It seems I am somehow destined, because of the nature of my character; impetuous, careless, hurried, to suffer these falls. At least every two years. I've always been accident-prone, it just seems as though Dame Fortune shrugs her shoulders and tells herself, 'well, if she doesn't make an effort for herself, I cannot be considered at fault'. She's right.

My husband is constantly telling me to slow down, have a care, there's no hurry. And although I agree I am just not constitutionally geared toward that kind of mentality translated into the kind of awareness that if I continue on a certain track I'll be headed for trouble. I'm more careful now when we traipse through the ravine, not that I haven't always been aware that protruding roots and rocks can claim their toll in scrapes and bruises. When I fall, though I tend to bounce right back up, occasionally I can't because the damage done is too severe.

Tripping the light fantastic down our main staircase several years ago I lost balance (my own sense of conceit tells me smugly that I have perfect balance) and went head first, tumbling down from the top to the bottom, landing face first on an unforgiving tile floor. We've got nice fat rugs at the bottom of the staircase now. And I often use the handrail now and force myself to be more aware.

But slipping and falling head first at the top of the stairs? Well, that's what I did on Tuesday night. My slipper caught fast in the hem of a floor-length skirt. Usually I take the sensible precaution of lifting a corner of these long skirts that I tend to wear in the house for warmth and comfort, to prevent such an event, but I had reached down to pat one of our little dogs as I reached the top step, foot got mired in skirt, and down I went. Since I never seem to proceed slowly, I was going at a good clip. And as I was projected forward the top of my head warmly greeted the corner of the hall wall, the sharp corner that creased my skull.

The ensuing pain was not pleasant. Tylenol helped. Wednesday I was rather uncomfortable, but resisted going to the hospital to check for trauma. Wednesday night, between ten and eleven in the evening I was startled to realize that something felt odd with my eyes, and was even more amazed that the area around my eyes had become pouched with bruising so obviously blood was pooling there (haematoma) and in an area at the top of my head. So along we went to the hospital. The triage nurse at emergency put me through the paces, and but for my blood pressure, everything checked out well, no signs of concussion but she wasn't thrilled with the contusions and the sight of my eyes.

Because it would take six hours before the sole emergency room doctor on duty could get to me, I decided we wouldn't wait, preferring to return home. We got to bed at 2:00. The nurse had given us a very useful, reusable icepack and I used that, but found it useless. By Thursday morning my eyes were almost shut tight by the amount of gruesome-looking purple-black swelling. We decided to head off for a ravine walk, having missed one the day before, following my fall.

The cold air was bracing and helpful. I had ample energy. We enjoyed the tranquility of the forest, the wonderful spring day that would begin to melt the snowpack, the sun beaming through a perfectly uninterrupted blue sky. We came across only two other walkers and their dogs, two women whom we've known as fellow ravine hikers for several years. Of course explanations of my condition were forthcoming and so was sympathy.

Our two little dogs really needed their walk in the ravine, and so did we. It helped us all feel better. We had set out at 2:15 and returned home at 3:45, time well spent. Ironically, last night on one of my blogs I wrote about exercise and aging, how exercising one's bones and musculature as aging occurs results in prolonging the quality of life and life itself. Healing is accelerated, illness is avoided, there is more pleasure in being active and involved. And the positive results go beyond one's physiology, impinging on stability of cognitive function.

By this morning the swelling around my eyes was considerably reduced. I felt well inclined to doing my usual for a Friday morning; cleaning, baking, cooking, laundering, the lot. My husband went out to do his usual errands nearby; the library, the bank, a supermarket. And then it was time to gather up our little dogs and head out to the ravine.