This day has been shamelessly flirting with two very different suitors. Like a woman conflicted between the attention of the proverbial tall, dark stranger, and the overtures of the sunny blonde personality of another, this day has ricocheted, morning and afternoon between blue sky and bright sun alternating with a dark, stormy sky and rain.

A morning choice for our ramble in the ravine through the forest trails with Jackie and Jillie didn't appear as a wise prospect early in the day, so we opted for breakfast instead. The night had been one long rain event. And though it's lovely to enter the forest right after heavy rains, it isn't too appealing to be in the forest during one of those heavy rains. We opted to bide our time.

We'd done that yesterday when a similar weather day had occurred. And yesterday we dressed for the chance that we'd be caught out in the rain, even though by the time we left the house the sky was clearing and the sun was out, warming our backs while the wind hit us from the opposite direction. Yesterday's fierce winds didn't repeat themselves today.

And today we set out a little later in the afternoon, settling for a 2:00 pm venture because by then the sky once again was clearing and the sun was out. No rain gear for Jackie and Jillie this time, unlike yesterday. But their little raincoats were packed securely in one of my husband's pockets, as we set out. In the event, however, there was no need for them this time around. The sun stayed out and there was no return of those moody, dark clouds.

A lot more pine needles had come down overnight, as did far more colourful leaves. More trees are beginning to change colour. Something I'd never before noticed; those ash trees that remain in the forest having proved resilient to the onslaught of the ash borer that devastated most of the ashes in the forest, tend to turn an undistinguished brown and immediately curl, turn black and disintegrate. 

The oaks haven't yet turned colour, and the beeches are early turning their copper-bronze colour this year, a surprising amount of their leaves already tumbled to the ground. We've got both red and yellow maple foliage, and the same is true of the poplars; pink foliage specimens and yellow ones. Bass have remained green, and the birches have turned a soft, modest yellow.

There's still plenty of wildflowers about, mostly fall asters, the white variety, the tiny white sprays, the light mauve and the bright pink-purple type that are so much more attractive than all the others. And of course, pilotweed growing everywhere and receding in some places but not in the areas right beside the forest stream at the bottom of the ravine. In the distance we could see that the Black-eyed Susans have begun to decline, but though the wide sweep of Himalayan orchids are beginning to outbloom themselves they're still bright and cheerful.

 

We hadn't seen mischievous little Max, the miniature Apricot poodle nor his person for quite a while, and there she was on one of the far trail entrances along with Max who had found a small apple fallen from one of the wild apple trees, though none grow where we had come across the two. Max treats apples like balls to play with and he was busy amusing himself. When he's challenged, he just loves the interaction and races off with his prize.

 

 

Jackie and Jillie know all about apples. Definitely not toys, but extremely edible. I did find Jackie, however, playing with cherry tomatoes the very same way, when we had a tomato plant growing beside the compost bins in the back yard. Once the tomato is pierced or cut, it immediately becomes food; otherwise it's a toy.

Max reminds us of our little toy poodle Riley, also an apricot, and like Riley did, Max's coat simply seems to blend in with the panoply of thick yellow foliage now decorating the forest floor, so that he almost disappears.

It was cool, at 14C, a little breezy, but extremely comfortable, though the sun doesn't really penetrate the forest canopy other than for fingers of sunlight that manage to find entrance through the leaf mass. We're never in much of a hurry when we traipse through the trails. When we ascend the many hills in the ravine and in turn descend them as we progress along the trail system, more of a physical effort is required, but all nicely manageable.