It's like fluffy, pale snow floating about everywhere, the release of the poplar seeds being conveyed on the wind after other types of poplars dropped their catkins.The light, fluffed seeds gather on the forest floor and resemble small piles of snow. And out on the street, those airy fluff balls are everywhere. Looking out the windows we see them floating hazily about. Open a door and in they come. It's like this every year at this time in spring. And it explains why there are so many poplar seedlings about. They're ferociously swift growers and they're everywhere. Not only do we pull up weeds in the garden but also maple and poplar seedlings.

The garden is busy showing off its seasonal offerings sequentially, bit by bit. And although it's been a cool spring, other than for the heat wave we've recently emerged from, vegetation in the forest and in our gardens is off to a good start; there are more flowers in the fruit trees than we can ever before recall, and wildflowers on the forest floor have outdone themselves this year in the production of blooms. And nor is the garden lagging for that matter; our decades-old pink-flowered tree peony has put out more flower buds than we've ever before seen, and the allium bulbs also planted many years ago have proliferated as well.

Now that we're no longer languishing in the extreme heat of 33C -- 35C days, we're wondering at the wicked humour being expressed by nature in the return of winter-like temperatures. The thermometer is set to dip to 4C tonight, and likely we'll have rain as well, as we have for the past three nights and days. The high today is 13C, but winds at 40K/hr make it seem even colder than that, alternating with sun and rain.

For their part, Jackie and Jillie feel the return to cooler temperatures as preferential to the exhausting heat, and they're far more lively now on our ravine hikes. The wind and the cooler weather has also put a damper on mosquitoes, they're nowhere near as evident, although now that it's colder we're also covering up against the cold.

We're on the lookout for fungi making their appearance now that high humidity and incessant rain appear the order of the day, and did indeed find a colony of fungi helping the decay of some old fallen tree branches close to the creek where it's always damp. Heaps of little mushrooms appear suddenly around the tops of old tree stumps, and just as suddenly deteriorate and disappear. They're not the attractive colourful ones we look out for, in bright orange, red and sometimes purple.

The trail system, once dry and firm underfoot has once again become slippery with mud, a result of the bits of wood fibre, dried foliage and needles having been swept away by the sheer water power of heavy rain events. But now that I trimmed Jackie and Jillie's little pads of their long-grown-in hair they pick up far less detritus and are easier to clean off on our return back home from the forest.

I decided for dinner tonight to prepare a casserole, simple enough, to use the leftover chicken that my husband had barbecued on Sunday for dinner. Cutting the chicken into chunks, I set a chopped onion and diced garlic to saute briefly in olive oil, added the chicken, paprika and cumin powder, then dusted it with flour, added hot chicken soup to thicken, then a cup of frozen green peas. Meanwhile, I had boiled potatoes along with a small clove of garlic which I mashed together, added pepper, parsley, sour cream and powdered Parmesan cheese, to top the chicken and its gravy. It will bake for about 40 minutes in a 350F oven, and we'll have it with broccoli alongside, and clementines for dessert.