Headline weather news is that parts of Europe have unwillingly, helplessly, grudgingly welcomed the return of an unprecedented, record-breaking heat spell. They can hardly have had time to recover from the last debilitating spate of extraordinarily hot weather. Now they're plunged right back into it. So we've nothing, absolutely nothing to complain of.

We too had a respite of several reasonable days when the temperature failed to rise to 30C, and it was very much appreciated. The consequence of which was that we delayed going out to the ravine, setting aside our new ritual of breaking with long tradition in this family to embark on our daily foray into the forest with Jackie and Jillie in the afternoon hours. We did, however, revert to habit in the past few days and resumed setting out to the ravine in the early afternoon.

One of those days we came across our old friend Rod, with Nova, now a year-and-a-half old, but still behaving like a puppy, despite his size. Jackie and Jillie are always glad to see their friends, and they had the additional challenge of rousting about with big Nova and then another two large dogs who came around while the three were cavorting on the crest of one of the hills.

Each day we come out now we forage about for ripe raspberries alongside the forest trails. Because they're so small and because most people have no idea of the presence of wild berries in the ravine, we're able to pick them on successive days as they ripen, as though they've been reserved especially for us. They provide a bit of a taste pick-me-up that our two little dogs look forward to. Mind, there's always the possibility that the shrubs may have been irrigated from time to time by passing dogs, so they fail to appeal to us as much as they might otherwise.

Opposite the portion of one of the trails where the most abundant raspberries are ripening we've been awaiting the flowering of wild sunflowers that tend yearly to make their presence there. Wildflower types, that grow to the height of six feet and show off their large flowers as yet another presentation of what the forest floor is capable of hosting.

It's been dry this week, no rain though the forecast always mentions the possibility of pop-up thunderstorms. Despite the copious rain we've been inundated with, when the forest goes for a week or so without rain, the Leda clay base reacts by creating cracks as though to appeal to the sky for rescue from an imaginary drought.

The combination of summer heat, sunshine and wind, does create conditions of exhaustion for plants, though and we haven't been tardy in recognizing that with the need to water our garden pots at least twice weekly, more frequently for smaller pots more exposed to both sun and wind than the large ones that sit on the patio partially shielded from the sun when afternoon shade arrives at the front of the house.