We both agreed it made good sense to set out for an early morning walk today given the forecasted heat in the 30Cs range again, with high humidity. Jackie and Jillie are becoming accustomed to these unexpected early morning jaunts. At least they haven't complained. The thing of it is that if we wait for an afternoon walk through the woods they seem to take little pleasure in the enterprise, even though we bring along ample water for them; just too hot and fatiguing; they're not puppies any longer. Which is one reason why we find it so perplexing to the point of cruelty on such hot days when we see people jogging or running with their dogs in hot pursuit.

With everything being closed, and no opportunity for us to have them groomed as previously, our two little fellows  don't have the relief to be gained by having their haircoat sheared to help counter the heat. And since they're black little guys, out in the sun they become very, very warm. We've never encouraged them to make for the creek to cool off, because our little miniature Poodle Button once got badly cut by broken glass lying on the creek bottom.

But Button loved water, and we had a little kiddie backyard plastic pool we used to fill for her to play in. Neither Jackie nor Jillie have any particular affinity for water. Jillie will go to heroic ends to bypass water, and her brother is just indifferent to it as a cooling agent, much less a potential medium for pleasurable playing about with.

Dogwood

As we meandered through the forest trails it was clear we wouldn't be delighted with any landscape anomalies such as those that met our eyes yesterday, resulting from  copious rain from a violent thunderstorm the night before, and the mist early morning that followed rising from the forest, and overhead the sun slowly coursing across the sky sending wide beams of heat and light to burn through the mist; that bewitchingly mysterious, almost mythic quality was absent.

Hawthorn

Still, the bright, fresh green of the forest itself, so newly filled out presented as a gift of a landscape view in and of itself. The many dogwood shrubs in the forest understory are slowly beginning their bloom period. The Hawthorn trees, not to be left out, have also begun blooming. As have the pin cherry trees. Even as we noted that the trout lily foliage is so quickly yellowing and drying up, the lilies-of-the-valley are finally flowering in abundance. 

Lilies-of-the-valley

Unlike yesterday's solitary tramp through the woods, we came across quite a few people this morning, all of whom were old familiar faces. Good for a chat and brief re-connections. Others besides ourselves had the very same reaction to these hot, close days; to get out into the ravine to enjoy a hike before the heat of the day strikes.

Cherry tree