Since we're now only doing the grocery shopping bi-weekly to diminish infection exposure opportunities during the pandemic, by the end of the second week our foodstock has begun to run pretty low. The refrigerator had begun once again to take on the aspect of a bright, Arctic wasteland. But we did have some eggs left, and some milk, and there was that cheese block I regretted buying, the jalapeno-pepper-infused Monterey Jack, so I decided we'd have a cheese souffle last night, accompanied by sliced tomatoes, cucumber, corn-on-the-cob, and fresh (really) blueberries. The cheese was just fine in the souffle.

This morning we rose at just after six, settled Jackie and Jillie down to routine, set the breakfast table, made up the bed, and set off for our grocery shopping trip, hauling with us bags and containers, face masks, gloves and disinfectant wipes. Last shopping we were unable to buy those huge, juicy Florida oranges and had to settle for blood oranges from Morocco, a poor substitute. Lots of melons available, too. But the cocktail tomatoes and grape tomatoes hadn't been delivered and we have to make do with greenhouse tomatoes of little distinction, taste-wise. California cherries were on sale and there was plentiful choice of almost everything.

There were scant few other shoppers besides ourselves at that time of the morning, around 7, and we feel more comfortable that way, better able to maintain distance. Pretty vital for people like us in their 80s. There were some surprising gaps on the grocery shelves, and new to us a product named "British Class" yeast jars, definitely not the usual we buy, but plenty of flour of all types on the shelves. We came back home laden with goodies, and Jackie and Jillie were beside themselves with joy to discover they hadn't been abandoned forever and ever, after all as their parting wails presaged. And after putting everything away, a truly exhausting job to find room for everything, we showered and had breakfast all of us together.

And then, because it has turned out to be yet another very cool and wet day, we set off with a little trepidation, to wander about on the forest trails in the ravine. At 15C, Jackie and Jillie don't need little sweaters, given how hairy they've become awaiting their next grooming appointment, the third week of June, the last one having been cancelled due to COVID fears, but we bundled ourselves in layers against the wet chill.

Everything was well drenched from the days of rain we've had. The forest pathways themselves are slick with mud in many places and in other areas ponds of rainwater sit on the forest floor imploring mosquitoes to make themselves right at home. Of a certainty they were pleased to accommodate, but though they were pretty awful yesterday, they gave us peace today instead of taking pieces from our tender skin.

We met up with a pair of acquaintances with their dogs. Two of which Jackie and Jillie are well acquainted with as aggressive -- dogs they would far prefer not to run into. But there were also very pleasant sights to be seen, with the wild honeysuckle now in bloom, some with white and some with pink flowers, nice healthy shrubs. Not as numerous, however, as the dogwood shrubs that proliferate in the forest understory, and they too are now in bloom.

We expected that we would see the honeysuckle and dogwood in bloom, but alongside one of the trails we were surprised to see a single, lonely little bunchberry (ground dogwood) in bloom, bravely countering the elements, unafraid to appear on its own, with no sight of its extended family anywhere near. All the more to be admired with its bright little white flowerhead.

Later, back at home, more surprises when we noted that the mountain bluet have begun to put out their delicate-petalled flowers, bright blue against the shiny, dark green of their foliage. The rain hasn't harmed the multi-flowered begonias, one bit. They're nicely holding their own, in lovely shades of pastels, promising to fill out the urns and pots they've been deposited into for the growing season.

A growing season that swept off to a really good start, after an initial cold spring (but for last week's heat spell in the 30s, the cool weather continues, along with the rain) which seems to suit all the flowering plants very well. It will take awhile before all the annuals begin to really establish their presence, and spread with their rich texture and colour, but for the time being the garden much more now resembles summer than it does a recalcitrant spring.