Street level entrance to the ravine...

Growing numbers of COVID cases in the province and in particular three regions of the province, including Ottawa, have made people acutely aware of the fragility of personal circumstances. The greater the community transmission rate, the more vulnerable everyone in the community becomes, irrespective of personal protective measures. 

Usually when we go out early in the morning to do our weekly grocery shopping, the supermarket is fairly empty of shoppers. That wasn't the case today. As we parked, we noticed the parking lot appeared even emptier than usual. And so, we had no idea when we entered the supermarket that there would be so many other shoppers present. It happened to be a cooler morning, very heavily overcast, after all-night heavy rain events. And usually that kind of weather combination has the effect of keeping people indoors. Not this time.

Then we noticed that so many of the other shoppers were younger people, not the usual older crowd we're accustomed to seeing. Perhaps the message is finally penetrating the general consciousness that health and government authorities have been preaching -- that it is the younger demographic that appears to have become careless in abandoning common sense in favour of social gatherings which have become the tinder lighting the fire of increased infection rates.

There was light drizzle when we left to embark on our grocery trip . But later, when we had returned home, cleaned up from breakfast -- and I'd taken down a few of the window screens to scrub them of accumulated detritus -- despite the presence of angry-looking clouds the rain seemed determined to hold off. When we left the house the sky was truly morose, with darker clouds sailing along to the rhythm of the wind, and we felt that it would be unlikely for us to complete our usual circuit without some measure of rainfall.

Well, that didn't happen, after all. And we were able to enjoy a long and leisurely traipse through the forest trails. Last night's rain had succeeded to a surprising degree in bullying a cascade of foliage to decorate the forest floor. The process has in fact, hardly begun, but already a sizeable buildup of colourful foliage has descended. And it isn't only the deciduous trees; pine needles too have tumbled copiously to the ground, the pale yellow of the needles merging with the more colourful pinks, reds and golds of the fallen leaves.

Leaf litter everywhere. Chickadees, robins and nuthatches popping in and out of the conifers in little flocks. The robins spend as much time in the litter of the forest floor and 'running' along the trails as they do in the trees at this time of year. The nuthatches, always accompanying chickadees, crawl up tree trunks, chattering as they go.

The population of forest squirrels manifest themselves at this time of year as at no other time, gathering endlessly, and there's ample cones, seeds and berries for them to gather. We watch as squirrels chase one another frantically, either mischievously playing or territorially competitive. Jackie and Jillie no longer make the effort to chase them, content with watching. On occasion Jackie will assume the 'wannaplay?' stance, facing a squirrel.

The tiny red squirrels are far more belligerent about what they conceive of as their personal territory than the larger black and even greater-sized grey squirrels. Invariably, there will be a red squirrel angrily in chase after a black squirrel four times its size; the black one clearly intimidated by the little red's raging attitude. At one point, Jackie poised, fascinated, watching one black squirrel as it poked its head forward from its perch low down on a tree trunk, peering right back at Jackie.

We watched as one particularly adventuresome squirrel performed a high-wire act at the very top of a maple, on branches obviously not stout enough to endure even its slight weight. Its activity up there as it seemed determined to secure something was quite entertaining. In a manner of speaking, the forest itself is entertaining in the sense that though we're out there on the trails every day whether morning or afternoon, nothing ever seems the same. There's no element of having seen it all before; everything, every bit of landscape presents itself anew, reflecting changes that go on forever.