We're entering that period when summer gradually begins to fade and transform into fall. It will take time, and for that we can be grateful, but the transition is inexorable. While we're still mired in an overheated atmosphere with high humidity and plenty of rain events so typical of August, the shortening days have become all too evident with dusk falling sooner than it had months earlier. On the other hand, we are also in a period where spectacularly bright and colourful skies make their entrance when the sun sinks below the horizon.

Cloudy days are the best, that's when the sun assumes a different position in the sky as it sets, scattering molecules as it sends light through a lower, heavier atmosphere. The spectrum of short wavelength blue and violet particles is evidently what produces that lovely red sunset. The more clouds in the sky the more widely dispersed the effect. Last night was a mostly cloudless sky but there were some clouds close to the horizon and when my husband went out to the backyard with our puppies just after eight he called me outside. And we both admired the colour in the sky.

There's the same kind of nostalgia we feel when we're in the midst of autumn days with cooler weather and the sight of leaves turning colour. In the same token it's tinged with a bit of sadness that another summer season is set to depart. Summer always seems to be much too short. While we're enjoying midsummer we also complain of the heat and humidity, then do a double-think and recall the icy chill of winter, and hug ourselves with the joy of summer living.

It's that same heat and humidity that calls to us early mornings to get out while the temperature is still reasonably cool and the sun hasn't yet heated to the full strength of a fiery afternoon. We've found that for some unfathomable reason we tend to have the ravine to ourselves on Fridays. Occasionally that happens on Saturdays as well. While Sunday, by contrast, is always flooded with people taking hikes through the forest trails.

So when we were out with Jackie and Jillie this morning we could fully appreciate the shaded atmosphere of the forest, with the lingering cool of nighttime and the rise of a cooling breeze to accompany us through most of our tramp through the woods. At one juncture, crossing one of the bridges fording the creek between two hillsides, Jackie suddenly began growling and snarling and Jillie, behind him, soon joined in. They seldom produce that kind of warning sound.

 

And we of course could see nothing that might raise any kind of alarm in them, even though they clearly were disturbed by what we assumed to be a threatening presence. On the rare occasion this will happen; we see and hear nothing, but they of course with their superior olfactory, hearing and viewing senses do. It isn't that difficult to imagine what it might be that alerted and alarmed them to the point of sending out their own message that whoever or whatever might be a threat would be best to beware the mighty restraining power of two little dogs.

And we imagined the coyote or coyotes not bothering to linger any longer, silently slipping away. They likely have no wish to incite any kind of encounter between themselves, people and dogs. We're fairly well convinced that they prefer to be left alone, not noticed, though they notice us passing what they must consider to be their territory and they wouldn't be wrong. It's why we keep Jackie and Jillie on leash and why we'll continue to do that.

Heading out of the ravine, we wound our way through the trail network, our passage otherwise smooth enough. To arrive at our house with the intention of showering, preparing breakfast, enjoying a leisurely read of the newspapers, then set about the business of the day. For my husband that was a little outside work, watering the garden pots and cleaning up a bit of organic detritus.

For me it was the decision to bake a batch of cupcakes for dessert after dinner tonight; mocha-chocolate, because I haven't baked them in quite a long time and chocolate is a favourite with my husband. I put on a chicken soup to cook, and the chicken from the soup will be doled out the next few days over Jackie and Jillie's mealtime kibble. As for us, we'll be having a cauliflower-tomato-lettuce-snap-pea-chicken Caesar salad for dinner tonight, after our chicken soup and rice.