We're zig-zagging this August in and out of hot, humid weather to breaks of occasional cloudy, wet, less-hot intervals and now we're back into heat-mode. From one end of the country to the other. British Columbia is enjoying some pretty good weather. Our younger son took a few days to go alpine camping again, back to Hidden Lake, an isolated mountain area that sees few others out. Where he camps on a mountain ridge or as relatively flat an area as a mountainside can present for a few days. Taking day trips up other slopes to enjoy the serenity and beauty of the surroundings. Vast. And strangely intimate.

 

As for us, as this morning dawned we could already feel the heat of the day closing in, and decided we'd delay breakfast in favour of an early trip to the ravine with Jackie and Jillie. They were fortified before we left with an offering of little chunks of cheese they speedily disposed of, and we decamped. Not the merest whisper of a breeze. The sky was clear and blue, there would be no interruption of the sun's majestic domination of the sky today.

Oddly enough, though we haven't had much in the way of rain the last few days, part of the trail system still seemed fairly damp underfoot. And since we see that around the bridges fording the forest creek it's not so strange. It's the result of dogs, overheated by the atmosphere, plunging into the creek for cooling relief. They wallow in the creek, their paws scrubbing in the clay bottom, the water becomes murky with particulate matter, and when they exit the creek, shaking the water from their pelts, it flies everywhere.

And everywhere is where Jackie and Jillie tend to wander about, forging well ahead of us though we're careful to keep them always in sight. Jillie is the most emphatic about her right to bursting full steam ahead, but she's also obliging enough to return when she's called. Earning a head-rub which Jackie insists on sharing. Usually, it's Jackie whose nose is busy tracking all manner of odours, but this morning Jillie did the same. 

 

As we pass blackberry canes alongside the trail Irving stops briefly to pluck the shiny, black clustered orbs for Jillie. When he picks the thimbleberry fruit, they both jostle for shares. We're getting to the time when in other years we've also been able to pick wild apples to share out with them. For some reason, there's fewer apples this year to be seen and those that have been produced and are nicely maturing are never in the lower branches that can be reached, this year.

 

We decide to take a different trail routed on the lower portion of the ravine where it tends to be a little cooler, and where a tributary of the creek runs. It's almost dry, though we can see that dogs have had a hey-day in the muck, their crowded footprints etched deeply on the base of the depleted creek runoff. Now that's something to appreciate, that neither of our puppies have ever evinced an interest in exploring the creek, much preferring to avoid it. Cleaning them up after our hikes would be somewhat complicated if they did choose to indulge.

 

 

We pass by chicory and clover in bloom, alongside still-blooming fleabane, compass plant and Himalayan orchid. The black-eyed Susans and Queen Anne's lace over on the opposite bank of the creek are reaching  he end of their flowering season, drying up and slowly losing their freshness and beauty. 

 

We finally, two hours later, leave the cool comfort of the forest as we approach street level and the growing day's heat is accentuated by our emergence from the shielding canopy of the forest. There is no one else about on the street as we make our way down to our house and waiting garden. It is still, humid, hot and breeze-less. 

 

 

We briefly prowl about the garden, noting the morning glories glorying in the heat and brightness of the sun against the brick wall of the house. Later, after breakfast and subsequent clean-up, I go out to the backyard for some garden tidying up, and Irving to the front of the house to water the garden urns and pots and put the sprinkler on his newly-seeded and -sprouted lawn. And it's hot, really hot. Jackie and Jillie choose to remain in the house where it's cool.

 

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