Rain, rain, go away, Jackie and Jillie want to play. A child's wistful chant with some notable liberties taken. It's one of those days. Rare enough in its intransigence to shut us out of our daily ramble through the ravine trails. No let-up at all. Just a few reluctant, quick dashes to the backyard, then back into the house as soon as fleet little paws can take them. And us.

Good rub-downs with towels follow. Jackie and Jillie most definitely do not enjoy the rain. Much less having their hair wet, their body temperature slightly lowered with exposure to such inclement weather. Larger dogs don't much mind, small dogs do. And these two certainly detest it -- all the more so when the temperature is well on its way to being too cool to be wet.

The temperature stood at 4C when they went out for the first time this morning in the rain and graduated eventually all the way up to 10C, after repeated, very brief visits to the great outdoors as seen in the limited confines of our little backyard. The only positive thing about having to go out on such days is the unmitigated pleasure of a good rub-down afterward.

It's a rare day when we don't get out for our daily walk through the forest trails. We tell our little dogs one day won't make a difference. They'll get out tomorrow and enjoy it twice as much. They gaze at us with the skeptical manner of those who know better. On the other hand, they'd prefer by far to pass the opportunity to get out for a walk in this kind of rain. Too heavy for their little raincoats to be of much benefit.

 So they languished at home, while we were busy cleaning the house. Because we were so busy outside  yesterday on that cool, windy but rainless, overcast day cleaning up the gardens, house-cleaning day was put forward to today. What made up for all that exhausting outdoor work was the pleasure of a quiet Thanksgiving dinner, when we had turkey breast, tiny yellow potatoes, broccoli and cranberry sauce. 

My husband insisted on mopping up gravy with one of the little egg-loaf braided breads I had baked the day before. And for dessert we each had one of the double-chocolate cupcakes left over from Friday's baking. I wasn't able to find small tins of pumpkin so decided against baking a pumpkin pie yesterday.

After cleaning the house -- our usual once-weekly ritual -- I decided to make a noodle-cheese-tuna-green pea casserole for dinner. Where yesterday's meal was a favourite for my husband, today's will represent mine. I made a butter-flour and milk choux seasoned with powdered mustard, paprika and freshly ground pepper, melted grated old Cheddar into it as it cooked and thickened. Mixed the drained cooked noodles into the choux, added the green peas.

Then layered it into a large flat baking dish, with the contents of a tin of tuna between the noodle layers. Over that I lightly scattered breadcrumbs, and then more grated cheese, to bake until bubbly-hot. Served with a fresh vegetable salad, and poached pears for dessert, that's tonight's dinner.