It's a real challenge often to to think of what to prepare for dinnertime. There are the standard items and variations on a theme, as it were, and there are dinners that I don't make too often but which we like well enough. And one of them is quiche. My husband is an egg-lover and we both love cheese, and quiche has both these ingredients, along with many others. Usually on a busy day, among which I certainly count house-cleaning day I plan on making something less fussy, not time-consuming, but after we returned from our afternoon hike through the forest yesterday I decided to just go ahead and make a quiche.

It's quick work for me to make a crust and for quiche I usually prepare one a little thicker than the usual. This time I thought since we had some sliced ham, I'd put some of that into the quiche, along with sliced green onion and asparagus, for a change. I used about a cup of grated old cheddar, and sprinkled the ham and vegetables over, then whipped up four large eggs, adding a half-cup of 10% milk, and lots of freshly grated black pepper. A last-minute thought had me add a dollop of Worcester sauce and then into the oven it went, ready about 40 minutes later for dinner.

A trip out to the backyard with Jackie and Jillie, in between cleaning out more kitchen cupboards in my spring cleaning routine this morning was rewarding. An annually-appearing little patch of anemones was in full bloom, bright and perky, blooming well before the tulips just now beginning to send up their heads. And in the rock garden periwinkles beginning their bright blue blooms. The anemones that come up in the ravine will be at least a month later. 

Today I thought I'd do a small corned beef roast, easy to prepare though it has a long simmering time. I'll serve it with cous-cous and spinach. We still need some rib-sticking meals with night-time temperatures going well below freezing. And the wind, the incessant, aggressive wind, making the high of 10C today seem infinitely colder than it was. All the more so when the sun went scurrying behind clouds. Despite which once we were in the woods and striding along the trails with Jackie and Jillie, our traipsing brisky along becomes a warming exercise.

Now that the week-end has passed we encounter far fewer people on the trails, and bicyclists as well. It's relieving that most people are respectful of one another, maintaining a responsibly careful distance. And most bicyclists whether they're teens or older people are generally well aware of the civility of courtesy on the trails, exercising good judgement about waiting for others to pass and allowing them safe passage.

Yesterday and again today, although fewer people were about and that's a bit of a relief, we experienced some unfortunate encounters with bicyclists. These were mature men who most surely should know better, passing at very close range, silently, with no warning they're approaching behind us. With two small dogs on leashes and on narrow portions of the trail network, these incidents could turn out unhappily.

The main trails have ample room, but even there, people should be sensible enough to know that if they're going at considerable speed they owe it to others to ensure their presence is anticipated so other people can take steps to avoid contact with them; all the more so with dogs on leashes. One pair of male cyclists stopped at the crest of one of the  hills, one of the bicycles sprawled directly on the trail, leaving no passage room on either side, while the bicyclist was adjusting something on his back wheel.

These encounters are unfortunate, and leave a pretty poor impression of the state of mind of some people feeling they're entitled to do anything, including whatever impairs other peoples' enjoyment of shared landscapes. Our experience over the decades with bicyclists in the ravine has been quite positive for the most part, with civility extended on both sides, including developing friendships.

The situation of the lockdown with the emergency response to the novel coronavirus is a grim one, but it can only be made more miserable by selfishly behaving in a manner that is certain to inconvenience others, and even threaten their well-being by inconsiderate dolts whose presence in any society others must put up with.