Just as well that Jackie and Jillie don't fuss when they're being dressed against the weather. And dressing them against the weather was quite necessary yesterday, we thought, if we were to hazard a roundabout through the forest trails in the ravine, given that the heavens had opened up and seemed to have little intention of hosting the sun, yesterday.

It was humid, since the air was utterly saturated with rain, but it was also windy and cool at 13C, so we theorized they wouldn't be uncomfortable wearing their raincoats, and neither would we. We set out in a fairly light drizzle, knowing that it could pick up again at any moment, but consoled by the thought of the forest canopy's sheltering us, even though it was already drenched.

The rain stopped and started again while we were out, but we were all perfectly comfortable ambling about the trails. It has become an important element of our taking the most out of any day, after all. We saw but one other person out, walking a large poodle mix and he hurried along the trails when we passed him twice, in areas far flung.

We came across the first of the ground dogwood in flower -- also named bunchberry. All the vegetation in the ravine absolutely glowed with vibrant colour, drenched as everything was with rainwater. We've never before seen such numbers of flowering Lilies-of-the-Valley clustered around tree trunks everywhere on the forest floor.

We were, in fact, amazed to see at one point that the sun had penetrated the cloud cover, however briefly, shining its unerring spotlight on the details of a forest encased in rainwater, highlighted by shafts of brilliant golden light here and there. Although we knew the sun wouldn't last, it did inspire us to carry on much further than we had originally intended.

So we expanded our circuit to explore a part of the ravine that we normally don't trek through. It's where remedial work had been done after the collapse of one of the ravine's hillsides, taking the forest trees with it, denuding the area, leaving a partially destroyed valley, the hillside's collapsed contents clogging the creek and creating a giant pond that beavers resident in another part of the creek were quick to take advantage of.

But that was a disturbing, brief interlude in the normal life of the ravine, one that was ameliorated to ensure no further slumps would occur. The municipality paid handsomely for the engineering, mechanical equipment, crews and replacement trees that went into the project that took a year to complete. That area looks completely different from its original form. And a new trail had been forged through the altered terrain, so that's the trail we took.

It also connects to trails and areas that were unaffected by the geological disturbances. Jackie and Jillie became quite excited with interest over our heading into a completely new direction. They'd been there before, but years ago and their memory was hazy about it; to them it was a new adventure and they were more than prepared to fully delve into it.

Once again we were fortunate that the nuisance of heavy rain held off, and we stayed snug and dry. It was only on our return that heavy rain began again. Before it did though, when we returned from the ravine, we had time to enjoy the garden, to remain outdoors for a short bit longer, as we went from one micro-landscape that makes up the entire garden to another, the bright-petalled flowers both annuals and perennials creating a colourful mosaic of texture, form and colour.