Since Monday is the designated cleaning day in this household, it's always a busy day. Most other days also have their clean-up component, but Monday is the day that everything gets done. With the exception of the kitchen and the bathrooms; they have their own days. Even with Irving helping and doing all the vacuuming it takes hours and hours. The need for full disclosure, however, compels me to admit that I take a whole lot of breaks.

Taking Jackie and Jillie out to the backyard, for example, multiple times. While we were having our breakfast this morning, I happened to glance out the patio doors and saw robins splashing about in the birdbath. All the ice that had sat in the birdbath over winter has melted, and three robins and a chickadee were having a whale of a time.

While out there with the puppies I always scrutinize the soil to see whether anything is yet poking through. Too soon. Nothing on the rose canes, the clematis vines, but lilies that always begin as soon as the snow melts, even before the frost has completely left the soil, are beginning to shoot through. Truth told, it's much too early for anything yet. Chives and grape hyacinth won't be long in coming, and the miniature iris bulbs.

I also take some 'time off' when I'm passing the front door to see who's there. When I shake out my dusters there's often one or two black squirrels and they hardly move out of the way. I had my camera at the ready this morning and caught a tiny chipmunk filling its pouch with peanuts. Irving and I have on occasional expressed wonder at the number of carrots one little rabbit can eat. Neither of us thought the squirrels would have any interest in carrots. For the first time this morning I saw a tiny red squirrel grasp a carrot as large as it was and carry it off, leaping with it onto a tree. So much for that.

And oh yes, frequent brief sit-downs at my computer to check in on Twitter and see what's happening there. So I dawdle, caught by an item that must be read and given thought, or responded to. It's kind of mesmerizing, and easy to forget how long I've been sitting there... Eventually, however, the last of the floors gets washed, the dusting and mopping is done, and we're free to go. Irving finishes up long before I do, even though he did some work in his workshop before embarking on the vacuuming.

This has been a much milder day, topping off at 9.1C. We had morning sun and light wind, but by the time we set off for the ravine, clouds had moved in. Still, it seemed almost balmy, so no sweaters for Jackie and Jillie, only their halters. The obligatory stop when we first enter the ravine to dole out tiny cookies for the two. It is now engrained in their memories that there are specific points throughout out circuit that they can rely on for treats.

And when familiar dogs come bounding along, skidding to a halt beside Irving, our two know that they'll be getting bonus cookies, since Irving can't dole them out to others and ignore the plight of poor, undernourished and forgotten Jackie and Jillie.

There is one area of the trail system that can be relied upon every spring to stubbornly hold on to its ice. It won't be ice-free for at least a month, long after other areas in the trail system have shed theirs. We will eventually have to bypass that area and set off on our circuits from a different direction until the ice eventually melts. Because once the balance of the trails have lost their ice we'll be able to take off our cleats and replace our winter boots with hiking boots.

I was planning to cook breaded chicken livers to serve alongside mashed potatoes and broccoli for dinner tonight. But when Irving asked what we're having with the livers after I asked if he wanted fried onions with them, he turned thumbs down on the broccoli and started in on how more appropriate with liver and potatoes beets would be. So, beets it is.

Tomorrow's a different kind of busy day. The weekly food shopping and Jackie's and Jillie's appointment at the groomer's. That's when the broccoli can be turned into cream of broccoli soup and we can pair the soup with grilled cheese sandwiches...