Every day an adventure. Just as well we enjoy the wherewithal to have such adventures so close by. And so, we make the most of those opportunities, rarely missing a day when we cannot spare an hour or an hour-and-a-half to haul ourselves out of the comfort of home and into the forest nearby that home of ours.

In the process we end up, over the years, meeting a good number of people, most of whom, like us, go out with their companion dogs to fully enjoy those natural surroundings which, by the luck of geology, is immune to the plans of urban development. Were it not for the fact that the ravine running alongside the street we live on, stretching for miles throughout the neighbourhood, is not readily converted to housing tracts given the immense and sprawling acreage it takes up, we wouldn't have that haven.

It is the breadth and length of that natural site with its incidental use as nature intended as a storm run-off that has saved the Bilberry Creek Ravine from being wrenched from the wonderful natural site that it is, into humdrum streets full of houses and retail establishments. We're grateful no end that the hills and valleys, the heavily wooded forest and the creek that runs through it was long ago designated a natural protected area.

It was our additional good fortune to move into a house in close proximity to one of the many entrances to the ravine. Jackie and Jillie know quite well what the words "feel like a walk in the ravine?" mean, and they respond instantly. In fact they don't even need to hear that invitation to know by observing what we're doing that a romp in the ravine is imminent, and they react accordingly, impatient and happy to be able to roam about in there.

Today we came across Benjie, a year-old Bernese Mountain Dog given to happily welcoming everyone he comes across. Benjie is large, very large. And he has an especial fondness of walking between peoples' legs. He's large enough that when he does that with me all I have to do is plop down on him before he emerges to see how he'd like to take me for a ride. I don't believe there's that much difference in our respective weights.

And then Benjie came across a prospective ravine acquaintance he's never before seen, a three-year-old Labradoodle, a beautiful large dog wonderfully well proportioned, with a happy smile on his face and an eagerness to get to know everyone. In the process Jackie and Jillie had the opportunity to briefly cavort around the big guys.