Last Friday, two people are known to have drowned in the Ottawa River, accessible where it runs through the city; one a 14-year-old boy who with friends, had accessed a fenced-off bridge -- with signage warning 'entry prohibited' no longer in use -- to leap into the river at 9:30. The boy failed to surface. His body has still not been recovered. It seems that such dreadful misadventures have their inevitable seasons. In winter, it's snowmobiles sinking through too-thin ice over lakes and rivers, and people drowning. In summer, it's ill-considered summer play that often goes awry.

The municipality of this capital city has finally announced the passing of a new bylaw respecting the novel coronavirus. A city of a million people, in its greater-Ottawa environment, there have been fewer than 50 active case of COVID-19. We've been in lockdown since mid-March, and for the past several weeks, bars and restaurants, and other retail businesses have been slowly re-opening for outdoor service.

Essential services represented by pharmacies and supermarkets have remained open throughout the lockdown. Dental services, hairdressers and barbers, veterinarian services have all re-opened but slowly and carefully; one is required to make appointments ahead of time, and few clients are taken at a time, all expected to be masked. We've been masking when we do our grocery shopping or enter the premises of other shops, though we haven't had the occasion to do much of that.

We have never seen the need to mask when we've been outdoors, but we do see the need to remain physically distanced from others and practise that fairly rigorously. One of our neighbours who tends to be a recluse at the best of times and behaves like a sociopath at the worst of times, can be seen on rare occasions outside, mowing his lawn, and wearing a mask, though no one ever approaches him because he has made it abundantly clear on any number of occasions that he has complete disinterest in speaking with anyone.

Curiously enough his wife is an extrovert, with a smile that could light up a dark chamber and we suspect a metaphorical dark chamber is what she inhabits, having informed us years ago that her husband will not 'allow' her to do any number of things.

We've been having far more overheated, humid and sunny 30+C days than is normal for an average summer. Most summers, we have roughly five days heating up to 30C, we've vastly exceeded that number and will continue to, throughout the remaining summer months, as we've been forewarned by Environment Canada.

In the ravine, raspberries are ripening nicely now. They're wild, and so they're small in size, but packed with juicy sweetness. This morning as we entered the ravine to launch ourselves into an hour or so of sauntering through the forest trails, there were already berries ripe for the picking. Jackie and Jillie recall from previous years in their young lives what it means when they see my husband rummaging about in the glossy green foliage; it's treat time.

They zipped right over to him, in excited anticipation of treats, and they weren't disappointed. From now until mid-fall there will always be some kind of wild fruit ready to be plucked and shared with our puppies, making our daily ravine hikes through the forest double treats. What they will never be given, however, is one type of berry that rates as poisonous, which is now also ripening; red baneberry with its colourful, bright-red sprays of berries.