Dreaded Tuesday morning done and over with. Couldn't persuade Jackie and Jillie to nibble some tiny cubes of cheese as usual pre-breakfast this morning. They were too busy appealing to us with their hurt eyes at being abandoned, left bereft of our presence, to take notice of the offering. They sniffed disconsolately at the cheese and politely declined, fixing their large liquid eyes on my hard eyes that told them, no matter how badly you feel, little guys, the grocery shopping has to be done.

On our return, the mad jubilation! Leaping frantically around us, emoting those pitiable little sounds that translated tell us 'you're back, thank heavens you're back, we had given up hope, clinging to memories of you, feeling that this would be all that was left of our blissful existence together...thank the stars you've returned safe and sound ... now, where's our treat!??' 

Once they settled down, we got to work putting everything away, with Jackie and Jillie giving directions, making certain we knew what we were doing. And oh, can we have another little piece of cauliflower while you're at it? Irving ever so happy to oblige his little charges.

Another close, hot and humid day. Thank heavens, no more rain in sight. Oh well, the weather report advised possibly a thundershower. So after breakfast we made quick preparations to hie ourselves off to the forest. Jackie and Jillie expect no less, hovering about us as we cleaned up after breakfast. You said we'd go out early today, so what's taking so long? Can't we just go?, they whined.

And we were ready, even got their collars and halters on and preparing to leave the house, when ... rain. Just a shower, we assured one another. We'll wait it out. And wait we did, as the rain increased in volume and became serious rain, no mere shower. So as not to waste time after we shed the brats of collars and halters, I set about pre-preparing dinner.

For which I needed two mixing bowls. One for the crepes, the other for the cheese filling. I planned to use ricotta instead of cottage cheese. Flour, salt, eggs and milk for the crepes. Ricotta, sugar, egg yolk, vanilla for the filling. It takes no time at all to prepare the crepes; they do very quickly. As soon as they cooled on went the filling, the crepes then carefully folded to enfold the filling, then refrigerated until dinnertime when they'd be quickly finished on both sides, in butter. 

And finally the rain stopped. While the sky didn't exactly clear, the clouds were lighter in colour and some blue could be spied in little corners here and there, so off we went. Into a drenched forest, whith vibrant green variations in shade, dripping, dripping. But the rain had cleansed the air and it was cooler.

The dense, humid heat of the morning had dissipated. The temperature had fallen several degrees and the wind actually felt cool, not overheated as it whirled about us. Once we descended into the ravine the atmosphere changed completely; damp and cool, relief from the overheated humidity of the past several days, much less the morning.

No one else about, though we decided to take a longer circuit in the certainty that rain wouldn't fall again while we were out. So we took our time, and just basked in the emerald cave the forest had become, cool and brilliant with vibrant rain-washed colour shades. Then we decided to take an extra jog over to the 'meadow' part of the ravine beside the creek.

There the trails passed alongside daisies, fleabane, cowvetch, ragweed, Black-eyed Susans and thimbleberry shrubs, all in beautiful flower. The dense beauty of it all makes us slow down and bask in the textured colour of it all.