Only moderately blustery today but cold and damp in the woods. The trails underfoot are now unfailingly slippery each day with the muck that results from partially frozen earth no longer absorbing all the rain that falls, and they're also the product of mild freeze-and-thaw cycles when night-time temperatures dip to freezing and day-time is moderated by the effect of the sun. They will likely remain that way until frost completely penetrates the forest floor and snow begins to fall.

We're still hovering during the day above freezing and we've been enjoying the relatively mild, mid-November days, a bit out of the ordinary.

The landscape is no longer as colourfully picturesque as it was a few weeks ago. Wild wind days and the rains that sometimes accompanied them finished off the foliage colourfully clinging to trees. It has all dropped from the host branches and the deciduous trees are now appropriately winter-naked. The forest looks far less dense than it always presents, the trails seem wider, the sky more visible, the inevitable effect of a foliage-reduced canopy.

As a natural refuge from the hurry and bustle of urban life our good fortune to have easy access to the forested ravine running through the community in which we live adds monumentally to the quality of the life we lead. Not only our physical exposure to the beauty of a woodland so close by our homes, but the clean quality of the air we breathe, scrubbed clean by the near proximity of the trees, absorbing carbon dioxide, emitting oxygen.

For those wishing to sit awhile and contemplate the scene before them, there remain a few benches that haven't been completely destroyed by neighbourhood teen-age vandals. The godfairy of Bilberry Creek Ravine whose human identity we have not become acquainted with as yet, has put up a map of the ravine in juxtaposition to the various streets and entries surrounding it. He's the altruistic soul who created on his own initiative, set up and manages the pails for the collection of dog excrement.

The local beavers continue day-by-day extracting their due from the poplars closely adjacent the creek in an amazing demonstration of their fabled work ethic. It is somewhat nervous-making to see hard beside the trail, a mature poplar that has been gnawed in a circular manner around a tree, but not yet completely through. One has the urge to speed past its presence, lest a stray gust of wind stimulate it to fall....with unfortunate consequences.