Full fall glory has succumbed to the inevitable and in the doing the forest is much diminished. The sheer mass of foliage in a forest canopy comprised of both deciduous and conifers is fully revealed at this time of year when seemingly suddenly the canopy sheds its leaves, and everything appears bare. Not quite the case, of course, since the spires of evergreens remain vibrant and verdant.

Yet the loss of the deciduous foliage is stark and uncompromising in its ability to shock the eye. It seems so sudden -- the transition of colour among the maples, oaks, beeches, poplars and birches -- and though it takes considerable time for wind and rain to wash the colours away, tumbling the leaves to the forest floor, it's still a shock to contemplate. We have, before us, the month of November stretching into the passage toward winter.

November, to our reckoning, is surely the cruelest month of the year. The night-time temperatures descend well into frost territory, leaving the ground a sea of muck as the frost eases during the course of the day. And the days are bereft of the long daylight hours that summer accustomed us to. This sounds like a lament, and I suppose it is. The sight of dark, bare trunks and limbs under brooding November skies presents a picture of contrasts, but those contrasts are in the muted monotones of the black and grey spectrum.

Jackie and Jillie don't seem to mind. All the alluring odours of the presence of forest creatures and other dogs passing through take their interest, along with the freedom to trot along and explore each nook and cranny that provokes their attention. They're dressed in weather gear meant to protect from cold and rain and they accept that without demur, unlike their reaction when they were younger, but they're now three years old.

There was a window of opportunity between downpours yesterday afternoon enabling us to get out for our usual circuit in the woods, and we appreciated that greatly. Our puppies become restive without that walk and so do we. In the forest everything was drenched and dripping. Unsurprisingly we saw no one else until we'd almost completed our circuit, and then we came across Sheila, walking hers and Barry's three dogs whose breed is that of highly intelligent working dogs for whom constant activity is an imperative.

Their dogs are all from the same litter, though one is a rescue whose temperament cannot be counted on not to attack other dogs when provoked by their insistent presence, which is exactly what Jackie and Jillie do, aggressively promote their presence. So Sheila orders Carter, the combative one, to run off and his sister and brother lope along with him.

And so, defeating the purpose, do Jackie and Jillie, Jillie barking furiously with excitement the while. But Carter has improved enormously in the last few years and he has gained a measure of patience with them. Those three border collies are, in fact, the best disciplined and behaved dogs in the neighbourhood.