It's human nature to feel a sense of proprietorship when you are accustomed to the luxury of monopolizing a public space, mostly because you value it so highly and few others seem to. An assumption supported by the fact that others seldom venture into that place. It becomes 'your' special place, one that you share with a select group of others who think the way you do, that they're fortunate to have the pleasure of easy access to a natural preserve of great beauty and benefit to wildlife.

Many of our ravine-hiking acquaintances simply do that mental shrug when the ravine precincts and the forest within and surrounding it experience a sudden spurt of popularity, where the trails begin to host many more people than you ever have encountered previously. It is a public space, after all. And nature belongs to all of us. This is likely the most popular season to convince people that at least one tramp through a wooded setting is appropriate and desirable in celebration of autumn and the colours flaunted as deciduous trees succumb to their yearly ritual of greeting winter.

Still our puppies are disconcerted at the presence of so many people they've never before seen, since they're accustomed to seeing a fairly wide array of people, recognizing them all, complacent in their presence, and a downright nuisance at times being ultra-friendly with those they know and like. This Thanksgiving week-end has been one of those times when they've been confused, day after day at the proliferation of other trail hikers and often other dogs new to them.

It has also meant that they haven't been free to run about as usual, unleashed. Because of their propensity to bark and run toward people we can't risk something nasty happening when a dog unfamiliar with their antics might take offence and want to 'discipline' our two little dogs. Beyond that, their incessant barking until they eventually quiet down after vetting new entrants, might alarm young children, out with their parents.

So, leashed it has been for them. On several occasions Jackie has 'forgotten' he's on leash and he's taken a sudden, vigorous running leap forward, excited about someone's presence in 'his' territory, only to find the leash restricting his forward momentum and yanking him back to reality so fiercely he almost tumbles over in his astonishment at the curtailment of his liberty.

Yesterday was one of those perfect fall days. It wasn't warm but it wasn't too cool either, and the full-on sun certainly warmed the atmosphere, despite a fairly brisk wind. The new position of the sun slanting across the sky penetrates at a new angle through the forest canopy, creating a piercingly bright searchlight of sunrays reaching into the forest landscape by mid-afternoon.

When we returned from a prolonged walk yesterday afternoon, encountering many people and many companion dogs never before seen in the ravine, our usual turn around the garden once we reached home assured us there were at least a few more days left before the annuals would be touched by frost to the extent they would require immediate excision. Some of the hostas have already turned colour, the edges of their long, lance-shaped foliage beginning to shrivel.

But the texture, form and colour remain largely intact in the arrangement of the gardens, except for my critical eye which sees details absent in the sight of those who simply glance at everything as a whole landscape. And I keep telling myself the garden cannot hold on forever, and nor can I keep reassuring myself that there's ample time to tackle the clean-up in preparation for winter.