The only time we come across Denis in the ravine is when we venture out on an early morning hike. It's when he gets out regularly. Denis has made the ravine his very special project. Over the years he's not the first to devote many hours to 'improving' the forest, if we can call it that. 

 

There was one couple, long since moved elsewhere, that used to come out regularly to the ravine, occupying themselves with missions such as attempting to re-direct the creek in some places or engineering new trails. They had got into some fairly fierce arguments with the municipal workers whose job it is to look after the forest as much as is feasible, which is marginal management; a forest is a forest. It was a personal relief to us when they moved.

 

Denis is different. Anything he does is an improvement. He has long taken it upon himself to encourage hikers to clean up after themselves. Particularly after their dog companions. His encouragement takes an indirect route in the sense that he never actually says anything. What he has done is on his own initiative place a large garbage receptacle at every ravine entrance throughout the community where streets abut on the ravine, lines it with a plastic garbage bag, and every garbage collection day, ties up the bag, places it out on the street for collection, and places a new bag in the garbage can.

 

That is a virtuous man, asking nothing from anyone, just quietly going about his business in a helpful way. He's middle-aged, a nearby resident, and he has adopted the ravine as a benignly thoughtful custodian. We saw him once carefully collect gravel to haul it over to one of the bridges where he had noticed there was some soil erosion, so he plugged the area with gravel and no more erosion has since taken place.

 

He's always cheerful, briskly striding along,  taking deep breaths, comfortable in nature and valuing it to the extent that behaving in a completely selfless way just comes naturally to him. A credit to his community and a man obviously devoted to living a good life. His modest demeanor and good nature make him stand out as an altruist in a society where most people first think of what benefits them personally; he thinks community first.

 

Today is another searingly hot and humid day. The afternoon brought a dense cloud cover but with it higher temperature whereas when we ventured out to the ravine this morning with Jackie and Jillie it was 25C, sunny with a light breeze but it didn't take long for the heat to feel oppressive. Needless to say we know every bit of the trails through long familiarity. We stop briefly at certain points with the expectation that year-to-year certain things can be anticipated.

 

As, for example, walking close to where a certain wild apple tree has a habit of dropping some of its apples when they're close to ripeness. So, deviating from the trail and advancing into the interior slightly, Irving found an almost-ripe apple, half of it red. Jackie and Jillie love apple chunks given to them out in the ravine in late summer. This isn't late summer, but the apple though a little astringent had some sweetness to it and they loved it.

 

Before we left the ravine we decided to do a little side trip to the meadow area. Seeing the wildflowers in bloom is just irresistible. We never tire of it, just as we never tire of making our way through the forest trails. And lucky for Jackie and Jillie, soft berries are now ripening nicely. Certainly the raspberries, but now also the first of the thimbleberries to ripen. So Irving got a nice handful of berries to dole out to the puppies and they were fully appreciative. 

 

And when we reach home, to spend a few minutes touring the garden to espie what's new there, it's finally time to enter the house, divest the puppies of their collars and harnesses, wash their paws, and finish breakfast preparations. This morning, for us, it was rice pudding with lots of cinnamon, brown sugar and raisins. 

When we're cutting up and deseeding breakfast melons, some melon always gets chopped up into the puppies' breakfast to moisten their kibble, topped off with extra chicken kept over for that purpose. They need no encouragement to devour their breakfast bowls. And by the time we've showered we're more than ready ourselves to dig in to melon, banana, rice pudding and coffee/tea.