We're in the last day of May, and right in the middle of a heat wave. It isn't at all unusual in Ottawa to have a heat wave in May, we can recall other such events. This one is a little hotter than its predecessors.Today and for the following two to three days we're expecting temperatures to soar into the low-30s. There's very little air movement, and the sky is perfectly clear, offering the sun no competition in its bid to roast whatever lies below.  It is, in a word, 'sizzling'. Bringing to mind that old quip of heat sufficiently intense to cook an egg on the sidewalk.

 

No matter, Irving is out on the deck, putting up an extended hook to hang a pot of flowering vines -- dipladenia -- we've just acquired. And putting a pair of hinges on the storage box meant for the deck that he just put together. And installing new light timers, one for the lantern we've depended on for decades to light up the backyard when we take Jackie and Jillie out for their late-night before-bed evacuation. It suddenly decided to give up the ghost.

 

Earlier in the day we'd gone over to the office of the optometrist who had examined my eyes following last month's cataract surgery. That had taken place last week, and although the optometrist told me that the prescription change was minimal I decided to get a pair of reading glasses with the minimal change. The idea was that I didn't really need bifocals since my long-range vision is good. It was only when I brought the new eyeglasses home that I realized they were useless. 

 

Newspaper print was fuzzy with them; the very purpose they were meant for; reading and computer work. So it's back to my old glasses which work perfectly fine for me. A total waste of both time and money. I was too uncomfortable in that pokey little office and they were too busy with other clients to conduct a proper test to determine whether the new lenses were up to their job.

 

But when we arrived  home there was a telephone message from the appliance repair shop that our 'part' had finally arrived. The 'part' in question is a motor. For our almost-two-year-old dishwasher, a Whirlpool. That was several months ago. It's taken that long for the 'part' to be acquired by the appliance repair shop, and we've been without the service of the dishwasher all the while. No big deal, just rather irritating. I am not impressed with the product, it seems to me never to have operated as well as our previous, less-expensive appliance.

 

In mid-afternoon a bit earlier than usual, we went off to the ravine for our daily excursion through the forest trails. Surprisingly, in that stuffy heat there were no mosquitoes to bedevil us. There were also no other people or dogs about. We had the entertainment of robins trilling from the same forest canopy that mitigated the extreme heat, giving us ample shade for protection from the day's fiery sun rays. To my surprise we saw the first of the buttercups in bloom.

 

There were bees in abundance congregating around the wild spring phlox. It looked fine, despite the heat, but other vegetation on the forest floor looked downright heat-exhausted. The Mallard drake was nowhere to be seen in the clear, cool-looking water of the creek. We've been looking out for the Great Blue Heron that we see annually in its spring transit, returning south-to-north migration. Irving glimpsed him in flight as he was returning home from a brief trip this morning to pick up those hinges. The giant bird may be around in other parts of the creek, further deeply penetrating the forest in more isolated areas beyond the trails.

 

Our son Jordan is now winding up his trip to Corsica. He's come down off the mountain range where he spent several days sleeping over in one of the mountain huts -- one of the smallest, he told us, with only thirty bunks, half of which were filled while he was there. He used it  as his base camp and did day trips from one summit to another.  Most people he came across were not doing brief trips up the mountains moving through the colls connecting summit to summit, but were busy doing the entire circuit, a 12-week commitment at the very least. He described himself as the most relaxed person there.

 

 

His mission was to look around, enjoy himself, take in the spectacular views that he compared to an earlier trip, unlike those he met who were gripped with the time element, concerned that they work their ascents along the mountain pilgrimage to match their timelines. Which is strange in a way, since if the focus is on timing rather than the natural environment exposure to nature's grandeur, as the point of interest where's the joy, where's the wonder, where's the appreciation of what is being surveyed?

 

 

It's the kind of attitude I can sense from time to time even in our urban forest surrounded by the urban landscape that is part of the outer reaches of this capital city we live in. The goal some people strive to attain is simply to do something because it's seen as the thing to do, not because there's a personal, deep-seated affinity for the natural world that begs to be exercised in exposure to a raw forest environment. That the impression left, seeing people trudge along the trails, disinterested in the landscape, seeing little beyond their determination to get it done and be done with it.

 

 

Speaking of getting things done, our garden has been busy gearing itself up to full spring response to the season and the urging of the perennials of all types to have their day in the sun. And don't we have sun!

We've also got heat and a level of humidity without even a puff of a breeze. The still air and the blazing sun have given us an over-heated atmosphere beloved of vegetation. Leaving us amazed at the rapidity of growth and the growing appearance of maturity in so many of the garden perennials.

 

 

Bee's balm is blooming now, the Siberian irises are beginning to bloom, along with the bearded irises, ajuga is blooming, the roses are putting out their buds, violets are in bloom, as well as the columbine in the rock garden. We're even seeing some of our neighbours out puttering about in their own gardens, walking their dogs, everyone seemingly relaxed and enjoying the last few days of May before the arrival of June.  Now that the garden beds and borders have been planted with annuals for oncoming summer, this kind of weather can easily exhaust the foliage and flowers, drying them out, so we've got to be aware when they need to be watered, which becomes a big job in itself.

 

We were out earlier than usual in the ravine for our daily hike-through with Jackie and Jillie. Wildflowers are moving along there, too, along with the season. False Solomon's seal is blooming now. There are bees coursing through the forest meadow alongside the creek, and birds have been celebrating, their spring melodies reverberating through the still air. It was also easy to identify the early presence of poison ivy on the forest floor. We came across only one other person, one of our long-time neighbours who lives a the bottom of our street, a street whose residents actually rarely enter the ravine.

 

After our ravine hike it was time to leave the puppies at home ALONE! weeping and howling, begging to be taken along. The trouble is, dogs, however small they are, are not welcome in supermarkets whose purpose is to sell food. We found the shelves better stocked this week than last and the store busy but not overwhelmingly so. We've stopped ogling the prices, and just stolidly select what we need, what we want, and ignore the prices, other than to wonder when the creep will stop. Long familiarity with packaged products enables us to immediately recognize smaller containers and consequently fewer contents; a double-consumer-blow.

Once home again, we are given an ecstatic reception, and an apology from Jackie and Jillie who had dialled 911 for rescue from neglect. A  happy reconciliation was effected and they enjoyed their rewards of cauliflower treats while we unpacked the groceries and order was gradually restored. That done, I made up a batch of bread dough for a pizza for tonight's dinner. And then we relaxed.

Our family doctor practices out of a clinic not far from our house. It's the new model in the province that now dominates. The clinic itself is housed within a big box store, The Great Canadian Superstore no less. All manner of medical services are available there, along with a broad roster of general practitioners. It's convenient to the community, but bears little resemblance to the traditional doctor's office. Behind the reception desk sit a number of receptionists and you are instructed which one to approach, depending who your doctor is. We really do miss our family doctor who retired about fifteen years ago. He was a breed apart. Now a rarity.

 

 

The clinic broadcasts news of when it's open, when it's closed for public holidays and other such events. Appointments can be scheduled online and during COVID, telephone appointments were mostly arranged; seeing an MD person-to-person was unusual for two years. Good thing we had no need to be seen through the coronavirus pandemic years. Because of the severe shortage of doctors we're among the fortunate ones who have the services of a family physician.

 

 

A few days back a notice arrived in our email inbox alerting us to the fact that henceforth there would be a charge for prescription renewals. Patients were advised to consider single or family applications specific to their needs for enrolment in the prescription renewal plan. An annual fee would be applied to activate enrolment in their renewal scheme. An application form to be filled out on line and a diversion to a secure payment site for the first year's installment. Unfortunately the application was so poorly designed it just didn't work. Instead of conveying you to the site the link was supposed to take you to, to complete the transaction by authorizing a payment, it was completely circuitous, returning to the original site.

 

 

So Irving went over to the clinic today. And discovered that the huge emporium housing the clinic along with other smaller services all linked to the placeholder Loblaw, had closed all its entrance/exits but one. Evidently the increasingly troublesome problem of shop-lifting has become so acute it was found necessary to leave just one ingress/egress available. He also discovered when he finally arrived at the clinic reception area, a large number of people awaiting attention. All of whom had experienced the same loopy website failure for the clinic's new prescription renewal plan. Embarrassing for the front-line workers who kept apologizing for the inadequacy of the set-up.

 

 

In Irving's absence, I cleaned the house. He was gone quite a long time, with a number of errands to tend to. I had dusted the furniture (which takes forever since whatever sits on it needs dusting), then dry-mop-dusted the floors and finally did the vacuuming. In between the vacuuming and washing the floors I prepared a potato salad for dinner. Once that was done, the floors got washed and by that time Irving had returned home. Finally the house cleaning finished, it was time for a ravine walk through the forest trails with Jackie and Jillie.

 

A day not as hot as yesterday, with a fine breeze and full sun, and we came across quite a few other people out on the trails. Also returned to the forest after a break of several days were mosquitoes. I was looking for snakes warming themselves in the sun, but haven't seen any yet this year. The Mallard drake, on the other hand, was out sunning himself and steaming along the creek. The female nowhere in sight, nursing their young without a doubt.

 

Later, back home, we relaxed in the garden enjoying the sight of the beautiful, bright flowers just in their beginning stages of maturation and promises of months of pleasure; theirs to give, ours to receive. Our elderly tree peony is outdoing itself this year. And the Bridal Wreath spirea is now also in full bloom. Joining the two flowering weeping pea trees. At which we watched bumblebees hard at work and then were delighted to see a pair of hummingbirds claiming temporary ownership of the tiny yellow flowers.

 

 

Spring Phlox in bloom at the forest perimeter

 

We get so many nuisance phone calls we've developed a tendency to let them ring. Most of the calls come from abroad with accented voices trying to sound cheery, feigning casual familiarity and offering their names that are typically of European derivation though the caller clearly betrayed by their accent is from the near East. Most of those calls are offers for 'duct cleaning'. To our knowledge scant few people believe their ducts need cleaning. In all our years living on this street there might have been one house that had the procedure done. The result is that when calls come in at dinner or breakfast time, we ignore them.

 

 

We figure that if someone really wants to contact us they'll leave a message and this type of nuisance call seldom does. But when there's a call at signal times we seem to intuit correctly that it's one of our children. Early this morning it was our granddaughter, upset because one of their dogs had become critically ill. They managed fortunately to find a relatively close veterinarian who agreed to examine the pooch, a rescue from abroad whom they brought home about four years ago.

 

 

Our daughter lives rurally and she maintains a compost pit that she instructs their two dogs not to venture into. So much for instructing dogs tantalized by the smells of food remnants they believe are deliciously edible. Two days ago the dog was found to have been into the compost pile, gorging on heaven-knows-what; rotting vegetable matter for the most part. Then last night she became ill and began to languish.

 

 

She's now being kept overnight with the veterinarian clinic for observation. She was diagnosed with canine pancreatitis. She was infused and given pain killer, and to our daughter's and granddaughter's immense relief, she'll be back home and on the mend in a day or two. Had this occurred during the coronavirus pandemic it would be have been close to impossible to secure even a dire emergency visit with a vet.

 

 

Jackie continues to compulsively lick his rear end, but we think somewhat less frantically. It's early days yet but the impacted anal gland should be on the mend after his treatment yesterday morning at the veterinarian clinic. He's behaving more like himself, and his full appetite has returned. He still stopped from time to time while we were out in the ravine this afternoon, to occasionally lick himself until he realized we'd moved on and he had some catching-up to do.

 

We're into a heat wave. Irving removed the tarp from our air conditioner standing at the side of the house in preparation for its use. He also brought up a few floor fans from the basement, one for our bedroom, another for the family room. The sun is in full regalia, burning through the sky, parching the environment. A light breeze was certainly appreciated. And there were some pleasant surprises as we wended our way through the forest trails.

 

 

Spring phlox is in bloom at the forest periphery. And we saw the first of the pilotweed flowers in bloom. We'd seen the wild cherry trees blooming last week, and now it's the turn of the plentiful dogwood shrubs in the forest. Just as well the forest canopy is now full, the shade it throws is a fine rescue from the potential of full sun exposure during the hottest part of the day winding our way along the forest trails.

 

 

Back at home sweeping up the great piles of fallen petals from the fruit trees was a mere distraction to the real purpose of being out in the garden: watering everything that has been latterly planted, both in the garden pots and urns and in the garden beds themselves. Irving put the sprinkler on to douse that part of the lawn that had been newly seeded. And then we took ourselves out to the back deck to sit awhile under the canopy roof because Irving had brought out all the summer furniture and a restful enjoyment of the environment was in order.

 

 

 

I thought yesterday that Jackie was on the mend, but in the late afternoon and evening he looked completely woeful, and despite my counselling that we wait yet to see if things cleared up, Irving was determined to take action, to have him examined by a veterinarian. So from 7:30 this morning forward he kept calling our veterinarian clinic as they advised yesterday until he finally got through to the receptionist. And he was able to make an emergency appointment for 10:30 a.m. 

He was right, he always is. The veterinarian examined Jackie, we spoke awhile, then he took our little mite with him to one of the backrooms. He told us he suspected that Jackie's anal glands were involved in his problem. Not unusual for small dogs, he said, and also said that our two were 'getting on' in age. When it becomes more common for the glands to fail to empty as they should. Which kind of took us aback since they're only now heading to 9 years of age come early fall.

 

When he returned not too long afterward he said that one of Jackie's glands was impacted and had actually burst, leaving a hole in it. He injected Jackie with an antibiotic the effects of which should last a month, he said, and by that time the gland would have repaired itself. Some dogs, he told us, are congenitally troubled by packed anal glands. He has a large Poodle mix himself and he has to empty its glands every few months.

 

Well, at least we know now what the problem was and it's obvious enough that the little fellow was in pain for the last three days which caused his erratic, puzzling behaviour. We'll have to watch him from now on for recurrences because, as the vet warned us, there will be recurrences. We've noticed his sister scudding on occasion, though he rarely if ever seems to. Another thing we were told, he has a heart murmur. Another surprise. During their annual physical a month ago Jillie was diagnosed with a heart murmur. Again, not unusual with small aging dogs, evidently.

 

Irving was buoyed by the fact that we now know what the problem was, and I'm halfway between sad and glad. They enjoyed their opportunity to frolic through the ravine early this afternoon, on a day with gathering heat and full sun, relieved by a robust breeze. The forest is now once again completely dry and awaiting rain. The puppies had the opportunity to chase a few robins skipping along the trails. At this point in spring for reasons entirely their own robins tend to bustle along the trails, unconcerned with oncoming traffic of hikers.

On return back home Irving busied himself putting together a patio storage box he had bought. Not realizing when he bought it exactly how big and space-consuming it would be for a relatively small deck. As for me, I busied myself planting the rest of the annuals, this time in the backyard, in a few large garden pots and wherever I could find space among the perennials in a few garden plots there.

 

Jackie is still steadily licking a spot on his hind end, where Irving spotted a little scab. We still think he was the victim of a nasty insect bite. But his frenzied licking kind of alarms us.  Early this morning we called around to see if we could get an emergency appointment for him. He just had his annual physical a week ago, so there isn't likely to be anything fundamentally seriously wrong with him. He behaves quite squirrelly when something bothers him and that bothers us. He ate all his meals yesterday, but refused breakfast this morning.

 

He's evacuating normally, but behaving abnormally -- correction, occasional nutty behaviour is just like him. We decided that getting him out for a ravine hike through the forest a little earlier than usual might pacify the little demon that is haunting him. We had had no luck whatever trying to get an examination for him, not at our usual veterinarian clinic, nor any others nearby, much less the two emergency animal hospitals in town.

 

On the positive side, he's somewhat less obsessive now, his licks seem cursory, brief and slight, the product of sheer annoyance. So we hope he's on the mend. He was normal throughout our ravine hike but for occasionally stopping very briefly for a lick. Jillie is oblivious to her brother's distress. She entertained herself by making runs at robins that at this time of year tend to settle and run along the trails.

 

When we returned I then resumed my usual Friday pursuits. Decided to bake mocha cupcakes. And to make them a little different, I added dark rum flavouring and snipped up glace cherries to include in the cake dough. Irving wanted a chocolate cake for a change but I find cupcakes keep better and they're easily equivalent to a slice of a two-layer cake.

 

We were advised by our veterinarian clinic that if the problem with Jackie persists we might try calling again tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m. and see then if we can be squeezed in for an emergency appointment. We had heard about the difficulties people experience trying to access veterinarian assistance on an unscheduled basis; seems it simply cannot be done.

Meanwhile, we think whatever it is that's troubling him is ameliorating and hope that by tomorrow the signs will be sufficiently positive that we can just wait for him to no longer fixate on his rear end; at least that tiny portion of it that seems to be the source of the problem.

 

We did a little tour of the garden at the front of the house. The planting done yesterday in the various garden beds, I think, will complete it for this year. I thought I might get a chance to do some planting in the backyard, but decided that tomorrow's another day and likely I'll tackle it then.

The last test as it were, of the success of my April eye surgery to remove a cataract from my right eye took place today. I had an 11:30 a.m. appointment with the optometrist who had confirmed my need for cataract surgery and had connected me to the surgical clinic that would perform the removal and lens replacement. This was in fact, the third examination post-surgery -- the first two took place at the surgery clinic, and this represented the final one. 

 

 

The eye is completely healed and the adjustment to the new lens complete, so the purpose of this appointment was twofold; to check the physical condition of the eye and to prescribe appropriate new lenses. The first was speedily done, and I was shown the resulting photos (not very glamorous), and then the new prescription was worked out. The test for my vision acuity confirmed that my long-range vision is good. And for that reason I have no need to wear glasses constantly.

 

 

I was previously prescribed bifocals but their use is questionable for me since the only time I wear eyeglasses is for reading or computer use. In fact, the last prescription I was given years ago changed little in this exercise; the lens that dates from that earlier prescription I was informed, is more than adequate to my needs. But the optometrist also prescribed a lens solely for computer/reading use, and that's what I opted for.

 

 

All this was efficiently handled to the extent that I was in and out of the examining room in no time at all. It set us back no more than an hour in total, driving there and back, and including the examination. Jackie and Jillie accompanied us, Irving deciding to wait in the car for me, alongside the two pups on a cool but beautifully sunny, breezy morning. We don't ever have to go far within this community to find resources to satisfy all of our needs.

From first thing this morning, Jackie had been behaving oddly. He acted as though he was being haunted, nervously licking his back end. Irving surmised he had been bitten by an insect when we were out in the ravine for our hike yesterday. Out with Jackie and Jillie later going through the forest trails he continued to stop constantly in irritation at that same spot, licking it furiously. Later we found a pinprick scab at the site, so that cleared up that mystery. Eventually his frantic licking subsided.

 

The trails were completely dry today, bearing no resemblance whatever to the soaked surfaces we were met with yesterday afternoon after an all-night rain that continued well into the morning until noon brought out the sun. Today too, as in previous days for the past several weeks, we came across familiar dogs who when they see us, rush directly for us and look around for Irving for cookie handouts. Hate to disappoint them, Irving will make up for it when he's comfortable again striding through the forest.

 

When we returned Irving had taken all the pots and flats containing the annuals we'd bought yesterday when we returned to the Cleroux greenhouses. This time zinnias and more marigolds were among the begonias and lobelia and petunias we'd brought home with us. And we spent another pleasant hour or so planting them, filling up the garden pots and the gardens themselves with more colour. All that's left now is the planting for the backyard, and that'll be done another day or two from now.