Getting out for a good vigorous walk in the woods has been an absolute necessity for our peace of spirit, and being shut out lately from our daily rambles in the ravine hasn't worked very well for us. Although Jackie and Jillie accept anything as long as we're there with them, it's a certainty that they too miss a walk when weather is sufficiently inclement to shut us out.

As it was again yesterday. Not that we don't have more than enough to occupy ourselves with absent a woodland hike, but something integral to our well-being is absent, cut out of the day's itinerary. It was, unfortunately, one of those days when the rain simply wouldn't stop; morning, afternoon, evening. So home we stayed.

While it would be all very well for us to dress according to the weather and get out there irrespective of the rain and still enjoy ourselves, to do the same with Jackie and Jillie along just wouldn't work. They have rainjackets but it still wouldn't suffice to keep them dry and warm; their legs, their head, their neck remain exposed, and they would kick up puddles to soak their undersides as they went along. They're too fragile in this cold weather to become thoroughly soaked.

When today dawned as dark as the previous one and rain was unceasing throughout the morning and into the afternoon we were convinced there would be no walk today either. But we were wrong; just after two in the afternoon the rain got fed up with itself and decided to stay securely in the cloud system continuing to hover over the landscape. So off we went, all wearing raingear. That 'just-in-case' caution.

We weren't that long on the trail when suddenly shafts of sunlight began hitting the forest floor. And looking up, we could see some blue gaps in the steely-grey cloud cover. A cold day, at 3C, and the wind had picked up vigorously, blasting the tree tops, and scudding the clouds. So the sun soon disappeared and we continued to make our way under clouds that once again threatened but failed to open up.

We came across trail buddies Tom and Terry and that made for quite a lengthy stop as we stood about talking about everything on Earth, finding ample occasions for good bellylaughs. Jackie and Jillie, cordially greeted by Terry and vigorously head-rubbed, were content to wait around while we jawed. Eventually we started off again on our ramble, they in the opposite direction to ours, and despite the cold and the wind and the sullen, dark atmosphere, our hike was enjoyable and appreciated.

The leaf-cover on the trails is slowly turning from their bright yellow cobble-look to dull grey, so that whenever a new leaf falls, still bright gold, it resembles a jewel. Because of all the rain the creek is full and the trails, where wind has blown the foliage away, have become muddy; slippery where the foliage stayed in place. The temperature is supposed to drop to minus-2C tonight, so now that November is here we're going to be greeted daily with muddy trails from overnight freezes and daytime thaws cycles until the snow flies and the ground becomes rigid with penetrating frost.