Last night, for the first time this year, we slept comfortably, windows wide open. At 4:30 am the robins and the cardinals begin pealing their pleasure with the new season. Dawn ushered in to the cadence of their spring songs. Where several months ago the days were short and brutally cold, they're now lengthened considerably, offering all the time in the world to make the most of each day in broad daylight. There's new promise in the air.

Yesterday, when I looked out the front door to see how the hundreds of flower buds -- that defied winter winds and freezing temperatures -- growing all over our old Magnolia tree planted beside the house were coming along, I thought I could see a bit of pink, but felt that was just wishful thinking. Today when I glanced up at the tree, the upper reaches flaunted large pink blooms and I was caught by surprise.

 

The days of this week have been hot and dry. The rain we experienced almost daily has lifted, the wind has modified and the temperature has soared. We're heading in the next two days to 30C, but today's 28C felt as though we'd already reached that level of heat. Last week we were still using the fireplace in the evening hours. Today Irving brought up a few floor fans from storage in the basement. 

 

He also took the protective cover off the air conditional at the side of the house. And it occurred to him that with the dry heat it was a perfect time to paint the floor of the deck. It was beginning to look a little worn. So he went over to Canadian Tire after breakfast and bought a tin of tinted waterproofing, and it took no time at all before it was done.

Keeping Jackie and Jillie off the deck until it dried proved no problem. We simply went out for our early afternoon ravine tramp with them, which meant a few hours of no need to access the backyard. We also have the alternative of using the side door and going into the backyard through the gate. But the ravine took care of all that.

 

A mere week ago we were pleased when the sun warmed us, glowing through the leafing-out forest canopy. In a week's time it's amazing how quickly new foliage grows and now casts shade on the forest trails, and in the 28C heat, we were grateful for that shade. The heat has brought out hordes of mosquitoes and they've been greeting us with the most obnoxious ill manners imaginable.

We saw few others out tramping through the trails today; word gets around and people would rather bypass  hungry mosquitoes. But there was a nice breeze along with growing shade on the trails, to make the hike more pleasurable. At one point I decided we might take an alternate, lower trail, one we had taken for many years but had stopped because it had begun to deteriorate, the bank it was on began to fall into the ravine.

 

Bad decision, as it happened. The narrow trail that was left had entirely dissolved at one point, collapsed completely leaving a gap between the trail where we stood and the opposite side on what was left of the bank above the creek. Jackie and Jillie, with their four busy little legs, had gone on ahead and there they stood, in the mucky deep mire of what was once a trail, waiting for us to join them. We turned back, but by then the bottom-quarter of their legs were plastered with clay-muck.

 

On a jollier note, at another point in our hike, I scrambled down a pathless hillside where we know from past experience there are white trilliums growing, a rarity in this clay-based-soil forest. There's just several small clumps of them, but they're different enough with their bright white heads, for me to want to see them when they bloom. Later than the purple ones, they're not quite ready yet.

 

Lilies-of-the-Valley, like the trout lilies, are now monopolizing the forest floor. The lilies-of-the-valley tend to grow encircling the trunks of trees, large and small. And we came across one clump that has launched straight ahead long before the others, into flowering mode. The delicate little wand carrying tiny blooms just beginning to come to maturity.

 

When we arrived back home our two mud-footed puppies had to be dipped into warm water to wash the clumps of clay off their feet. And then we piled into the truck and drove off to a nearby plant nursery. Where there wasn't a zinnia to be seen, but lots of geraniums, marigolds, tobacco plants, dahlias and wave petunias for sale. So we made a start on accessing annuals for planting in the next few weeks.