It's downright indecent to rise out of a snug, warm bed on a cold winter morning while it's still dark out. But that's what we've been doing for quite awhile during COVID. Ontario is in lockdown with the addition of stay-at-home orders, exceptions made for urgent expeditions and food shopping is considered among them. So on Tuesdays that's when we discipline ourselves to grin and bear it. Irving is up first and tries to get dressed before I'm even aware that he's out of bed. He wants to get the puppies outside to do their business and give me a few more minutes in bed.

Trouble is it's hard to persuade Jackie and Jillie that good manners excludes leaping all over a prone form deep in sleep, and so I become 'aware', groan, turn over, smack my pillow, and push myself to an upright position. From there, blurred vision and heavy limbs aside, I roll out of bed and trot into the bathroom. My clothing is already laid out, and I dress while the other three are downstairs and slip outside.

The puppies are back in the house in a trice, and after me to play with them. I have little say in the matter, I'm obliged to rub and pat and tug them until they've reached some level of sensory satiation, and then I'm free to continue on, set the table for breakfast, prepare to leave the house. Routine disrupted, they understand quite well what's next on the menu.

As we two put on our coats and boots they two stand in a doorway disconsolate, preparing to begin a chorus of yowling and howling that we're (sob!) leaving them. There's a crescendo of yodelling in perfect rising pitch, as we pull the door shut behind us. Almost no traffic at all as we drive onto the main street headed for the supermarket -- and dawn is beginning to lift its dark curtain for the day. And the day is a cold one, -10 at that point. 

We hit the  jackpot this morning, a mere handful of cars in the parking lot. We seem to be the only shoppers in the store. But then as the minutes tick by and we're deep in the fine art form of collecting our choices of fruits and vegetables other shoppers begin trickling in. By this time we've adjusted to the masks, our eyeglasses have cleared, and we're focused on the task at  hand.

On our return we're greeted with the jubilation of salvation. Treats all around. The groceries are put away, we trot upstairs to shower and begin the day as it were. After breakfast Jackie and Jillie settle down in the breakfast room where a clear sky hosting a blazing sun can be seen out the glass doors which welcome that sun's rays warming up the house and two little dogs blissfully soaking up the heat.

A few hours later clouds have moved in and the temperature has soared all the way to -8C, but no wind to make it seem even colder. And off we go with Jackie and Jillie, into a snowstorm that has just erupted, with thick clusters of snow spiralling down from above, quickly covering everything, and adding to the finally-respectable snowpack we're accumulating this winter. In no time at all, we're well covered in snow.

Today, apart from shopping, it's a leisure day. Yesterday was house-cleaning day, nothing leisure about it. It's the day I tend to plan a quick-preparation meal for dinner. So I selected a half turkey breast to roast along with yellow potatoes, and put on an acorn squash to bake at the same time. We had fresh pineapple left over from cutting one up two days earlier. It's a fragrant, delicious meal that requires little work, just thought mostly, since the oven does all the work.

When we returned this afternoon from our tramp through the beautifully snow-dusted forest, I did a little pre-preparation for a French onion soup for tonight, and decided to make rice pudding for tomorrow's breakfast, for a change. These little prepare-ahead initiatives always work well for me when I'm looking for efficiency in meal preparation.