Another busy day. They're all busy days. So much for people considering retiring from active workplace employment being concerned over how they'll fill in time. Fill in time? Well, life does that. It's quite conceivable that many people do end up sitting around watching television to 'fill in time', but that's not on our agenda. In fact, it's been years since a television set was turned on in this house.

Well, of course there's always the option of watching episodes of one kind or another; dramas, mysteries, theatre, musical performances on YouTube, and one of us in this house does do that in the evening. Computers have entirely changed our lives as far as communication and entertainment are concerned. We use the World Wide Web to inform ourselves, to become current with the news, to communicate with others, to amuse ourselves, and if we're so inclined to write what we feel like posting on blogs.

All of that, though, is fill-in, leisure time. There are so many other things that take precedence. And having little companion animals in one's house is certainly a diversion from attention given to other pressing household routines. This morning Jackie and Jillie felt particularly playful. Not with one another, but with us. So, when we filled up the kitchen sink to wash the breakfast dishes, we paused first to play with them. And later, upstairs making up the bed and briefly cleaning the bathroom, they wanted to be involved too.

The bed looked a little too neat, an irresistible invitation to them to leap onto it while I was tossing stuffed toys at them, to elude me when I made an effort to retrieve the toys so they could be re-tossed in a different direction. The play may have used any excess energy I had, but it barely scraped the top of their energy level. Finally I had to explain there were other things on my mind.

And so I began puttering about in the kitchen. Ending the morning by preparing for dinner. Putting on a chicken soup to simmer for hours. Preparing a bread dough to bake little braided egg-breads tomorrow to go with another soup, cream of cauliflower. This is the kind of bread dough that uses milk, butter, eggs and honey aside from the yeast, salt and flour. And then I turned my attention to baking a cheesecake. And to accompany it, a raspberry dressing. The dressing made use of a half-pint of fresh raspberries that my husband thought were too sour.

And then, finally, it was time to get out for a nice long stroll through the forest trails with patient Jackie and Jillie. Oh, wait...looks like it's ready to rain. But it has looked like that all day. So, on with the raincoats and off we went, under a heavily bruised sky. At 10C, pretty cool, particularly with the wind blowing in our faces. Once in the confines of the forest, however, the wind's sweep through the forest was abated.

That same wind has brought down even more leaves. And since there's so many poplar trees, at some junctures on the forest floor a deep pile of pale-to-bright yellow prevails to swish through on the trails. The leaves, at the very least, cover the muck of saturated clay that makes up the soil of the ravine. And it tends to be slippery, so caution is observed. Not on the part of the little dogs, but for us.

The forest interior is in perpetual dusk, all the more so when it's so overcast. We hear nuthatches here and there, and woodpeckers, and chickadees. No sound of geese migrating overhead today, and no appearance of other hikers on the trails, either. For whom the prevailing threat of oncoming rain, cool temperature and wind likely acted as a deterrent. But no rain fell while we were out, and we had a vigorous and comfortable ramble, before completing the day's circuit.

The trees are becoming fast denuded, and we speculated between ourselves how long it might be before we're faced with entirely bare branches. I gave it two weeks, my husband observed that if the storm squalls and heavy rain, aided and abetted by constant winds fail to abate, a week is more likely. Doubt it. We were surprised and gratified to notice that in the several places where rough-hewn benches have stood for as long as we can recall, the rotting old wood had been replaced. 'New' benches have taken their place. How very considerate.

And then we returned home. Where I continued my mealtime preparations. Friday night dinner is always a little more complex than usual. There are some traditions that just call out for perpetuation and this is a signal one. We had paused briefly to have a look at the garden before entering the house. I've spent hours emptying garden pots and still have plenty left to be done, as well as cutting back more of our hostas, and a  host of other perennials, though I've done quite a bit up to now.

I figure perhaps three more days of concentrated work might get the job done. When I can find the time.