer-than-anticipated ramble in the woods, and we felt quite good about that. Making our way back up the last long hill to ascend to street level we could feel the heat pressure increasing, and when we left the protective shade of the forest canopy that heat seemed to slam into us.

The predicted thunderstorms that Environment Canada warned would arrive with some ferocity never did relieve the heat yesterday, not during the day nor throughout the night hours when there was a 70 percent chance of their occurring. And it would have been appreciated if they had. For one thing we enjoy them, the sound and sight of the electrical fury, the authority of the thunder, the over-ample rainfall, and the aftermath of brilliant colour and garden relief.