Although we've moved steadily into a seriously warm trend with temperatures in the high 20s, we haven't yet turned on the air conditioner. But Irving did haul a couple of floor fans up from the basement, and they're making a cooling difference. Jillie kept asking to go out on the deck in the morning to bask in the sun, but by afternoon she had lost interest in basking and devoted herself to cooling off under the family room coffee table, abandoning the bed upstairs where she usually seeks comfort.

 

Jackie is more blase about the heat. They both wanted to accompany me out to the back garden, but didn't last long, they never do. Despite enjoying our trail  hikes through the ravine they're basically house-loving dogs. Irving was out on the deck, giving the barbecue that's now seen over thirty years of use, a deep cleaning. Although in the winter he covers it securely against the elements, he often finds a little mouse nest inside. Instead of placing food directly on the grill itself he always uses a fine-barred stainless steel grid that I can put into the dishwasher after each use. 

I had decided to cut back some of the tall branches of our old purple smoke tree. It's always late leafing out, but even so it should have begun showing signs of new life by now. It stands beside the backyard Magnolia tree and it looks positively lifeless. Irving thought he should just chop it down, but while I was trimming, I could see that some of the lower branches were finally hosting tiny bits of green emerging foliage, so we'll leave it a while yet, although we're puzzled that it suddenly seems to have died, yet perhaps not quite yet.

Earlier in the morning Irving had mowed the front lawn, and since our direct neighbour whose lawn is contiguous with ours is away on a trip, he did their lawn as well, although their adult son who lives with them is supposed to be doing those household chores. Everything, for the most part, looks amazingly healthy, an attribution no doubt owing to the massive amounts of rain we've had  as well as ample sun.

 

When we set out for the ravine the temperature had reached its warmest point for the day and we were feeling it. The puppies were anxious to get out for their amble through the forest and given the heat, and their tongues hanging out, Irving took along with us their water bottle. We urged them to have a drink before we left the house and they refused. Out on the trails, after climbing a few of the hills, he offered them some of the cool, clear water and they were absolutely disinterested, walking away when the water trough was placed under their little snouts.

 

 

Some of the other ravine-walking denizens of the community surrounding the forest were out and they were, as usual focused on cookies. Unlike Jackie and Jillie who never venture into the cool running waters of the creek, most of the big dogs we come across make a beeline for the water, revelling in it, cooling off and delighting their senses. It doesn't take long for Irving to run out of the large-size cookies he brings along for the dogs who know him as the Cookie Man.

 

 

I dressed all in white today; light summer top and bottom, and as a result was hardly bothered by the swarms of mosquitoes, unlike previous days. On the other hand, the level of humidity was decreased today in comparison to previous days. Even Irving's bright red, short-sleeved jersey didn't attract the little bloodsuckers that appear to have semi-retreated in the ferocity of the sun, despite the shade of the forest canopy.

 

 

Back home again, Jackie and Jillie raced about the house in a wild fervor of anticipation over their routine back-home fresh chopped vegetable salad of beans, cucumber, bell pepper and tomatoes. Their evening post-dinner vegetable treat is mostly cauliflower and broccoli that has been briefly introduced to the microwave oven. And then a tour in the front garden to see what's been happening. The alliums are beginning to bloom; one of the clematis vines has put out the first flower and the two Sargenti crab trees are in full flower. Ah, the bliss of the garden and its natural ornamental value to the quality of our lives in summer!