Predictably, Irving couldn't possibly polish off Thomas Sowell's Intellectuals and Society in the two-week time frame from the public library. Takes a while to ingest all those philosophical societal/intellectual premises. Besides which his own fertile mind demands more than one book be pursued at different times of the day. This book doesn't comprise his bedtime reading, only when he has the opportunity to spend awhile before dinner, reading. Activities and chores take up much of the day.

For example today he started off after breakfast by disassembling garden furniture for storage. Hauling it from the deck down to the garden shed; rearranging the shed to swallow all that stuff and still leave room for accessing winter shovels, the snow-thrower and other vital impediments to clear passage. And then it was time for our daily hike through the ravine with Jackie and Jillie, and off we went.

When we returned an hour and a half later, he was back out on the deck, removing the privacy curtains that hang from the deck awning. And then he turned his attention to covering up and securing with clear plastic bags all the immovable garden urns and statuary. This, on a truly miserable weather day; cold with a chill blustery wind probing outwear in an effort to get at vulnerable human flesh. 

Meanwhile, I took to ordering a copy of the Sowell book from Amazon. They wanted verification that someone wasn't using my account, unauthorized by me. So they sent a confirming 'accept/deny' email. Which I waited for but it never arrived. Until I realized it had gone directly into the 'junk' file, and retrieved it, to be enabled to proceed with the order. What a world.

Earlier in the day we spent some time watching the live action Remembrance Day ceremony taking place at the National Cenotaph. There was some sun at that time of the morning, but dark, streaked clouds soon moved in. It's a sad and moving occasion. For the past several years since the advent of the pandemic public attendance at the ceremony was cancelled. Although we're still in the throes of COVID infection, with rates climbing in Ontario, it was thought permissible to have the public attend the solemn occasion of remembrance once again.

Working around the exterior of the house just doesn't prepare you for how inclement the weather is elsewhere. As in the ravine. Normally wind doesn't much penetrate the forest landscape, but normally  there is a leaf mass to stop it. Foliage gone, the wind enters randomly picking up speed now and again in great bursts of icy blasts.

As we passed along one portion of one of the trails close by the creek, Irving's eye was caught by a few orange flickers in the water. We looked more closely and were surprised to see three small goldfish swimming about. We don't normally see them in that area of the creek. It tends to be quite shallow there; if they're seen anywhere it's where the creek tends to pool around fallen trees to give them depth in the water and security as well. We surmised that upstream water had been released from holding ponds, sweeping them downstream.

Jackie and Jillie wore intermediate little sweaters, good enough for an atmosphere that threatened swirling light snow flurries at any moment, but not yet an impediment to their freedom of movement. They're so accustomed to being dressed in protective gear at this point they simply accept it as part of the outdoor routine. What continues to annoy Jackie is the tags hanging from his collar, which he wears only when we're away from the house, not in the house

Squirrels busy themselves storing up whatever looks promisingly edible for the lean winter months. We sometimes wonder which among them find their way, crossing the street to approach our porch with its always-available store of peanuts. We've found that the pair of cardinals that come around every winter are also now availing themselves of the porch offerings.

Once back home we agreed that a hot, flavourful fish chowder would go down very well for tonight, so that's what's on offer for dinner this evening. Along with a salad and baked apples. None of which is of particular interest to Jackie and Jillie, though in desperation they'll accept a cube or two of chowder-diced haddock to top off their own dinner.