Swollen with snowmelt and the results of unending rain, the Ottawa River is preparing to crest and people living along its shoreline are bracing themselves for flooding. Some of the most serious flooding tends to take place across the river from Ottawa, on the Quebec side. Sandbags firmly in place and hopes high, homeowners are prepared for the worst and hoping for the best. When it does crest it will be high but there have been years when it's been more swollen than this year.

 

 

When you're living through unlimited rain events as we are right now, it's hard to recall you've been through it before. It always seems as though it's the worst it's ever been. It is tedious, no question about that, when day following day is replete with wind, unusual cold temperatures and continual rain. Even so, there haven't been too many days when we've been unable to gear ourselves up for an afternoon hike through the forest. Taking advantage of short gaps in the rain, for short circuits before it starts up again, or getting out in light rain before it begins intensifying again.

 

As we did today when the morning's rain, following hard on overnight rain, paused in early afternoon and off we went with Jackie and Jillie. The sky was actually showing some blue here and there, with the dark clouds breaking up to share the sky with the sun. In fact, after midnight last night when I went out to the backyard with Jackie and Jillie the sky was crystal-clear, a deep, dark velvet blue, a three-quarter moon and stars well in evidence.

 

It looked so promising with the sun warming and illuminating the forest as we trooped along that there was no question of taking a shorter circuit in case the rain suddenly returned. We stayed out with the intention of making the most of the opportunity as possible. And the rewards were worth it. Mind, all that relentless rain has its cost; there are large pools of rainwater gathered on the forest floor and smaller pools across the trails.

 

There is ample muck covering the trails in some areas and it just isn't possible to sidestep those boot-sucking mud traps, though Jackie and Jillie are fairly enterprising in avoiding those areas, choosing instead to make their way through the forest off-trail, where we cannot comfortably venture. I do on occasion poke my way through underbrush and forest understory in search of blooms to photograph. That's when caution is required because there are so many impediments both underfoot and at head-level, to walking a straight line.

Trout lilies won't bloom without the sun's full exposure, but trilliums are far less fussy, and they were in full bloom, their dark crimson petals inviting closer inspection, perfect specimens for photographing.