At mid-evening yesterday just as dusk was melting into night, the sky and its cloud formations began to reflect the setting sun, treating us to a fiery glow on the horizon, reflecting on the clouds above. Later on with a few hours' passage, rain began heavily falling. Although we were only mere steps from the breakfast room where the sliding glass doors leading to the deck remained open in hopes of catching stray breezes on that hot, humid night, we 'forgot' about both rain and open door. Only to 'remember' hours later on the cusp of taking Jackie and Jillie out before bedtime, to discover the floor mat swimming in rainwater.

This morning there was threat of rain, but none appeared, and just as well, since the landscape had been well inundated. Which is good for all growing things, and which also meant we didn't have to concern ourselves about ensuring that the garden and garden pots were in danger of drying out. All that irrigation makes for an interesting roundabout in t he garden, though, since it has such an immediate impact on flowering plants. The clematis vines in particular respond to such ideal conditions; lots of rain and sun.

The roses have receded, the peonies long gone, lilies beginning to flower, and so are the geranium shrubs and the bright red monarda.There's a little trouble in two of the pots at the front of the house. As often happens every summer, some squirrels decide to dig in one of the garden urns of the pair fronting the porch. Some years it's the urn on the left, other years the right-hand urn. They tend to dig into the roots of whatever is planted there -- usually begonias companioned with lobelia -- and they don't survive being dug up and their roots exposed time and again.

Another flower urn that we've had problems with before has retained water from all the rain, whereas most of the urns and pots drain excess water away. In that urn the plants simply drowned, their roots rotted and  I had decided to replace both urns. Hoping I could still find annuals for sale somewhere rather than robbing Peter to pay Paul, since I had plants expendable or excess to their original placement in backyard pots.

Well, we decided on our daily hike through the ravine with Jackie and Jillie, and off we went, sagging with the humid heat as we made our way up the street toward the ravine entrance. We were quickly restored once we had the forest around us as we entered the interior, shielded from the overbearing heat of the sun and cooled by wind gusts soughing through the trees, making the atmosphere quite bearable.

As usual, Jackie and Jillie met up with a few of their friends and a little party was held with doggie treats handed out all around. This was the kind of day that Jackie and Jillie who most often spurn offers for a drink, slurped avidly at water on several occasions as we stopped briefly to refresh them. We decided, before leaving the forest to make a little side-visit to the forest clearing to take in any new wildflower events, and were overwhelmed once again by the wild proliferation of black-eyed Susans.

There were more wild parsnip in evidence blooming amongst the Queen Anne's lace and the ragweed and daisies and fleabane. Nature's garden of wildflowers on full, colourful display, alongside the elderberry blossoms with their lovely sweet fragrance freshening the air.

Later, we drove over to a few rural plant nurseries in hopes that any of them might still have some annuals for sale. None did, to our disappointment since I had those ruined plants of the urns in mind, and also would have liked to pick up a few more bedding plants. As well as most things have flourished this summer, some of the annuals I planted months ago haven't done well, despite fertilizing, despite ample sun and rain. I'd almost surrendered to the fact that no one had any annuals when we stopped briefly by the garden center at Canadian Tire.

Again, perennials, shrubs and trees, but annuals there were none. Mind, just about everything looked either half dead or on their way to achieving that status. But I did find a few pots of begonias, and ended up with four pots that I judged could be resuscitated and on our return home, did a little remedial planting...