Changing over from summer to fall mode requires some thought and appropriate action. You wear different clothing and change your wardrobe accordingly. You begin to slowly and with deep regret, reconstruct your garden in preparation for winter's onset. And you begin cooking different meals, changing over the light meals meant for warm and humid days to more substantial meals suitable to warm you up when the days are shorter and dusk falls too early and the temperature plunges overnight. So, yesterday evening which was all of that, we had bowls of thick and piping-hot lentil-tomato soup for dinner, and along with the soup we ate still-warm-from-the-oven flatbread drizzled with cheese.

Tonight? A stir-fry. Featuring broccoli, onion, garlic, snow peas, red bell pepper, mushrooms, served over rice. And alongside the vegetables, stir-fried slivered chicken breast that has been marinated in rice vinegar, soya sauce, garlic and olive oil. It's what some might call stick-to-your-ribs food. Another apt description: comfort food.

We have afternoon sun today, but the sky is a restless one, with rolling swaths of dark clouds alternating with blue patches. There was no blue to be seen this morning and early afternoon, however, as a series of rolling thunderstorms crashed through the atmosphere, sending down episodes of heavily thumping rain and we cowered indoors, hoping we'd get a window of opportunity at some time in the afternoon to dash out for at least a short hike in the ravine with Jackie and Jillie.

Well, that opportunity did arise. The wind blasts were really quite spectacular, sending the trees whipping this way and that. Strangely, while we usually get wind blowing from the north-west toward the north-east, they were oddly reversed today. We watched the sky intensely as one bank of dark grey cloud after another heralded the approach of yet another storm.

At mid-afternoon when the sky finally opened and blue insinuated itself, the golden light of the sun was absolutely dazzling. Off we went, suitably garbed for the likelihood of more rain on this most changeable of weather days. We knew the creek at the bottom of the ravine would be in full flood but we weren't able to hear it flashing by because of the wind blasting the forest canopy, sounding like a runaway steam engine as the trees whipped back and forth.

We knew we were taking a chance venturing out to the forest under these conditions, the force of the blasting wind just perfect for knocking over dead trees, or branches from overhead. We would confine ourselves to the main trail, wider, and though still the trees form a canopy over the trail, roomier, and perhaps less opportunity for falling detritus or trees to fall our way. We hoped. Even pine cones pried loose by the wind from their perches overhead, made an impact on contact when they hit; a bit of a surprising sting when they whacked.

But the sun was out and partnering with the wind began to dry the atmosphere. We expected the sky to cloud over under the force of the wind at any given time, but white clouds had arrived instead of the charcoal black that had heralded thunderstorms and our way was nicely lit by brilliant sun rays -- and loud with tremendous bursts of wind lashing against the forest. We took a shorter circuit than usual. Jillie paid little mind to the wind, but it seemed to disturb Jackie, with its obvious intensity.

Relieved that we had been able to take them out for a good stretch in the forest, and that we had done so without encountering another rain event, a fairly rapid pace brought us back to street level where we headed for home. A brief tour of the garden reassured us that the flowers and plants were holding their own. Oddly, the red hibiscus that hadn't flowered all summer despite ample rain and fertilizing, has now put out flower buds; we can see the red peeking out, but it's highly unlikely it will have time to flower before everything has to be cut back.

 

We never cease to be surprised at the hardiness of some of the flowers. The dipladenia, which we've nurtured for the first time in our garden replacing other more familiar plants like zinnias which were unavailable this year thanks to the an oddly depleted offering due to the pandemic, have done very well.  But our absolute floral favourites, begonias, have done exceptionally well. Despite the battering everything took today they perked right up with the entrance of the sun.