There were a few 'spare' hours yesterday, so we took advantage of them, in a nod to the season, tasking ourselves with the energy to commit to several things that are seasonally demanding yet at the same time because they're in preparation for an enjoyable largely task-free summer, tackled with gusto and more than a little pleasure.

If there's anything concerning gardening, I'm all for it, anxious to get going. Somehow gardening and thoughts about presentation and aesthetics and acquisitions never fail to excite me. And having thought of these things I feel prepared to execute them for the pleasure I feel certain we'll derive from puttering about and making changes to match the enterprising thoughts that spurred me to action to begin with.

There's less pleasure for my husband, however, in the tasks awaiting him. Yesterday it was preparing the deck for a new coat of varnish, which meant that he had to busy himself scraping away at last year's old varnish, sanding and cleaning. After that comes a wash-down, and finally the varnish application, and the deck looks as good as new and ready to host our leisurely days of relaxation in the out-of-doors.

Of course there's another kind of leisure we engage in, when we head out for the ravine as we did yesterday on another lovely late morning trek along and through the network of forest trails. It's our first order of business and what we attend to in that order, following our household chores.

Mild, at 18C, slight breeze, and a sky alternating from cloud-strewn to clear, we had it all. Unfortunately, including our first introduction this spring to mosquitoes. But the now-ubiquitous sight of trout lilies in bloom, more in number than we've ever seen in any other spring, captivates our interest. Wild raspberry canes and blackberries and thimbleberries are coming up everywhere along the trails.

And the bright saucy red of trilliums glow at us here and there from the forest floor; an entirely changed landscape from how it all appeared several weeks earlier; sere and bleak. The pools of rainwater are beginning to be absorbed, but in the interim they're prefect breeding ponds for mosquito larvae.

Our nimble little Jackie goes off on constant diversionary romps off trail and into the depths of the forest; he's seen something move and that's all it takes, he has to investigate a close quarters. Jillie is only mildly interested. We came across a little friend of theirs, a lovely little Boston Bull terrier with a sweet disposition and they had a brief companionable encounter.

After our ravine circuit my husband went back to his wood grinding, and I turned to the annual flats we'd bought the day before. I tucked nemesis as fillers into some of the garden pots, planted a gorgeous huge primrose that I expect will give us spring pleasure for many a year to come; a cultivar with variegated yellow/orange and blush flowers, and then set about to plant the zinnias and the marigolds that would occupy the flower bed at the very front of the garden.

They were to be planted wherever I could find unoccupied space in between the tulips and the alliums I'd planted last fall and now in full bloom. After several hours of planting my husband came around from the backyard to water everything and we admired the beginning of our summer garden together.