As is our habit, we routinely glanced out our glassed front door last night before heading up to bed. Surprisingly, the porch floor looked absolutely swept clean. This, despite than an hour earlier my husband had placed mounds of seeds, nuts, dog kibble and bread squares out in the expectation that raccoons would be about looking for food during the night, as usual. Not that they don't now come arond during the daytime hours along with squirrels and birds to nibble the offerings. But at that time of night it's usually the raccoons, juvenile and adult sometimes singly sometimes in pairs, who come along, though we also on occasion have seen rabbits and once a skunk availing themselves.

So, while I went upstairs with Jackie and Jillie to tuck them and myself into bed, my husband busied himself preparing to put out new offerings to last the night. Just as he was about to open the door so he could place everything out, he noticed a small raccoon ambling outward at the end of the walkway about to turn out of sight, but when it heard him open the door, the little fellow hurried back to the porch and the full complement of kibble, bread and nuts. At 5:30 when my husband got up to go to the bathroom he took a trip downstairs to find the porch empty again, so once more he loaded it up.

It has been continuing very wet here with frequent rain events. When we set out late morning yesterday for a ravine walk we thought it best, given the cold, the wind and warning of more rain, to wear rainjackets. As it was we encountered only a light shower halfway through our hike on the forest trails and it didn't last long. The forest floor remains saturated, now resembling a bit of a swamp in some areas where the forest plateaus.

On one part of the trail, the muck is so deep Jackie and Jillie can find no way of avoiding it, and daintily lift their little booted feet through the challenge. Fine with Jackie, distressing for Jillie, but it can't be helped. It will all dry up eventually. Meanwhile, the vegetation that has so far appeared on the forest floor is enhanced by fat droplets of rain clinging to fresh green foliage, and it's beyond beautiful to see.

The rain in its abundance, interspersed with brief appearances of sun breaking through cloud cover incites the emerging wildflowers to a more numerous presence. And yesterday we came across Lilies-of-the-Valley in bloom. Their tiny compound flowerheads are so delicate it would be easy to overlook them; the wild lilies aren't quite as flower-abundant, large and fragrant as their cultivated cousins.

And on one part of the trail Partridgeberries stretch out their glossy foliage hugged close to the ground, year after year, the delightful colonies growing in number each year. Even during the long overheated days of summer that deep, bright and glossy green remains unaffected by the heat and dryness.

Many years ago before the communities surrounding the forested ravine were fully developed there were Partridges living in the forest, along with Grouse, neither of which groundbirds we ever see any longer. We used to hear the grouse thumping the ground in the spring, and on occasion a mother partridge would act out her little ploy to divert attention away from her nest. These birds were so trusting we even watched as they performed their species-specific mating dance, the males hoping to attract the females' interest.