Can't say we'll miss the heat wave. We're back now into cooler weather, much cooler, with gusting winds and rain. Sleeping was comfortable last night for all of us. Of course now that Jackie and Jillie are rid of their grown-in haircoat they're more able to withstand the heat. That their coat is black to begin with is a heat-attractant. That it had grown in to the extent it had given COVID-inspired grooming appointment cancellations made Jillie really miserable. She's no longer hiding from the heat under the coffee table. Back up on the loveseat, her very favourite perch.

This morning dawned cool, overcast and blustery. No need to rush out to the ravine pre-breakfast to avoid the afternoon heat build-up. There would be none. So an afternoon ramble through the woods, our default schedule, returned. It's better for Jackie and Jillie in the sense that it breaks up their day. I've seen cartoons of dogs struggling to avoid their leashes, fed up with being taken for countless daily walks by bored humans looking for some relief from being COVID-shut-ins.

Our routine in the ravine where we access a network of forest trails is never boring, it does consume a good swath of time, and it does demand that we descend and ascend hilly terrain for a fairly good physical workout. Aside from which it's also a social enterprise, coming across people now and again that we've known for years; the community of trail-trampers.

It's the same for Jackie and Jillie when they too meet up with other dogs, large and small, friendly or evasive, that they've become familiar with over the years of their young lives. We've never been bored with the trails and the changing landscape, and nor have they ever been. They did perform quite a bit of vigorous shaking off of raindrops through the course of our circuit today, however.

We did some stops briefly occasionally under particularly well-leafed canopies from time to time when rain picked up, but for the most part the showers were not too intrusive, and made less so by the green canopy above us. So it rained intermittently, and once the sun came out for a short re-acquaintance before it was hidden once again by low-lying, soft puffy white cloud cover.

Each day's exposure to nature within the forest precincts brings us something new to admire. The small colonies of Partridgeberry have produced even more of their lovely little white flowers. And for the first time so far this summer, we discovered, among the blooming thimbleberry bushes astride the trails, their foliage gleaming with rain, the presence of a flowering cinquefoil with its distinctive five-petalled, delicately pale yellow flowers.

Before we exited completely, our pups had the opportunity to play about a bit with a Corgi puppy, beyond enthusiastic to encounter other dogs more its size, and as curious about her as she was about them. By the time we reached street level, the rain had stopped completely, the street well glazed with rain, the pervasive and nostalgic fragrance of rain on pavement redolent of childhood impressions of such days.

And once back home, strolling through the garden with Jackie and Jillie hard on our heels, the colour surrounding us in the flush of blooming roses had been intensified by the rain, the bright green foliage well lacquered just as it had appeared in the ravine, rainwater glistening off the vegetation on the forest floor, stimulating more growth in a summer where we've already noticed the swelling flush of more robust and earlier-maturing forest plants than is normal for this time of year.

As for the cooler weather, it's temporary. Canada's chief weather forecaster has already informed the public that this summer will be one of more extreme heat events, that we've already gone through more over-30C days than is normal, including an unusual number of over-heated days back in May when we had a stifling day over 35C, with more, much more to come.