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.