Unless it's been an exceptionally hot night and we waken in the morning to more of the same, and the weather forecast warns of a hot, humid day in the offing, we know that we'll be heading off to the ravine for a pre-breakfast ramble through the forest trails with Jackie and Jillie. Otherwise, anticipating a middling-warm day to follow a morning a tad on the cool side, we confront the issue and ask one another, 'should we?'.

Sometimes we decide to head out early, sometimes we don't. I like to leave the decision to my husband. He reciprocates by leaving it up to me. And then we have a bit of a stalemate decision-wise. A 'bit' in the sense that he will then usually take the initiative, speak of the positive elements involved and off we go in the morning.

Yesterday we opted for an afternoon walk. That we'd go out when I'd finished the laundry because it was laundry day. Not the only day I will do laundry, but the main day reserved for linens and clothing and everything in between. I can remember when I had a rotating washing machine with rollers attached to squeeze the soapy water out of the washing machine, letting the washed items fall into a tub of rinse water, then putting them through the wringer again, to extract excessive water. And at that point having to trudge upstairs from the basement to the backyard to hang the clothes to dry.

So you'd think with modern technology, and machines that do all those steps automatically laundry would be a breeze. While it is, in a real sense of activity, it's also something that requires tending, maneuvering, folding of dried clothing, trudging upstairs from the first floor laundry room to tuck everything away where it belongs. If nothing else, it's time-consuming. Needless to say when I was using emerging technology I was young and energetic. Now, with advanced technology I'm old and somewhat energetic.

Jackie and Jillie are patient. They're not hard to please. They are uniformly willing to do whatever we've planned, as long as they're included. Before we set off in the morning, I usually set the table for breakfast and make initial breakfast preparations. And one of our scheduled 'habits' has become feeding them little squares of cheese as a pre-breakfast snack before we leave the house.

These days, trekking through the ravine trails they also anticipate additional treats, plucked fresh off the shrubbery in the forest understory, now that berries are in season. Starting with wild strawberries, then raspberries, followed by blackberries and thimbleberries. When they're gone it'll be apples off the wild apple trees that provide them with delicious nourishment so they won't perish from hunger before breakfast.

On the forest floor most of the previous-blooming wildflowers are gone. Even cowvetch, though the vines are still vigorously growing, no longer puts out flowers. But the fall asters are beginning to bloom as well as goldenrod turning its bright yellow. I keep looking for partridgberry berries, but see only the foliage, and wonder whether the berries begin appearing during winter when the flat-to-the-ground partridgberry is covered with snow.

What we did come across, however, was a patch of poison ivy. Strangely enough, growing not far from where the jewelweed has colonized an area. We'll stay clear of the poison ivy and won't have need of the sap that can be extruded from the jewelweed stems to reverse the nasty effects of poison ivy.