No fear that squirrels will reject whole almonds; they go quite quickly, sprinkled out the side and front doors. Crows as well, though they're the flightiest of birds, enjoy the nuts. I thought I'd try covering sliced dark rye bread with peanut butter for a change. Cut the slices into cubes (messy work) and put them out as well. I've found, oddly enough, that when I cut up bagels or white bread of any kind into cubes they go much faster than any of the dark breads, even those that are liberally seeded.

The peanut-butter-slathered dark rye wasn't as quick to go as I'd imagined; birds and squirrels are just prejudiced against dark bread, I guess. And I guess if they were really desperate for something to eat they'd have no problem with the dark bread. We no longer put out seeds for the birds and buy inexpensive dog kibble to put out for the wildlife, not since some of that wildlife (raccoons and squirrels) ended up in our neighbour's attic. 

 Bits and pieces seem alright, though; the traffic isn't as heavy. And we know when the squirrels are about because Jackie and Jillie inform us, barking wildly at the intruders. They may have seen them all their lives around the house, but they still subscribe to the theory that they're invaders intent on dislodging them from their favoured perch in the house which they own, after all. 

I watched as a pair of little black squirrels busied themselves with the peanut-bread. One of the pair (we know them from years past) made off with its choices and the other remained on the porch, meticulously picking up one cube after another to carefully nibble the peanut butter, then discard the bread. I'm more or less familiar with that kind of taste-discrimination, having raised three children.

Last night, we had a stir-fry for dinner. I was trying to think what I might do with all the extra vegetables I'd brought home from the supermarket. Mushrooms were on sale, a larger container than I usually buy, and when my husband had dropped by Farmboy, he brought back snowpeas and I already had some, ditto with bell peppers. It struck me that a stir-fry would do the trick, and in went the broccoli, garlic cloves, shallots, bell pepper, snowpeas and mushrooms. We both love rice and it's an excellent foil for stir-fry. I had marinated cubed strips of beef in garlic, olive oil and soy sauce and that was stir-fried separately Fast and simple and goood!

We're into a bit of a cold patch; high today -10, the next few days -14, and with wind that's fairly chilly. Walking up to the ravine entrance, we met up with our dearest of neighbours Mohindar and Rajinder just exiting the ravine. They've taken lately to walks through the forest trails. Both muffle their faces entirely so just their eyes show. Jackie and Jillie greeted them with exuberant barks of "we see you!" It's good exercise for them and we're glad they're going out. Neither wore cleats and Rajinder had slipped and fallen, as I've done so many times in the past. There are benign falls and disastrous ones, and hers fell into the former category.

 The upper portion of the forest canopy was bathed in bright light, the sun coasting through a wide blue sky. These cold temperatures come complete with guaranteed clear skies and blazing sun. It doesn't take much wind at these low temperatures, however, to make it seen even colder; the wind sends its slender fingers of icy insistence everywhere.

We saw others off in the distance at intervals; we looking up at the trails from below and alternately glancing down at other trails from ridged high points in the forest. On several occasions we could recognize, despite the distance who they were, and waving arms in greeting, helped. It's more likely to make the recognition-connection seeing companion dogs rather than the people themselves, though peoples' personal gaits often identify them even at a great distance.

Although we're determined to get out onto the trails with Jackie and Jillie to break up the day and have a good leisure-time experience along with the anticipation of seeing so many aspects of a beautiful landscape, we're glad too to return home when our circuit has completed, to the warmth of our house interior, to relax and read the newspapers, give our puppies their expected vegetable salad snack and fully appreciate just how fortunate we are.