Summer Winding Down

We were out of luck yesterday, getting out into the ravine, so we missed our daily jaunt in there. The rain was relentless. Beginning through Friday night, it just continued on into the day and refused to stop. Nature's like that; she seldom considers what people would prefer and simply goes on her way. One supposes she knows best, after all. We actually didn't mind our enforced indoors-stay yesterday, and used it to advantage, turning our attention to other things we may have neglected.

Our little dogs didn't seem to mind all that much, either. It gave them more time to snooze and just laze around the house. One of the fairly good reasons why we rouse them every day, to get them out and about, exercising their little bodies. To keep them and us healthy too. Although the forecast was for showers today, none other than a few quiet ones materialized, so we hied ourselves off into the woods for a perambulation.

For all the rain that fell yesterday throughout the day and well into the night, making it a 24-hour downpour, it was hardly evident as we entered the ravine. The trails seemed dry enough, although droplets yet hung to some of the undergrowth beside the trail. Button and Riley tarried as they're wont to do, at the top of the first hill, as though awaiting our stern injunction to begin the descent; why they have become habituated to that is beyond us.

The first order of business was to begin dispensing peanuts at all the usual places that proffer themselves up so handily to accept the daily offerings. And which have become so familiar to the little black, grey and red denizens of our urban forest. As we ambled along further it became evident enough that the rain had made its impact, although the creek itself showed little evidence of that. The trails, however, assumed an increasingly moist perspective as we advanced.

The wildflowers on their long leggy stems have been well beaten down by the rain, although some have begun their arduous spring-back, shedding moisture. The additional moisture has encouraged some extremely interesting mushrooms and fungi to leap to life. Shelf and floral formations, in eggshell white and pale yellows. The asters are out in full force now, all the various types, with our favourites, those blooming last, in luscious purple-pink, with well formed floral heads.

The staghorn sumacs with their velvety deep crimson floral heads produce a fine counterpoint of texture and colour to the landscape. A bounty of fallen apples litters the trail under the wild apple trees, and blackberries have begun to ripen seriously, along with the thimbleberries. Rain does descent while we're in the ravine, but the canopy does its job well, sheltering us from a soaking.

When we finally ascend back up the long last hill to the street above, it's abundantly clear that out there the rain was serious enough to impact the landscape, though we were hardly inconvenienced by it.