With the inexorable and incremental passage of time so too pass the seasons, and fall is verging into winter territory with ferocious speed, it seems, this year. Have the winds always been this dominant? Isn't it early for the forest to turn from green to gold? The hummingbirds and the songbirds are no longer present; they are the harbingers that bring us the intelligence if we haven't noticed on our own that the season is moving along speedily.

Those long lines of noisy geese spreading themselves across the sky repeat the story as they form their traditional, iconic arrows pointing north. We hear them throughout the day and their collective honking pulls our eyes like a magnet to the sky to watch their flight from one end of the horizon to another. Beautiful and sad.

And we're wearing gradually warmer clothing venturing out these days. But when the weather turns really inclement with wind and rain offering no opportunity to get out, the house interior is black and appears bleak, and the gloom of early dusk absorbing grey into black takes us by surprise.

No ravine walk for us yesterday. The rain was heavily unrelenting and the wind slammed the rain against the house seemingly from all directions. Jackie and Jillie weren't urging for a walk in the woods, content on the nasty day that exemplified yesterday's weather misery to remain snug in the house; deigning when necessary to make a brief foray to the backyard and then a mad rush back into the house where they got a good and appreciated towelling.

The wind roared all night, and the rain came pelting down, slamming against windows. Jackie and Jillie were eager to go upstairs to bed, and urged us to come along. Just as the weather de-energizes us it does the same to them.

Ah, but this morning, sun greeted us. And though it remained but briefly it set the tenor of the day; still cold, a light overcast at first and then dark ribbons of heavy clouds came in and made themselves right at home. A little shower from time to time, but nothing we couldn't manage, and off we went for a good long ravine walk. Despite the drenching we'd received the day and night before, the forest floor had absorbed it all. The trails were dry and hard and fluffily packed with all the colourful fallen foliage the weather had plucked off the deciduous trees by wind and rain.

It was so good to be out in the woods. Who would imagine that a single day's absence would result in an emotion of urgency to feel free to wander about the forest. And so we did. And with each exuberant stride we took, a rainbow pile of leaves lifted before us, falling gently back on the trail as we forged on with due appreciation.