Sometimes a different kind of meal altogether for dinner hits all the right spots, so occasionally because Irving is fond of cheese blintzes, that's what we have. Yesterday I filled them with ricotta cheese and honey for a change and we both liked the result. The outer shell is fast-fried in butter so I see no need to add anything to the crepes at the table, but Irving still likes to douse them in maple syrup. Just as I had our vegetable salad that preceded the blintzes with nothing over the vegetables and he preferred the salad with feta cheese.

 

It didn't after all get as cold last night as forecasted. Instead of dipping to -6C, the thermometer registered only a tad over -2C, so while there was a light frost on the roofs, the remaining annuals still in bloom weren't harmed at all, mostly due to the fact that they've been utterly inundated with rain and the moisture kept the damage at bay. Giving us another, and as it turned out, last day of enjoying them, still looking perky and colourful.

Work has resumed once again on our street with the cable installation. A wider slice was taken out of the end of driveways and lawns and the resulting trenches were filled with gravel, part of the process of laying the cable. It doesn't look nearly as awful as nearby streets where work had proceeded earlier, months ago. We've yet to see what happens later as time goes by, however, since they'll be at it for at least a month and a half working on the street, we're told.

In deference to our sensitivities to really cold weather We decided it's time for everyone to dress a little warmer, so out came woolly sweaters for Jackie and Jillie again. The boots I've been wearing are well worn, they're about 15 years old, and I've been using them interchangeably with another pair in as poor condition as these. I do have a new pair of boots, never worn that have been sitting in the cupboard about three years, so Irving put Dubbin on them and they replaced the old boots today. 

Some areas of the ravine are beginning to look pretty bare, ready for winter's onset. The trails apart from the rain, tend to freeze up at night then thaw come morning and that ends up making them fairly mucky. Where leaves have piled up on most of the trails, it isn't as evident, but where the trails are bare, the mud is thick and slippery. Usually Jackie and Jillie prefer to avoid those areas, just as we do, walking around the worst parts.

And while there's still ample colour given the more recently fallen foliage, much of what fell a week, two weeks ago, has now turned that ugly dark grey colour, anything but aesthetic. The combination of increasingly bare branches and dark, dank trails will soon begin making us itch for the presence of snow. By mid-November we often get a semi-substantial first snowfall which sometimes forms the initial base of our winter snowpack. But there are also occasions when those first snowfalls are followed by warmer weather melting the snow and we have to wait until December until the serious blanketing of white fluff starts to resemble the arrival of year's end and the holiday season.

When we got back home after seeing few other people or dogs out on the trails on this icy November day, I gave an expectant Jackie and Jillie their usual vegetable salad, after they had romped madly around the house, sending scatter rugs flying. And then out I went to finish composting the still-blooming flowers in the garden pots. And the thing about doing these tasks is that cold it may be, but engaged in that kind of activity, you feel warm. It's satisfying to get everything done, to have the gardens ship-shape for winter pending the arrival eventually of spring.

Earlier, in the morning when I was out in the backyard with Jackie and Jillie, I re-planted a tulip bulb the squirrels had dug up; that makes the second one in as many days. I hope they'll tire of their penchant for mischief soon... And I already miss the cheerful sight of those begonias still blooming away. I also noticed that the hibiscus shrubs look happier, despite the cold ... because of the cold? ... than they have for awhile.