How strange it feels to spend an entire day in the house, not once going outside other than for brief little potty runs with Jackie and Jillie into the backyard. It's a cool day at 19C, and it's continually raining. The rain too heavy and constant to make for any opportunity to take our little dogs out for their regular hike through the nearby forest trails. They don't seem to mind. As they would on a sunny, warm day. They detest rainy days and prefer 'holding back' to going out in even a light patter of rain to do their business.

We'd had a quite long ravine circuit yesterday afternoon, on a perfectly clear, sunny, warmish and breezy afternoon. One of those lovely days and hikes along forest trails that couldn't be matched for perfection. Until we ran into an old acquaintance with sad, bad news of her husband's sudden demise, and then our mood turned sombre and reflective.  

I had read earlier in the day that the west and midwest of the United States is broiling in incredibly overheated temperatures, up to 50C and it's unimaginable. We groan when the summer temperature gets stuck for a spate of days in the 30s. That kind of heat being experienced in the U.S. is really intolerable. So how can I complain with this cool, wet weather?

In fact, it's a comfort to be in our snug house, all four of us. While Jackie and Jillie snooze comfortably, Irving and I had things to be done. A bit of cleaning, a bit of baking and cooking. Telephone appointments, hanging some pictures, routine things. Done at our leisure. There's no hurry about anything. A general state of contentment and coziness as we relax and read the papers.

In the past week we've been quite busy in the garden, and now it looks quite to our satisfaction. That it's raining so steadily today is a bonus for the garden and all growing things. Most particularly so since Irving yesterday spread garden soil and grass seed anew on the front lawn. I had put in a few late seeds, sunflowers and asters, so it will be interesting to see how useful the rain will have been in persuading them to take life. The cosmos that I had much earlier planted and the nasturtiums are doing nicely.

Tomorrow we'll take a drive over to the far west end of the city to make certain that we know the route for our Sunday appointment to get our second vaccine inoculations. Unfamiliarity with that part of the city might lead us to go astray and we'd hate to miss those appointments. They're a full month earlier than our original second-dose appointment dates. The province has acquired more vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, and is accelerating second doses in the threatening shadow of the burgeoning Delta variant of COVID-19.

I baked a blueberry-cherry crisp this morning, topped with chopped pecans. Two cups of blueberries, one cup of halved-pitted cherries. And instead of a warm-weather Caesar salad with cauliflower and chicken breasts along with other vegetables, I've resorted to a winter favourite; deboned, skinned chicken thighs in a mushroom gravy to serve over rice, with cauliflower on the side. That should warm us up nicely.