She was raised rurally by a father who was a professor of English literature, so she had exposure to both the benefits of living in natural surroundings and parents who expected she would want to pursue higher education. From Nova Scotia she travelled to Ontario to attend the University of Toronto which was where she met our older son, involved in music as she was also and a student of Medieval history at the same time.

So that when we walk through the woods with our daughter-in-law and our son there isn't much vegetation growing there that she cannot identify, and know the purpose of. Sometimes I can show her something different, but most often I will be on the learning edge of the casual dispensing of regional botany.

On our circuit through the woods yesterday we enjoyed a temperature high of 24C, with a nice cooling breeze. We shared apples from the wild apple trees, and chatted as amiably as family is wont to do, re-united after an absence. And Jackie and Jillie took turns romping ahead of us and waiting from time to time until we caught up to their enthusiastic little trots beyond us.

Their retinue has expanded by double the number they are familiar with, but they take everything in stride and all's well with their world. The house is a lot busier with two extra, younger people than ourselves rattling around its rooms. There's a lot of talking, a lot more wandering about, a lot longer time spend sitting at the table at mealtime, and Jackie and Jillie think it's good sport to see if the others will respond to their requests to share at the table, despite that we don't.

Ambling together through the woods as we routinely have done through the years on countless visits with our children there have always been little companions to enliven the proceedings. Before Jackie and Jillie there was Button and Riley, all of them with their very own, inimitable personalities. Interested in everything around them, anxious to be with the people they know and regard with extraordinary fondness.

Aware of many things that elude us, and unaware of many sights that delight us, our companionship is intact and valuable to all of us. Their powerful sense of smell tells them  which of the other dogs they're familiar with may have been along those same trails of late. Our aesthetic permits us to identify delightful little gifts of nature, like the ripe, red haws hanging from the Hawthorn trees in the forest.