There are certain times of the year when we can expect to see far more people than usual wandering about on the forest trails in the ravine. Thanksgiving Day is one, when close residents invite their dinner guests out for a pre- or post-prandial walk in the woods, as is Christmas Day, and of course Labour Day is right up there but for different reasons. It's the last long week-end of the summer.

In fact, for many, despite the calendar, it's a farewell to summer, fall is arriving, and people become nostalgic and if at no other time of the year, that week-end the woods beckon and out they come. Not to be overlooked, of course, is the fact that schoolchildren will be returning to their studies. The school year begins, the schools are open again, and the school buses returning to schedule.

So families with children are wont to take them along to the forest trails for a family outing. We've even seen people sitting alongside the trail with children eating McDonald's takeout. Correction: there's nowhere to sit 'alongside the trail', since the trees closely nudge the trail on either side, so it's sit on the trail, or be aware that there are several places where old rough-hewn benches sit on brief bits of grassland. These are not people familiar with the trails, however and they obviously have no intention of proceeding very far into the woods.

Pre-teens and teens tend to want to enter the ravine on their own, on bicycles, singly or in groups. Not that there are many of them, but on this particular long week-end some will always be seen pedalling along the trails. And it's always a good idea at this time of year to check before ascending a hill in case someone on a bicycle happens to be barreling down it.

So yesterday afternoon there was plenty of activity to catch Jackie and Jillie's attention. Sometimes the few family units strolling the trails come complete with the family pet, and sometimes not; either way their presence keeps J & J on their toes, so to speak. One such unit, a large burly man and two younger women came along with three dogs. So that caused a bit of commotion with Jackie and Jillie getting quite excited.

Fact is, we did too. It was the first time we'd ever encountered a dog the size of one of the three this family had with them. It was four years old and plodded along the trail, all 227 pounds of the dog whose name was 'Tank', an English mastiff, quite different from the bull mastiffs we sometimes see in the ravine. This fellow had a ponderous gait and was very hot though yesterday's temperature hadn't risen beyond 21C. His head was colossal,  his face wrinkled in great wide rows.

And cavorting around him were two toy dogs, one nine years old, the other four, like the giant walking alongside them. The two toys, easily half the size of Jackie and Jillie, were completely unfazed at the fuss around them with peoples' attention riveted on their huge companion. Jackie and Jillie were a trifle concerned; enough so that they asked to be picked up, but managed anyway to adapt to the situation, the giant taking no interest in them whatsoever.

Later on as we resumed our stroll there were fewer people to be seen, until there were none at all since most people tend to remain at the upper level of the trails, not descending into the ravine itself. At one point we noticed a large old decaying stump of a tree well on its way to finally disappearing into the forest floor as it disintegrated. On the side of this stump was a poplar seedling which had taken root on the punky wood, preparing to make a life for itself using the stump as a nursery.