Another day, another revelation. Of the kind that you involuntarily wince at. But some investigative reporters are on the track and diligently discovering new and incriminating evidence that government leaders have fallen comfortably into the trap of power investing the holder with opportunities some simply cannot resist. Cue nepotism and ethics violations and entitlements galore.

In Canada it's ongoing revelations that the current prime minister of this country cannot stop engaging in questionable activities, circumventing moral judgement and blundering into behaviours more reminiscent of an autocrat than that of a leader of a democratic nation. Under cover of COVID-19 as an emergency, Parliament has been effectively suspended, the prime minister held to little democratic account.

So far, the Parliamentary ethics commissioner has investigated two occasions when Justin Trudeau overstepped the boundaries of permissible behavior to get his knuckles rapped for ethics violations.
He's working currently on the third such occasion with ample evidence that once again Canada's prime minister has overstepped the boundaries of ethical behaviour in favouring a group with which his entire family has close and remunerative contacts with a sole-sourced billion-dollar contract, once again leading to a scandal of mismanagement and ethical skulduggery.

It is not only regimes such as Robert Mugabe's in Zimbabwe where decisions were made to forge ahead with destructive policies reflecting tainted judgement that ruin a country. And then there is the emerging story in the U.S. of President Trump's daughter who is directly involved in his administration deciding to enrich herself even further than beyond her clothing-and-lifestyle line, to publicly endorse a corporation's food line. One that the president himself seems happy to re-endorse.

All this headache-inducing news of human frailty, ego and misplaced judgement needs a solution and beyond the ballot box in which citizens of each country can have a hoped-for effect. For us there is the additional solace given by a morning round through the tranquility of a forest. And so once again we gathered up our two little pups -- or perchance they prevailed upon us -- and made our way over to the awaiting green ravine, a landscape guaranteed to wash away the sour taste left by sordid tales of greed and entitlement.

Another chance encounter today with someone we haven't seen in a great while, with his beautifully conformed and behaved pointer, a hunting breed of great distinction. Jackie and Jillie enjoyed a reunion and we had reason to stand in the shade of the forest canopy making up for absent time with a cheerful fellow trail addict.

Earlier, when we were passing by the creek, now reduced from its swollen state of a few days earlier in the wake of heavy rainstorms, we welcomed back Damselflies, which we hadn't yet seen make an appearance this summer. They were flitting about on the creek banks, above, around and close to the compound flowerheads of the Elderberry trees, most of which have almost finished flowering.

The compass plants are beginning to make a lovely show, tall and stately, their yellow heads responding to the golden glow of the sun. The succession of wildflowers has slowed somewhat, though we still see fleabane here and there, daisies and yarrow on the forest floor.

An hour and a half later we were home again. The cool atmosphere of the forest overtaken by a heat buildup of the nearing afternoon. On the plus-plus side, both in the forest where cool breezes penetrated, those breezes followed us down the street, up our driveway, and politely stopped as we entered the house.

Before we did, a quick turn of the garden revealed that the patch of perennial digitalis that was mostly ivory-petalled is now featuring their pale pink counterparts. Yesterday afternoon, in a light rain, I was out in the garden tidying things up a bit, snipping here and there, and dead-heading geraniums and spent roses. It's hard to tell, actually, a day later, that the garden looks any neater; its rampant growth in these midsummer conditions of heat, humidity, sun and rain, make for ideal growing conditions.