Swift, determined action was taken by government and its agencies to persuade the public to hunker down and practise self-defence at the introduction of a new virus that threatened to decimate populations. And for the most part people heeded that advice; they willingly sacrificed seeing family and friends on a regular basis as they were accustomed to doing, practised social isolation, took more care with basic personal sanitary customs, avoided touching surfaces when out in public, began wearing face masks, and the feared inundation of seriously ill hospital patients that might overwhelm local hospitals, staff and equipment, failed to materialize.

A few months of self-discipline wore heavily on people's patience and loyalty to the concept of personal responsibility, but there was a reward when it became clear that the dominating numbers of infections would be handled with relative ease by hospitals and medical staff, after all. And though infection numbers had risen rapidly at first, they began to diminish under societal lockdown which mandated workplace closures, along with those who could, working remotely, from home. People patiently waited out the first threatening wave of COVID.

And then, as March gave way to April and April to May and summer weather entered the landscape, slight loosening of guidelines were recommended, which increased in number as time wore on and fewer cases were reported, even while the public was also cautioned not to overdo their relaxation of the rules to an unreasonable degree. Shops re-opened, restaurants, bars, hairdressers, and other indices of consumer elementals, alongside the supermarkets and pharmacies that had always been available, while practising hygienic measures and mask-wearing.

Along came weddings and funerals, family gatherings, group barbecues, beach parties, and finally school re-openings. Up went the cases, slowly but steadily. Until Ontario registered daily case counts nudging 300, then 400, finally 500 and 700. And the province's premier made the sobering judgement that phase two had been entered; his entreaties of care and caution  to those who had voted for him and those who had not, heeded by most, but not all. And once again the most vulnerable in society; the health-impaired, the elderly, those living in long-term care homes and retirement homes are at risk -- while 68 percent of the new cases are being identified among the 18 to 40 year-olds, those less likely to be infected, but most likely to infect others.

Gloomy news. Fearful news. Weighting down all other concerns. For us, the solution is, as always, to get out into nature, to feel the calming sensation of a life-vibrating natural landscape; green vegetation, birds, wildflowers, autumn colours. All in the presence of our little twin dogs who greeted the invitation pre-breakfast for an energetic romp through the woodland trails with great fanfare and a fireworks of happy barks.

And so, off we set, somberly perhaps, but appreciative of the lull in the cooler, windier and wet weather we'd been treated to for the past month, to the anomaly of a week where summer had returned, giving us days in the low- to-mid 20s, along with balmy breezes and sunny skies. This morning, the sky matched the news; heavily overcast, charcoal-grey skies. No matter, off we marched, confident there  would be no rain until perhaps afternoon or evening, and none developed, after all.

The changing landscape with its introduction of bright red foliage among the maples, soft yellow for the poplars, and yellow-bronze in the beech trees captured our attention the moment we turned from the entrance trail to face the plunge into the ravine from the first plateau at the level of the street, where the neighbourhood houses begin, including ours.

Talking together quietly, as we roamed the  trails, watching birds flutter in and out, around and through thickets of trees, we could feel another mood settling in; one of comfort and appreciation, helping to place into perspective the situation of our immediate surroundings as opposed to the disquieting news of the growing prevalence of COVID-19 cases and concomitant hospital admissions.

The atmosphere surrounding us of nature's clockwork progression from season to season, the responses of the forest trees, the wildflowers, the insects and the birds and small mammals rushing about on the forest floor in their ordained action of gathering up the food they need to sustain them over winter has its desired calming effect, the consternation over COVID receding, even as it gnaws its presence back  to a governable level as a potential threat that cannot be ignored or set aside in favour of living life as we normally do.