Thoughts of what to put on the dinner table these steamy hot days don't usually include soup on the menu. But I had quite a few tomatoes  that I thought should be used before we do our food shopping tomorrow, so thought I'd make a tomato soup for a change. Easy enough to prepare, I started out with a chopped garlic clove and chopped onion, sauteed in a saucepot, added dried thyme and when it was fragrant, three cups of chicken soup stock. Then came a quarter cup tomato paste, three medium sized tomatoes chopped, and everything simmered for 40 minutes. Last thing I added was dried sweet basil. Using an immersion blender, I pureed the soup, then put three dollops of thick sour cream in each bowl before ladling the soup over, and stirred. Heat notwithstanding, it was very good, nice and piquant.

This morning was overcast and very, very humid. So humid in fact that it felt somewhat like I imagine being in a sauna must be like. By afternoon the atmosphere felt very similar to what we experienced while living in Tokyo on over-heated summer days. After the news we heard the weather forecaster state that in his years of experience he had never before experienced this level of humidity. Which made the 30C of the day feel infinitely worse than it might otherwise have been.

We set out for our ravine walk however, before the heat of the day struck. Just after a heavy rainfall that came pelting down in the early morning hours. There was a complete cloud cover of pewter-coloured clouds. We knew rain might strike again while we were out. And despite the warmth of the morning, we decided to wear rainjackets.Which we could never have done in the afternoon.

First, the obligatory tarrying before plunging into the ravine, beside the fast-ripening thimbleberries, Jackie and Jillie patiently awaiting their expected treats. Then, into the forest, its aspect dark as might be expected for an early morning turn under clouded skies, foliage on the trees glittering with rain. We hadn't gone very long before rain started up again, but it was light and we carried on. And though we had tucked their little rainjackets in our pockets we felt Jackie and Jillie didn't need protection from the rain unless and until it became really heavy, since the canopy was keeping us fairly dry.

We did, though, decide that we would carry on, but take a shorter route, and that is precisely what we did, cutting about twenty minutes off our usual circuit. The rain was building up strength, and then came a sudden downpour, thankfully short-lived, and since we were striding along the trail  under a dense portion of the canopy, none of us became very wet and there were no complaints from our rain-averse little dogs. We still had a bit of leisure to appreciate the odd little patch of ajuga that never really amounts to much other than occasional bright little spots of purple flowers beside the trails.

By the time we arrived back home the rain had lifted, giving us the opportunity to look about the garden a bit before breakfast. Phlox is beginning to bloom in the backyard under one of the two weeping mulberries we've had for many years. One of our Explorer series rose shrubs that has grown to an impressive height over the years, is still putting out its beautiful little pink roses. Unfortunately, the presence of Japanese beetles fastened to those delicate flowers is not an inspiring sight.

On the other hand, the nasturtiums that I had planted early in the season are now beginning to bloom, showing their cheery little faces in red this year, a change from the  usual yellow and orange that we usually have as pot fillers. At the front of the house where the other weeping mulberry is planted, I have high hopes for the bright pink hydrangea that has been faithfully producing huge bloom clusters, unlike the blue hydrangea shrubs that grow vigorously enough but have failed the past two years to produce any flowers.