The ever-changing landscape of the forest fascinates us, and draws us into its embrace to discover anew each day what has changed overnight. For there are most certainly overnight alterations to what we have observed the day before.

It never fails to amaze us that these changes take place so swiftly; where before there was nothing to observe suddenly there appears something new; new in the sense that a change of seasons has incited the forest floor to ruffle its humus and awaken what lies below.

Yes, there is the more profound change that takes place as deciduous trees lose their foliage, turning colour as their life-sap descends to their roots in preparation for the onset of winter. That is a pleasurable-to-observe long-drawn-out affair, when the gradual change from green to vibrant golds, orange, reds and bronze takes place. No less delightful when the trees release those colourful flags of autumn and they spiral in the wind down to the forest floor to take their place generation after generation enriching the forest floor to enable the spring flowers that so entrance us to reappear spring after spring.

The ferns begin to unfurl, plants like Solomon's Seal do the same, the ubiquitous and mysterious red and white baneberry begin to blossom, preparing for their late-summer berry-bearing, the unappreciated horsetails begin to appear, and among them woodland violets, coltsfoot, trout lilies and soon the trilliums appear, lilies-of-the-valley, and finally Jack-in-the-Pulpit.

Sometimes we peer carefully below as as we proceed through the forest trails, to identify the presence of foamflower newly emerging, and jewelweed and the hazelnut, dogwood and honeysuckle prepare their blossoms, making their delightful presence known, and sometimes suddenly a specimen of the plant itself seems to leap out at us, as though proclaiming, 'Here we are! Didn't you notice?'

We do know from long experience that our interest in everything that greets us in the ravine is not one shared by most other people whom we've known, also given to using the forest trails. For most, it's a gracious natural setting where they can set their companion dogs loose to enjoy themselves, for those others without dogs the focus is on exercise, including those who bicycle through the woods; they see no details to identify the flora and fauna surrounding them because they have no interest in them.