Our relief from the blasting heat of the wave of hot weather that has overtaken central Ontario and Quebec was brief, albeit appreciated, on Friday. Yesterday saw the return of hot, humid conditions with no prospect of rain in sight. So off we trudged into the ravine to find some relief in the out-of-doors from the prevailing weather conditions.

At first, the cooling breezes seemed wonderfully promising as we began to descend the ravine hillside into the forest beyond and were nicely sheltered by the forest canopy. In fact it was, and always is somewhat cooler within the confines of the forest than it is up at street level. But as we ambled along, the heat caught up with us; partially the result of energy expenditure hauling ourselves up and down the hillsides on our circuit, and partially brief exposure to the burning sun wherever the canopy thinned, allowing hot spears of sunlight to penetrate.

Until last year you could walk down the street we call home and be in shade in the afternoon as the mature trees on people's lawns shed their shade onto the street. A lot can happen in the space of a few years. Those trees, maples, pines and ashes, grew enormously in the space of several decades which is as long as the street has existed, lined with houses. Then came elm disease that devastated the elm population, and then spruce budworm, followed by a kind of mould malady afflicting maples, and finally emerald ash borer. The spruce survived the onslaught and the mature trees on our lawn are testament to that.

Cinquefoil/Potentilla

The elm were devastated, and following them, the forest of ashes went into steep decline. Many of the trees on the street were ash, and at the same time pines were being afflicted with a disease all their own; large boughs failing, the needles completely orange and shedding like snow in January. The ashes died, the bark swiftly falling off. Intervention didn't help as some desperate homeowners discovered hiring specialized firms to apply chemicals meant to counteract the effect of the borers.

The trees were eventually all removed and the arborists hired to do the job were everywhere; the result is another suburban street void of mature trees to throw shade in the heat of the summer, leaving a landscape looking barren and unattractive. But in the ravine we soon discovered that many of the elms that had succumbed were sending up new shoots from 'dead' trunks near and at ground level and the forest is steadily recovering the growth of elm, eager to take their place once again among the panoply of deciduous and conifers we're fortunate to enjoy there.

Our ravine walk was tolerable as far as the heat was concerned, yesterday. We took delight in seeing the proliferation of cinquefoil in bloom and the astonishingly early appearance of goldenrod, fall asters and Queen Anne's lace, preparing to bloom at least a month sooner than they normally do. And to further enhance the landscape, even those tiny delightful fleabane wildflowers are still making their presence known.