I thought today, while I was cleaning the bathrooms anyway that I'd take a few minutes to practise my chemistry and do a little plumbing at the same time. Nothing like watching the volcanic interaction of baking soda and vinegar on a drain. I included the kitchen sink too, of course. Lots of household uses for baking soda and for vinegar, not necessarily in tandem.

I did find putting two tastes together at breakfast time a big hit, matching smoked salmon cream cheese with ripe avocado. A wicked treat on toast. My treat alone, since Irving doesn't appreciate avocado. He went for soft-boiled eggs instead and lathered his toast with Brie.

Breakfast over, he proceeded to install the door he's finished putting together. A perfect fit. Up now and awaiting the installation of a stained glass insert. It will have a long wait. A few months at the very least; likely longer. Whereas it took no more than a week to produce the door itself.

Later I cut up a pineapple; first, off with the top, then halve the pineapple and halve it again, so you've got four quarters. Slice off the inner core of each, work a curved knife between the flesh and the outer coating rind, separate them, then dice the flesh until all quarters have been thus processed. Refrigerate and serve as dessert at dinnertime.

We bought baby Bok Choy for a change yesterday when we did the food shopping. I'll use it along with snap peas, chopped bell pepper, mushrooms, onion and garlic for a stir-fry for dinner. I plan to serve it over cous-cous. I've marinated thin strips of beef in olive oil, soy sauce, garlic and mixed herbs to stir-fry separately with chopped onion and that'll be piled on top of the vegetable stir-fry.

We worked up our appetite as usual during a long ravine walk with Jackie and Jillie this afternoon on just about the most perfect fall day imaginable, full sun, 18C, with the prospect of more of the same during the rest of the week and into the week-end. There weren't many others enjoying the forest today besides us which meant that Jackie and Jillie were relatively well behaved; a minimum of excited barking.

The sun was brilliant, directly above at an angle that illuminated the forest in a sun-dappled show of light and warmth. Hard to believe a week ago we protected ourselves against 8C-and-windy cold, all of us wearing jackets. This kind of weather makes us feel really relaxed and carefree, no need to think about much, just spontaneously responding to nature's mood of kindliness.

There are still fall asters in bloom, although fading. The sea of Himalayan balsam is gone, their bright pink flowerheads no more, their red, hollow stalks fallen over and dried. In the forest pollinator meadow the black-eyed Susans are similarly devastated, with here and there amongst the crowd of desiccated stalks and the dried 'eye' of the flowers, stubborn little fresh flowers refusing to fade.

We're finding colour now instead appearing in the trees, here and there, as we lift our heads now instead of looking toward the forest floor. The general leaf mass remains vibrant green but now and again a bright patch of red reveals itself and that will intensify over the coming weeks. We do, however, look down at the forest floor still saturated from current rain events as the occasional delightful surprise reveals itself.

We've come to appreciate the presence of shapely, colourful fungi as a fall replacement for fall flowers long past their bloom time. Some of the toadstools are those conventionally seen, pale white, occasionally pale blue and not all appear really attractive. Those that are symmetrical or oddly shaped or coloured with the palette of a true artist -- which no one can argue that nature is not -- we find fascinating.

 From the incomparably beautiful hallucinogenic (and toxic) amanita muscaria to the tiny blush-orange group-spheres we came across growing out of a decaying old tree stump. The variations in size, shape, texture and colour of fungi are endlessly curious and entertaining.