It is almost beyond belief that the summer we looked so anxiously toward -- a flick of a moment ago when winter wore us down and we yearned to be relieved of the cold -- has come and gone. Oh, we'll continue to have lots of good days yet of warm temperatures, sun and gentle wind, but that old classic of the writing on the wall spells out summer's gradual disappearance for 2021.

 

 

The last day of August, already? How is that even possible? We're just getting comfortable with summer, despite our crabby complaints of heat and humidity. Whining is just second mature to us, after all. And as though to really bring home to our consciousness what we'll soon be missing, this final day of August has turned out incredibly pleasant.

 

If a temperature of 26C, a cool breeze and a hot sun doesn't spell out summer perfection what could? And that's nature's menu for the day. Jackie and Jillie were beyond grateful. As soon as they scarfed down their breakfast they were outside, on the deck, splayed out in the sun. They didn't care the sun was so bright they had to narrow their eyes to slits. The comforting warmth was all that mattered. And it took awhile before the heat on their black haircoats compelled them to return to the house interior.

 

These are the treasured days of balm to our souls, courtesy Mother Nature. Although the garden is tired of having worked for so many months to produce the landscapes we so admire in texture, form and colour, they too have responded to nature's elements that worked so assiduously in tandem in a choreograph of perfection when rain fell, the skies cleared, the sun emerged and cool delight was our gift.

 

When we went off in the early afternoon to the ravine with Jackie and Jillie there were the bright pink faces alight with sun of the balsam family's Himalayan orchids. A sea of cheerful faces in an ocean of dark green foliage. Those pink flowers are quite simply irresistible. It is not even remotely possible to pass their presence without at least a brief stop to absorb their insouciant pink greeting.

 

And then we dip down the hillside as the trail takes us into the forest interior. Where Jackie and Jillie enjoy brief little sorties off the trail to adventure themselves with the closer inspection of anything that moves or an odour beckons. Their frenetic back-and-forths ensures their energy output is readily double ours. But then, of course, we amble about on two legs to their four.

 

There was no reason to cut short our outing in the forest, though we had other matters that would absorb the balance of the day's activities. The sun was warm and brilliant, illuminating the forest with its bright shafts of light and spreading a strange light-mist throughout the landscape. Clarity of vision enhanced through a shimmering veil of light.

 

On our return home Jackie and Jillie clamoured as usual for their vegetable salad; chopped snap peas, cucumber, tomato and nectarine. And I put together a potato salad for dinner; Yukon gold potatoes, chopped green onions, salt, pepper, snap peas, over a bed of lettuce, topped by canned salmon and sliced cocktail tomatoes. 

 

Then we left our two little guard dogs at home. Alone. And they don't appreciate that. But they cannot accompany us into a supermarket. Unless we're in New Hampshire on holidays and shopping at one of the supermarkets there where everyone is delighted to see them in their pouches seated at the front of a shopping cart. That doesn't work here.

 

We had another destination first, though, to drive over to the place where we pick up shelled peanuts for our porch guests. While Irving hoisted a 50-lb. bag of peanuts onto a cart, I looked among the spring bulbs for fall planting that the store always features, and came away with more scilla, tulip and narcissus bulbs. We had to take a roundabout way back from Richie's since, on the way there, we couldn't believe the traffic tie-ups resulting from lane closures.

 

 

But eventually we ended up at the supermarket, where we got our food shopping excursion completed. We were later than usual arriving there, and found the parking lot really full, as was the store. A situation that makes us very uncomfortable at the present time. Such are the hazards of being out in public in this time of the coronavirus pandemic.