Though most days when we ramble for over an hour through the trails in the forested ravine where we take our daily hikes with our two little dogs, we seem to have the landscape to ourselves, never coming across anyone else, we are nonetheless increasingly coming across people whom we've never before seen, with dogs we're obviously unfamiliar with.

Sometimes it's people newly moved into the larger neighbourhood, discovering this oasis of peaceful nature, sometimes it's people who have just introduced a dog into their family, and sometimes it's just a one-off that they've entered the ravine out of curiosity. Many of them don't venture very far, just doing a circuit on the plateau portion, never dipping down into the ravine itself. That limited plateau circuit still makes for a pleasant walk among trees, and at the very least it gives companion dogs a taste of freedom. Some dogs are allowed off leash, others are not.

We seldom, if we can avoid it, walk our two on the street, other than to access the ravine entrance, and then for a very short space, since entry is so close to our house. There are many people for whom access translates as a hefty walk from where they live and others who must drive to one of the ravine entrances because they live a distance from them. We're fortunate, and we know it.

Nature continues to tease us with both temperature and precipitation. We alternate between minus- and plus-freezing temperatures so that when snow falls it doesn't linger on the ground. That will most certainly change as we approach the end of the month, and the Christmas holiday. It's rare for us not to have a traditional white Christmas in the Ottawa Valley, we can only recall one time that happened to the dismay of celebrants, over 25 years ago.

Meanwhile, the colours of autumn, somewhat subdued, remain to be appreciated on the forest floor. There are plenty of sniffing opportunities for Jackie and Jillie to keep them busy keeping tabs of who among their canine acquaintances have been by lately, and they're adding new smells to their inventory each time we come across dogs they've never before met, as we did yesterday.