Friday is treat-day, the end of the working week, when a special dinner is in the offing, and so it's also baking day, when I pore through my memory-bank of what might constitute a delicious dessert treat. Usually by Thursday evening I know what I'll bake on Friday morning. And this morning it was blueberry-cream-cheese tarts. We'd had fresh blueberries for dessert several times and I still had a pint of blueberries left over, so that's the use I put them to. This little dilemma and its solution is rather hilarious, given that we're no longer in the workforce and our time is our own, but old habits are comforting and we're stuck with them.

Preparing the pasty is a breeze, I've done it so often over the years. It does take a deft hand and busy fingers to fit pastry rounds into paper cups for a less messy finished product, but that just takes a few minutes. Before that I had mixed together a half-cup granulated sugar, two tablespoons of cornstarch, a quarter-cup of cranberry juice, and added the washed blueberries. Then I simmered them until the berries were soft and the liquid thickened. Turned off the heat, added a tablespoon of butter and a quarter teaspoon of Amaretto flavouring and the filling was done.

Once the paper cups held the fitted pastry, I deposited a tablespoon of cream cheese at the bottom of each, spooned in the cooled blueberry filling and baked them in large cupcake tins at 350F for 28 minutes, and there was dessert! Then I prepared a bread dough to refrigerate and eventually use for pizza or croissants during the week.

In the early afternoon, under a low cloud ceiling, cool temperature and good breeze, we were ready to go off to the ravine for our daily trot-about with Jackie and Jillie. The sky looked as rain-promising as it did yesterday, when we got caught in a light downpour. So before we left the house we opted for light rainjackets and stuffed Jackie and Jillie's into our pockets just in case it might rain. And off we went.

Now that their hair has been groomed, and it's sleek and short instead of long and messy, our two puppies no longer pick up all manner of organic detritus from the forest floor, so it's a breeze to clean them off once we arrive back home. So that's an absolute plus. More meaningful is the fact that they're certainly more comfortable, not as burdened with excess hair which, since it's black, attracts the heat of the sun, and when it's a hot day, exhausts them.

Robins were busy again scooting across the trails, and they and the local cardinals made no secret of their satisfaction with another beautiful summer day, even absent the sun. Their trills and that of a song sparrow echoed through the forest, adding to the pleasure of viewing the vibrant green landscape. We also noted that the bedding grasses alongside the trails were in bloom, those fragrant tiny white flowers that served settlers well in the early 19th Century as stuffing for mattresses.

Jackie and Jillie hadn't seen anyone else on the trails today. So when we arrived back home they went off on a hunt of their own, to see if any of our next-door neighbours were about. They're always good for a quick notice and head-rub. No one around, so their attention turned to the street in front of the house. Ours is a very quiet street with little traffic and often there's just no one else around, outside. This has been one of those days.